August Kroneberg

August Kroneberg (born April 2, 1885 in Sondershausen , † January 6, 1969 in Leipzig ) was a German trade unionist for the carpenter's union in Leipzig and a local politician of the SPD from 1919 to 1933. From 1933 to 1939 he worked for the SPD in the underground. In 1939 he was arrested together with the Leipzig Social Democrat Erich Schilling as part of the A-card index campaign and interned in the Buchenwald concentration camp .

youth

August Kroneberg came from a proletarian family with many children with twelve siblings. He attended the eight-year middle school and learned the carpentry trade from 1899 to 1902. In 1903 he joined the SPD. In 1909 he married Hedwig Dähne .

Professional activity until 1933

After attending the technical and trade school for two years and passing the journeyman's examination, he traveled to Germany, Switzerland, France, Denmark, Sweden, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands as a carpenter.

From 1909 to 1914 he worked as a carpenter for various Leipzig construction companies. From 1914 to 1918 he was a pioneer in the First World War . After his return, he was elected chairman of the central association of the carpenter paying agency in Leipzig in 1919 and became a union employee. He campaigned for the expansion of trade union specialist organizations and contributed to the development of specialist placement and the job advice service for the Leipzig employment office. Since 1928 he was city councilor and chairman of the building committee of the city of Leipzig. Until 1930 he was a member of the administrative committee of the Leipzig employment office and deputy member of the administrative committee of the state employment office of Saxony.

Underground activity 1933–1939

After the " seizure of power " he was immediately excluded from all activities for the city of Leipzig and the Leipzig employment office. With interruptions he was able to work at short notice in his profession as a carpenter and as an employee. Under several pseudonyms he did underground work for the SPD in Leipzig.

Internment in Buchenwald concentration camp

On September 1, 1939, he and SPD comrade Erich Schilling were arrested by the Gestapo as part of the A-card action. Both were brought to Buchenwald concentration camp on September 26th . Schilling later became a co-author of the " Buchenwald Manifesto ". August Kroneberg (inmate number 5571) was transferred to the Cologne branch of the Buchenwald concentration camp in 1942 and was interned at the Cologne exhibition center. From there he was employed as a carpenter in the destroyed Cologne. His marriage in 1909, which resulted in two daughters, was forcibly divorced.

Internment in the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp

At the beginning of September 1943 he was transferred to the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp near Nordhausen , which was to be rebuilt, only a few kilometers from his home town of Sondershausen. He became Kapo of the Carpentry Command and was responsible for the construction of the administration, sick and prisoner barracks. He saw his task in moving the construction work forward quickly so that the prisoners could get out of the tunnel system in the Kohnstein as quickly as possible, at least temporarily, as in the first few months the prisoners had to remove the tunnel and mount V2 rockets without seeing the daylight. He later stated that the building of the barracks was constantly being checked and that numerous inspections took place, including by Wernher von Braun . He belonged to the loose leadership of an anti-fascist resistance group, together with the KPD functionary Albert Kuntz . There he also met the resisters Albert Kuntz, Georg Thomas, Ludwig Szymczak , Otto Runki, Christian Behan, Fritz Pröll , the Czechoslovakian doctor and communist Jan Cespiva, the Soviet pilot Jelowoj from Odessa, who was in Dora under the false name Simeon Grinko was, as well as Polish, French and Dutch resistance fighters. At the beginning of 1945 he was locked in the bunker and at the beginning of April 1945 - shortly before the arrival of the US Army - he was sent on a death march to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. After his release on April 30, 1945 from the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp by the English, he went back to Leipzig.

Post-war period in Leipzig

In Leipzig he immediately renewed his membership in the SPD and after only a few weeks of recovery - now at the age of 60 - began to rebuild and reorganize the Leipzig employment office. The forced merger with the KPD to form the SED , he was skeptical. Soon he was denounced within the KPD that he was sabotaging successful party work in the KPD. Although he agreed to the union with the KPD and the founding of the SED , there is an article in the Leipziger Volkszeitung of November 18, 1950, "Smoke the nests of Schumacher agents", in which he and other Social Democrats - including Erich Schilling - denounced as agents of US imperialism and as enemies of the working class . This was followed by the exclusion from the SED, combined with the loss of the party pension.

In the run-up to the Essen Dora trial at the Essen regional court against former SS leaders of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, Kroneberg was rehabilitated. He was questioned in detail about his knowledge from the time in the concentration camps , and his statements were recorded. He received certificates of honor and recognition signed by Walter Ulbricht or Otto Grotewohl , the badge of honor of the National Front , as well as the " Medal for participation in the armed struggles of the German working class from 1918 to 1923 " and the " Medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945 ”. All of this was combined with an honorary pension of 150 DM, which increased his pension as a person persecuted by the Nazi regime (VDN) to the amount of 440 DM (DM of the GDR).

August Kroneberg died on January 6, 1969 in Leipzig and was buried in the Leipzig Südfriedhof , grave site 06/07/31, in the grove of honor of the socialist fighters against fascism . His political work for the SPD is largely forgotten and has not received any special appreciation.

Literature and Sources

• SED cadre files from the Leipzig District Party Archives in the Saxon State Archives Leipzig , SED, Biographies Collection, No. 998
• Further information on the website www.kriegsbiografien.de (August Kroneberg), edited by Lutz Kroneberg, there also transcripts on “Questions about the Mittelbau-Dora Concentration Camp”, Leipziger Volkszeitung of November 18, 1950, “Questionnaire of the SED on August Kroneberg ", And the" Protocol of the District Party Control Commission of June 18, 1957. "
• Götz Diekmann: Murdered 60 years ago: Albert Kuntz . In: Utopia Kreativ, H. 171, 1/2005, pp. 68-72
• Wolfgang Röll: Social Democrats in Buchenwald Concentration Camp 1937–1945 , Wallstein-Verlag, Göttingen 2000.

Web links

• Fumigate the nests of the Schumacher agents. (PDF; 483 kB) Leipziger Volkszeitung from November 15, 1950