Leo Drabent

Leo Drabent (15 June 1899 – 20 November 1944) was a German peace campaigner and Communist activist.

He was beheaded at the Brandenburg-Görden Prison after campaigning against the war, which ended in defeat for Germany some six months later.

Life As early as 1917 Leo Drabent was painting anti-war slogans on walls and fences in his hometown. 1917 as also the year in which he completed his traineeship as a fitter and, on reaching his eighteenth birthday, was drafted into the army. He was sent to the front, almost immediately badly wounded, and sent home. By this time he had also been part of a successful campaign to reduce from five to four years the training period for industrial apprenticeships in parts the metal based industrial sector. He joined the Communist Party in 1923 and later became the party's policy head for the Bremen sub-district. In 1929 he undertook a training at the "Rosa Luxembourg National Party School" („Reichsparteischule Rosa Luxemburg“) at Fichtenau, after which he took an responsibility for Marxist training ("...für die marxistischen Schulungen") in the Communist Party's North West region. Also in 1929 he became Party Agitation and Propaganda Secretary for the Wasserkante district and a member of the Hannover provincial legislative assembly ("...des Hannoverschen Provinziallandtages"). He spent the next few months in concentration camps at Brandenburg and Oranienburg, and also at the latter's sub-camp at Gut Elisenau (near Bernau) where he was tortured and badly mistreated.