Admission free
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) member, member of the ‘Eiserne Front’ (Iron Front), founder of the ‘Rote Rebellen’ (Red Rebels) resistance group
Franz Faltner (1901-1981) | Staatsarchiv München, Justizvollzugsanstalten 13365-3
Franz Faltner was a member of the SPD, the ‘Reichsbanner’, and the ‘Eiserne Front’ (Iron Front). With former ‘Reichsbanner’ people, athletes from forbidden gymnastics associations, and his professional contacts at the German Rail Company, he founded the ‘Rote Rebellen’ (Red Rebels); he was their central figure. The group maintained a courier service with the Sopade (exile SPD) in Czechoslovakia; supplied it with reports about the political, economic, and military situation; and obtained material from the Sopade that which they distributed in Munich, sometimes taking great risks. The ‘Rote Rebellen’ (Red Rebels) left flyers in advertisements in front of stores, sent them to people known in the city, and distributed them at a soccer game on the Grünwalder Straße. However, one of the couriers was a spy for the Bavarian Political Police (BPP), whose reports blew the group’s cover.
Faltner was arrested at the border on a trip to a Border Secretariat of the Sopade on April 27, 1935. He was incarcerated from April 27, 1935 to February 18, 1937 in the Munich-Stadelheim Prison, then transferred to the Berlin prisons (Moabit and Plötzensee) until March 24, 1937. On December 22, 1936, he was indicted with Josef Michael Feuerer before the Berlin People’s Court: He is alleged to have prepared acts of high treason in order to change the constitution of the Reich by force or threat of force by creating and maintaining a cohesive organization, influencing the masses by promulgating writings, importing writings from abroad with the purpose of promulgating them at home, and arranging an explosives attack on the Munich main train station, and betraying state secrets.
Also indicted was Franz Weber, who as a prisoner in transport from Munich to Berlin, died near Halle under unexplained circumstances. The judgment of March 24, 1937 reads: ten years of penal servitude less 22 months investigative custody and ten years’ loss of civil rights. He served his prison sentence in Berlin-Plötzensee, Amberg, Kaisheim, and Landsberg, from which he was released on June 2, 1945.
After being freed in the second half of 1945, Faltner worked for the German Rail Company. He became Chief of the Rail Police for Upper Bavaria.
Brief an Ehefrau Anna aus dem Gefängnis 1937 | Staatsarchiv München, Justizvollzugsanstalten 13365-3
Urteil des Volksgerichtshofs (Auszug) | Staatsarchiv München, Justizvollzugsanstalten 13365-3
Bayerisches Landesamt für Finanzen München, LEA EG 646.
Zarusky, Jürgen/Mehringer, Hartmut: Widerstand als "Hochverrat" 1933 - 1945. Die Verfahren gegen deutsche Reichsangehörige vor dem Reichsgericht, dem Volksgerichtshof und dem Reichskriegsgericht. Mikrofiche-Edition und Erschließungsband, München 1994/1998, Fiches 0082f.
