Alfred Althus

Alfred Althus (born August 29, 1888 in Pieschen ; † September 7/8 , 1943 in Berlin-Plötzensee ) was a German anti-fascist and media politician.

Life

Althus was the son of a pottery worker. He first learned the trade of beer brewer and, after completing this training, continued an apprenticeship as a milling cutter . On the side he read a lot, especially philosophical and scientific writings, and attended Marxist training courses.

In 1910 Althus became a member of the SPD and later a cashier of his local association. In the DMV he was elected shop steward and in the workers 'stenographers' union he became a teacher and later its chairman.

After the First World War he remained a member of the SPD, but in his political and cultural activities he was fundamentally committed to the cooperation of the various wings of the labor movement and opposed the anti-communist attempts at marginalization by his party leadership. In 1925 Althus became a co-founder and chairman of the Workers' Radio Club in Germany . With this new technology, he had also qualified professionally. He opened a specialist radio store that became the center of Dresden radio hobbyists.

Cenotaph for Alfred Althus on the Dresden Heidefriedhof

From January 1933 onwards, Althus was attacked several times by SA thugs and taken to the torture cellar. From December 1939 he supported the resistance organization of Polish forced laborers built by Ignaz Hulka and procured them several radio sets . He also helped spread anti-fascist information in the Poznań region occupied by the Wehrmacht and supported the liberation struggle of Polish partisans.

In 1942 the Gestapo crushed this extensive resistance movement. Hulka was murdered during interrogation on October 21, 1942. Althus was able to evade persecution for a while and was not arrested until May 1943. He was sentenced to death by the People's Court in July 1943 and murdered during the mass executions in Plötzensee prison on the night of September 7th to 8th, 1943.

Honors

• In Dresden there is Alfred-Althus-Strasse and there was a polytechnic high school named after him .

literature

• Luise Kraushaar et al .: German resistance fighters 1933 - 1945. Biographies and letters. Volume 1, Dietz-Verlag: Berlin 1970, page 45ff