Location
Grafenauer Weg 39
District
Karlshorst
Stone was laid
25 October 2010
Born
07 July 1876 in Neuhaus (Kreis Holzminden)
Occupation
Former
Murdered
29 September 1939 in Sachsenhausen
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Stolperstein für Hermann Jochade. Fotorechte: Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin
Hermann Jochade was born in 1876, one of twelve children, in Neuhaus (District of Holzminden). After an apprenticeship as a moulder, military service and a brief period as a shipyard worker, he spent most of his professional life working full-time for trade unions, especially, from 1901, the German railway employees’ association “Verband der Eisenbahner Deutschlands” (VdED).
Working for the railway employees’ trade union at that time meant risking illegality. The railways were sovereign territory and trade union efforts were prosecuted by the authorities. Hermann Jochade was in an especially exposed position as editor of the union mouthpiece “Weckruf” and, from 1902 to 1906, as chairman of the VdED. He received several fines and prison sentences for his publications.
In 1906 Hermann Jochade stepped down as chairman but continued to work full-time for the trade union in several functions, including several terms as a member of the board. His special field of interest was international and educational work.
On 29 March 1933, Hermann Jochade, together with Franz Scheffel and Lorenz Breuning, bowed to the pressure from Nazi-conformist functionaries and left the board of the trade union. Some trade union functionaries still believed that the Nazi regime would be no more than a brief interlude that could be endured by temporarily adapting and conforming. But in 1933 the Nazis broke up the trade unions and began persecuting their members. Initially, Hermann Jochade was spared. Little is known of his life after 1933. He led a relatively secluded life in Karlshorst but remained in contact with other former trade union leaders.
On 1 September 1939, when World War II was started by the Nazis, over 800 trade union functionaries were arrested and sent to concentration camps in a campaign organized by the Gestapo. Hermann Jochade only survived his detention by a few weeks. An eyewitness, Georg Mietz, later reported that Hermann Jochade, who was already unable to walk and suffering from a severe kidney complaint when he arrived in the camp, was carried in a blanket by fellow inmates to the SS’ murderous roll calls. Eventually, because he could not get up, he was literally kicked and beaten to death at a roll call by SS men. His date of death is 28 September 1939. In Hermann Jochade, the unions had lost a man whose main concern was establishing unity and who was considered an internationalist on account of his many contacts with trade unions in other countries and the international transport workers’ association.
Working for the railway employees’ trade union at that time meant risking illegality. The railways were sovereign territory and trade union efforts were prosecuted by the authorities. Hermann Jochade was in an especially exposed position as editor of the union mouthpiece “Weckruf” and, from 1902 to 1906, as chairman of the VdED. He received several fines and prison sentences for his publications.
In 1906 Hermann Jochade stepped down as chairman but continued to work full-time for the trade union in several functions, including several terms as a member of the board. His special field of interest was international and educational work.
On 29 March 1933, Hermann Jochade, together with Franz Scheffel and Lorenz Breuning, bowed to the pressure from Nazi-conformist functionaries and left the board of the trade union. Some trade union functionaries still believed that the Nazi regime would be no more than a brief interlude that could be endured by temporarily adapting and conforming. But in 1933 the Nazis broke up the trade unions and began persecuting their members. Initially, Hermann Jochade was spared. Little is known of his life after 1933. He led a relatively secluded life in Karlshorst but remained in contact with other former trade union leaders.
On 1 September 1939, when World War II was started by the Nazis, over 800 trade union functionaries were arrested and sent to concentration camps in a campaign organized by the Gestapo. Hermann Jochade only survived his detention by a few weeks. An eyewitness, Georg Mietz, later reported that Hermann Jochade, who was already unable to walk and suffering from a severe kidney complaint when he arrived in the camp, was carried in a blanket by fellow inmates to the SS’ murderous roll calls. Eventually, because he could not get up, he was literally kicked and beaten to death at a roll call by SS men. His date of death is 28 September 1939. In Hermann Jochade, the unions had lost a man whose main concern was establishing unity and who was considered an internationalist on account of his many contacts with trade unions in other countries and the international transport workers’ association.