Albert Schamedatus

Albert Schamedatus (born August 26, 1884 in Berlin , † after 1933) was a German communist union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Schamedatus attended elementary school and learned the lathe trade . In 1907 he became a member of the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV), in which he took on several functions over the years. In the same year he organized himself in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). At the end of the First World War , Schamedatus joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).

Before and during the November Revolution , Shamedatus belonged to the circle of revolutionary chairmen . In connection with the revolution, Schamedatus was active in the Berlin council movement. Among other things, he was a member of the provisional workers 'and soldiers' council in Berlin, which was created through an initiative of the "Revolutionary Obleute" and was the driving force behind the revolution in Berlin. Schamedatus joined the Spartakusbund a little later and became a co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Because of dissatisfaction with the party's politics, Schamedatus left the KPD in 1925 and initially remained non-party. In 1930 he rejoined the KPD, although from 1932 he again distanced himself from the party because of differences on the trade union issue. In the 1920s, Schamedatus was at times a functionary of the left - wing communist German Industrial Association . From 1929 he was a member of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). Schamedatus took over the function of a red works council in the AEG -Apparatebau (Berlin, Brunnenstrasse) for the RGO and the radical left-wing union of metal workers in Berlin (EVMB) founded in November 1930 .

After the National Socialists came to power , Schamedatus took part in the communist trade union resistance against the Nazi regime. He was the courier and liaison officer of the illegal EVMB. In the AEG plant (Berlin, Brunnenstrasse), where he continued to work as a lathe operator, Schamedatus collected donations and sold contribution stamps for the illegal EVMB. Several meetings to plan resistance activities also took place in his apartment in Berlin-Reinickendorf . In December 1933, the Gestapo arrested Schamedatus. His son Heinrich was also arrested. Albert and Heinrich Schamedatus were then imprisoned for several weeks in the Columbia and Oranienburg concentration camps. They later came into custody in Berlin-Moabit . While his son Heinrich was subsequently released, Albert Schamedatus was sentenced to two years in prison by the Berlin Court of Appeal for his illegal activities for the EVMB. He served his term in prison in Plötzensee and Tegel.

During his imprisonment, Schamedatus is said to have complained of massive health problems, which apparently resulted from the abuse of Nazi persecution immediately after his arrest in December 1933. For example, Schamedatus is said to have gone blind during an interrogation due to the effects of the Gestapo's use of force. Nothing is known about the life of Schamedatus after the end of his prison term.

Literature / sources

• Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , 32, 61, 236-239 (short biography).
• Stefan Heinz: Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 313, 324, 369, 377, 380 f., 383, 392, 394, 528.
• Landesarchiv Berlin , inventory C Rep. 118-01, No. 8840 (documents in connection with the recognition of the wife Else Schamedatus as a “victim of fascism”).

Web links

• Stefan Heinz: Short biography in the internet exhibition about political prisoners in Oranienburg concentration camp