Albert Förster (resistance fighter)

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Albert Förster (born February 21, 1888 in Sandow ; † January 9, 1958 ) was a German labor leader and resistance fighter against National Socialism . During the Kapp Putsch in Cottbus , he led the workers' struggle against the putschists around Major Buchrucker . Between 1934 and 1936 he was a member of the resistance group around Willy Jannasch together with Bruno Dickhoff , Georg Dix and Josef Thomas .

Life

Early years

Albert Förster was born in Sandow. His father Hermann was a cloth maker . After attending primary school , he started working in a cloth factory at the age of 14. In 1906 he became a member of the German Textile Workers' Association and the SPD . In the same year he took a job in the construction industry and became a member of the German Construction Union . In the following years he worked as a stone carrier on various construction sites. After fighting in World War I , he worked as an auditor for the prisoner-of-war camps in the Cottbus district until 1920 .

During the Kapp Putsch in 1920, he was elected military leader of the workers who fought against the putschists. In battles in the Cottbus area, the putschists around Major Bruno Ernst Buchrucker were able to be repulsed. An armored train dispatched from the Frankfurt (Oder) garrison was also put out of action in Willmersdorf .

Albert Förster then joined the USPD from the SPD and joined the KPD in January 1930 . In February of the same year he was elected chairman of the Reich Committee of the Unemployed in Cottbus, which at the time represented almost 11,000 unemployed.

Since the end of his school days Albert Förster was also active in workers' sport. At 14 he joined the Workers' Gymnastics and Sports Association . In 1913 he then founded the Free Sports Association, which became part of the Arbeiter-Athlenbund . Until its dissolution in 1933 he was its leader.

Resistance to National Socialism

In 1934 Albert Förster joined the resistance group around Willy Jannasch . To prevent their discovery, the resistance group formed sub-groups whose members did not all know each other. Förster formed one of these subgroups together with Bruno Dickhoff and Willi Jurauke. The main activity of the resistance group was on the one hand the reorganization of the Red Aid ; on the other hand, it distributed socialist and communist publications to the population and inmates of Reich labor camps . Among these publications were editions of the Rote Fahne , the Inprekorr , the Junge Garde and the Brown Book on the Reichstag fire and Hitler terror . These were organized through contacts with emigrants in Czechoslovakia and members of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia as well as with another group from Forst .

In January 1936 Albert Förster was arrested along with twelve members of his resistance group. They were initially held in Cottbus until March and then transferred to Berlin. In May they received their indictment, accusing them of preparing "the highly treasonable undertaking of forcibly changing the constitution of the empire".

The hearing took place on June 29th and 30th, 1936 before the Berlin Higher Regional Court . Förster was sentenced to one year in prison; the other defendants were to prison - convicted or prison sentences of at least one year - except for the co-defendant Willi Graf had to play all of their prison sentences. Graf had been released after a few days, which led to suspicions that he had betrayed the group. After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Willi Graf was arrested by the SMAD and shortly afterwards committed suicide.

Albert Förster was serving his sentence in Tegel prison . After his release, he was under police supervision for three years.

Time after 1945

After Cottbus was liberated by the Red Army , Förster initially organized a group of 30 stewards in the south of the city. On June 12, 1945 he was appointed head of the Cottbus district police by the Soviet commandant. He gave up this office in January 1948. In the following years he was involved in the Antifa committee and reported to students about the resistance against the National Socialists.

Albert Förster died on January 9, 1958.

Honors

Albert-Förster-Strasse in Cottbus

In his birthplace Sandow , which has been a district of Cottbus since 1904, a street is named after Albert Förster. In the same residential area there is also a Willy-Jannasch-Straße . In the 1960s, streets there were also named after Förster's companions Georg Dix and Bruno Dickhoff . However, these were renamed again after German reunification in 1991 .

literature

  • Helmut Donner: Cottbus street names explained . Euroverlag, Cottbus 1999.
  • Ernst-Otto Roeber, Erna Roeber, Walter Hanig, Otto Last: Willy Jannasch and comrades. The KPD's anti-fascist resistance struggle in Cottbus from 1934 to 1936 . Committee of the Antifascist Resistance Fighters of the German Democratic Republic, District Committee Cottbus City and Country, Cottbus 1985.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 45 f.
  2. ↑ a b c See Donner 1999, p. 4.
  3. ↑ a b See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 13 f.
  4. ↑ See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 20 ff.
  5. ↑ See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 15 ff.
  6. ↑ See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 18 f.
  7. ↑ a b c See Roeber et al. 1985, p. 22 ff.
  8. ↑ a b Albert Förster. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . January 9, 2008, accessed October 20, 2017 .
  9. ↑ In the resistance against the fascists. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . September 23, 2015, accessed October 5, 2017 .
  10. ↑ Bruno Dickhoff. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . October 27, 2005, accessed October 5, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Georg Dix. In: Lausitzer Rundschau . January 17, 2007, accessed October 5, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Forester, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German workers leaders and resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1888
PLACE OF BIRTH Sandow
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1958