August Berger (politician)

August Berger (born January 30, 1892 in Tannhausen , Lower Silesia , † April 1945 ) was a German local politician . He was persecuted as a political opponent by the Nazi regime , imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp in 1944 and died on a death march in April 1945 when the concentration camp was evacuated .

Life

August Berger's son Karl hands over the Stolperstein for laying

Berger attended the Protestant elementary school from 1898 to 1905 . In 1916 he married Marie Quendt, who came from Apolda and where the couple settled. He worked there from 1912 to 1933 as an auditor for the city administration of Apolda.

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists Berger was dismissed for political reasons on 15 September 1,933th Politically, he worked for the SPD from September 1920 to March 1933 and was a member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold from 1924 to 1933 . From 1925 to May 7, 1931 he was a member of the SPD city council group in Apolda.

On August 24, 1944, he was arrested as part of the Grid Action and was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , where, among other things, many political opponents of the Nazi regime were imprisoned. When the SS cleared the concentration camp on April 21, 1945, Berger had to take part in the death march and was killed in the process in April 1945.

The city of Apolda in Thuringia named a street after him during the GDR times, which is still called that today. A memorial plaque on his house at Lessingstrasse 71 was removed after the fall of the Wall . Since October 6th, 2008, a stumbling stone in front of his former home, laid by the Cologne action artist Gunter Demnig , has been a reminder of his fate. A street was also named after him in the town of Jessen (Elster) in the neighboring state of Saxony-Anhalt .

literature

Stumbling block for August Berger, relocated on October 6, 2008

• Udo Wohlfeld, Peter Franz : Trapped in the net. The concentration camps in Thuringia 1933–1937 . History workshop Apolda, Weimar 2000 (= series, wanted 3 ), ISBN 3-935275-02-1 .
• Peter Franz: Ordinary fascism. About the everyday rule of the "National Socialists" in a medium-sized town in the German Empire. A chronology in year disks. Part 1, Chapters I – III . 1st edition, Geschichtswerkstatt Apolda, Weimar 2001 (= series, wanted 4 ), ISBN 3-935275-00-5 .
• Harry Stein, Udo Wohlfeld: Social Democrats against Hitler. The Kurt Nehrling resistance group in Weimar. Reports and documents . SPD district association Weimar u. History workshop Apolda, Weimar 2003 (= series, wanted 5 ), ISBN 3-935275-03-X .
• Karl Berger, Peter Franz, Udo Wohlfeld: August Berger. Social Democrat in Apolda. History workshop Weimar-Apolda, Apolda 2008 (= series of publications of the Prager-Haus eV Apolda found 2 ), ISBN 3-935275-08-0 .