Max Troll (10.9.1902 Martinsbuch/Mallersdorf – 7.4.1972 Regensburg)

Max Troll lived in Munich from 1903, where he worked as a hydraulic engineer from 1925 onwards, joining the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1932. In connection with the mass arrests of Nazi opponents, Troll was apprehended on March 10, 1933 and held at Dachau Concentration Camp until May 24. This was probably where he was recruited as a police informer. As a result, Troll then reestablished contact with the illegal KPD, pretending to be a committed communist by collecting donations for the persecuted, procuring leaflets and passing them on. Due to his dedicated work he was appointed the illegal head of ‘Red Assistance’ for southern Bavaria under the code name ‘Theo’ at the end of 1934.

This enabled him and the Gestapo to gain deep insights into active resistance groups maintained by the KPD as well as by the Socialist Workers’ Party (SAP); he also infiltrated another informer into the Christian-monarchist group under Josef Zott and Adolf Freiherr von Harnier. From early 1935 onwards, Troll’s activities resulted in numerous arrests in Munich and throughout Bavaria, initially almost bringing illegal communist work to a standstill. In many cases, reports by Troll and other informers to the Gestapo resulted in those targeted undergoing prolonged stays in concentration camps and prisons, sometimes ending in death.

Troll was eventually ordered by the police to Regensburg for cover purposes. From 1940 to 1944 he fought in the war as a soldier and was taken prisoner by the Americans, returning to Regensburg at the end of May 1946. He was subsequently tracked down and reported to the authorities by former concentration camp inmates, but he was not arrested until May 1947. Declared a ‘major offender’ by the tribunal at the end of January 1948, he was sentenced to ten years in a labor camp but but released in May 1952 for health reasons.

In June 1950, Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office began extensive preliminary investigations against Troll for crimes of severe unlawful detention, in some cases resulting in death, but on December 18, 1954 Munich Regional Court decided to set Troll’s prosecution aside due to the statute of limitations. He lived unperturbed by further legal prosecution until his death.