Alfred Kastner

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Alfred Kastner

Alfred Kästner (born December 12, 1882 in Leipzig , † April 12, 1945 in Lindenthal near Leipzig) was a German communist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Kästner, a timber merchant by profession, joined the Spartakusbund in 1918 and was elected to the Leipzig Workers 'and Soldiers' Council. In 1919 he was a co-founder of the KPD local group in Leipzig. During the KPD ban in the winter of 1923/24, he made his office space available for illegal gatherings.

After the National Socialists ' seizure of power ' in 1933, his office was again used as a place for secret meetings of KPD functionaries. Likewise, there were leaflets printed. He was arrested in September 1933 and, after serving his prison sentence of two years and eight months until 1939, he remained in the Sachsenburg , Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. After his release he joined the resistance group around Georg Schumann , Otto Engert and Kurt Kresse (→ " Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group "). Kästner, who traveled a lot for work, found and maintained contact with other opponents of National Socialism in Hamburg , Bavaria and Württemberg . He also met regularly on behalf of the Saxon resistance group around Schumann with the head of a larger group of social democrats in Zeitz .

The Secret State Police arrested him on March 11, 1945. A week before the American troops marched into Leipzig, Kästner was shot by the SS on April 12, 1945, together with 52 other anti-fascists in a gravel pit near Lindenthal .

Honors

Since August 1945, the former Moltkestrasse in Leipzig's southern suburb , where Kästner's last residence was, has borne his name. A school in Lindenthal has also been named after him since 1949.

literature

  • Luise Kraushaar (Ed.): German resistance fighters 1933-1945. Biographies and letters . Volume 1. Dietz, Berlin 1970, p. 478f.
  • Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z . Pro Leipzig, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936-50803-8 , p. 285.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Ilse Krause: The Schumann-Engert-Kresse Group: Documents and materials of the illegal anti-fascist struggle (Leipzig, 1943 to 1945) 1960, p. 96: “In September 1933 the Gestapo arrested Alfred Kästner together with his family. He did not betray any of his comrades. While the Gestapo released his family members after a few weeks, he was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison after 20 months of pre-trial detention, which included excruciating mistreatment. The fascists then dragged him through the Sachsenburg, Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps. The severe mistreatment did not prevent him from resuming political work after his release in 1939. "