Alfred Schönherr

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Alfred Schönherr (born October 1, 1909 in Chemnitz ; † April 9, 1986 in East Berlin ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism , later a functionary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and a senior employee in the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of State Security or their predecessors.

Life

Schönherr, the son of a foundry worker and a seamstress, attended elementary school from 1916 to 1924 and then learned to be an electrical engineer. In 1927 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany and was organized as a union from 1928 . From 1928 Schönherr worked at the Chemnitz municipal power station. In 1931 he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In the autumn of 1931 Schönherr was imprisoned for six weeks for breach of the peace and resistance to state power .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, he was dismissed from the municipal power station. He remained unemployed until 1935. From the summer of 1933 he was a liaison man, and later head of party self-protection in the KPD's illegal sub-district Berlin-Zentrum. In 1934 he was charged and sentenced to six and a half years imprisonment for “preparing for high treason ”, which he served from 1935 to 1941 in the Waldheim prison. After his release from prison, Schönherr was hired as an electrician at Auto Union . Here he participated in the resistance again and was arrested again in 1944. On April 11, 1945, he was sentenced to five years in prison and later transferred to a concentration camp. On May 7, 1945 Schönherr was liberated from Waldheim prison by Soviet troops.

In 1945 Schönherr rejoined the KPD and in 1946 became a member of the SED. From 1945 he was employed by the People's Police (Kriminalpolizei), in 1948/49 he headed the criminal police department of the German Interior Administration. On May 1, 1949, Police President Paul Markgraf and Fritz Eikemeier appointed him Vice President of the Berlin People's Police. After visiting the Party School "Karl Marx" of the SED (1950-51), he was 1,951 employees at the " Institute for economic research '(name of former foreign intelligence), and later at the Central XV of the State Secretariat of State Security or in the head office clearing the Ministry of State Security (MfS). In 1954 he was promoted to colonel. In 1955/56 Schönherr acted as first secretary of the SED party organization in the Enlightenment Headquarters, then in 1956/57 as first secretary of the SED district leadership in the MfS Berlin. In May 1957 he became head of the control inspection of the MfS, in December 1957 deputy operative of the head of the Frankfurt (Oder) district administration of the MfS. In 1958 he worked first as an instructor in the SED district leadership of the MfS, then as political deputy to the commander of the "Feliks Dzierzynski" guard regiment in Berlin. From 1959 he headed the main administration of the penal system in the Ministry of the Interior as a special duty officer . In 1962 Schönherr retired.

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ New Germany , April 28, 1949, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Schönherr, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter, SED functionary, Colonel of the State Security
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 9, 1986
Place of death East Berlin