In 1930, the Nazi leader of Silesia himself, Helmuth Brückner, came to Bolesławiec (Bunzlau) for a rally of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (NSDAP). The rally was so popular that not everyone who wanted to attend could fit inside the former Odeon restaurant. During his speech, Helmuth Brückner called the German chancellor a “Jewish convert and bastard.” German communists protested against Hitler’s party.
The police pushed people as far as today’s Wybickiego Street (Opitzstrasse). This may have angered the crowd, which began shouting hateful slogans. The local police were beginning to lose control over the aggressors, and the district head decided to call for reinforcements from Zgorzelec.
People began throwing stones at the police officers, and when the police started spraying the crowd with water from an automatic mobile fire hose, the enraged protesters threw all their equipment into a nearby pond. When the shouts rang out: “We’ll beat the Nazis to death” the district head threatened to use firearms. However, the crowd was no longer listening to anyone. The district head was driven away, and instigators took over leadership of the enraged people. The police recorded that one agitator in particular encouraged people to continue the clashes with the police.
The Bolesławiec police waited for reinforcements from Zgorzelec, while the crowd became increasingly aggressive. To save their lives, after calling on the crowd to restore order four times, the police fired the first shots. This finally cooled the crowd’s aggression, and the officers managed to regain control of the situation. Three men were victims of the riots: worker Paul Haubner, potter Reinhold Schimme, and master tailor Oskar Teubner, who was hit by a stray bullet. Eight people were injured.
On Saturday, 23 August 1930, the communists organized their own demonstration in Bolesławiec’s market square. They protested against the district head, whom they called a bloodthirsty dog who supported the fascist police. Despite the protests, the Nazis came second in Bunzlau in the Reichstag election, behind the Social Democrats. In 1932, the NSDAP was a significant force in the district. It also had cells in the villages of Kraśnik Dolny and Wykroty.
In 1933, the Nazis came to power in the city. On 6 March 1933, a swastika was hung on the town hall, while the Old Theatre became the stage for a Nazi group performing exclusively German plays under the slogan “A German theatre for the German people.” At the end of the month, after numerous political purges, another Nazi rally was organized at the Odeon, where antisemitic propaganda was already being spread. It took the Nazis six months to transform the city into one completely subordinate to Hitler.
Text based on: Rocznik Bolesławiecki 2020, Dariusz Gołębiewski, Początki nazizmu w Bolesławcu, pp. 36–42.