Willy Sachse

Willy Sachse was born on 7 January 1896 in Leipzig to Karl Arthur Sachse and Alwine Sachse, née Näther. After his school years in Leipzig, he trained to become a precision engineer and joined the Socialist youth movement. During World War I he served as a sailor in the German navy. In 1917 he participated in the political resistance of the Uhrig group, for which he was condemned to death together with Max Reichpietsch, Albin Köbis and two other sailors. Unlike in the cases of Reichpietsch and Köbis, his sentence was mitigated to 15 years’ imprisonment. He was freed from Rendsburg prison during the November Revolution of 1918. Subsequently he became a member of the USPD (Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany) and was elected to the workers’ and soldiers’ council. In 1920 he went over to the KPD (Communist Party of Germany), along with the majority of the USPD. From April 1926 he was an organizer for the KPD, mostly in Hamburg, and in May 1926 he became the arts and culture editor of the newspaper “Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung” in Leipzig. He was suspended from the Communist Party in 1928 for supporting the former KPD chairman August Thalheimer. He then became involved in the KPO (Communist Party Opposition) and joined the revolutionary soldiers and sailors’ group around Beppo Römer. In 1933 he worked for a brief period for Willi Münzenberg’s publishing empire. Later he worked mostly as a freelance writer and draughtsman. Willy Sachse was arrested on 4 February 1942. The People’s Court found him guilty of high treason and sentenced him to death on 6 June 1944. He was executed on 21 August 1944 in Brandenburg-Görden prison.