Willy Leow
Willy Leow was a German communist politician and activist.
Life
Willy Leow attended elementary school in Brandenburg an der Havel. He learned carpentry and was taught at the Workers' Educational School in Berlin. In January 1904, Leow became a member of the German Wood Workers Association. In the same year Leow joined the Social Democratic Party, which he belonged to until 1916. In 1917, Leow participated in the foundation of the Spartacus League and briefly belonged to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. He became a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany in 1918.In 1925, Leow was elected Second Chairman of the Roter Frontkämpferbund, a KPD paramilitary and defense organization. Leow was often seen marching alongside other prominent KPD and RFB activists such as Ernst Thälmann. In 1928, Leow was elected to the Reichstag, where he served until 1933.
After the Nazi seizure of power Leow fled abroad, living in the Soviet Union by 1935. He worked as an editor and head of the German state publishing house in the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1936, he was arrested during the Stalinist purges and sentenced to death on 3 October 1937 for "organizing a Trotskyist-terrorist group" by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union. He was executed by firing squad.