Fritz Menze worked from 1909 to 1933 as a schoolteacher.
He joined the SPD (German Social Democratic Party) in 1919 and sat as a member of the Dortmund city parliament. On the strength of the “Act on Restoration of Professional Civil Service Status” of April 1933, he was dismissed by the Nazis from his teaching post on grounds of being a “pacifist and Marxist”.

On 22 August 1944, Fritz Menze was arrested by the Gestapo in the course of Action “Gewitter” (Thunderstorm) and detained in Dortmund police jail. On 12 September 1944, he was transferred to Sachsenhausen concentration camp and then from there, in February 1945, to Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where he was murdered.

Fritz Menze’s last place of residence was at Lohheide 5 in Husen. He was registered there with his family from 8 January 1934 until his death.
Before that, the family lived from December 1931 at Sölder Str. 67.
Their home was located right next door to a building of Dortmund-Sölde Protestant School (Evangelische Schule Dortmund Sölde), his last teaching post.
At the time of his dismissal, he was the school’s head teacher. After the war, his widow returned to Sölder Str. 67.