August Locherer

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August Locherer, KPD poster for the 1953 federal election

August Locherer (born September 18, 1902 in Mannheim ; † January 30, 1998 ibid) was a German miller , politician ( SAPD , KPD , DFU , DKP ), trade unionist and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

The son of a porcelain painter and taxidermist grew up in an orphanage after the premature death of his parents . From 1909 to 1917 he attended elementary school in Mannheim. After an apprenticeship as a miller in Reilingen , Locherer worked in Mannheimer Großmühlen from 1920 to 1933 .

Locherer joined the Association of Brewery and Mill Workers and related professionals in 1920 ; From 1926 to 1933 he was the second local chairman and assessor on the main board of the Association of Food and Beverage Workers in Germany . From 1924 he was a works council . In 1930 he joined the SPD , but after half a year switched to the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD).

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists, Locherer was dismissed for political reasons in 1933 and was mostly unemployed until 1936. In the SAPD, which formed a strong resistance group in Mannheim, he remained active together with his brother Paul and was involved in the production and distribution of underground newspapers. According to a situation report from the Secret State Police in Karlsruhe from April 1934, Locherer was in custody because he was suspected of continuing to work for the SAPD. In April 1938, Locherer and his brother Paul were arrested again as a functionary of the SAPD and sentenced to two years in prison on June 20, 1939 by the Stuttgart Higher Regional Court for “preparing a treasonous enterprise” . After his release from prison in 1940 he worked in various Mannheim mills before he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943 . At the end of the war he was taken prisoner in Yugoslavia, from which he was released in October 1946.

In 1946, Locherer joined the KPD. In 1948 he was elected to the Mannheim City Council for the KPD, of which he was a permanent member until 1977. After the KPD ban of August 1956, he was re-elected for the Mannheim voters' association ; In 1962 he received a mandate for the German Peace Union (DFU); In 1968 he ran for the Mannheim left-wing bloc ; from 1971 he represented the German Communist Party (DKP) in the local council. Locherer was part of the state boards of KPD, DFU and DKP for Baden-Württemberg . 1967 Locherer was appointed deputy chairman of the Democratic Left chosen (DL), one on the state election in Baden-Wuerttemberg in 1968 by former Communist Party members and critics since 1966 ruling grand coalition founded party election . When Locherer left the local council in 1977, Mayor Ludwig Ratzel stated that he had always taken Locherer's statements "very seriously", even if he was "not always the most comfortable man" on the council. Mayor Gerhard Widder praised Locherer in 1989 as an "advocate for the common people", who had been elected "beyond the boundaries of party affiliation".

From 1947 Locherer was a full-time trade union official; from 1958 to 1967 he was the managing director of the union food-enjoyment-restaurants (NGG) for Mannheim. In this role he was a negotiator in collective bargaining in the food industry. Locherer's negotiating style is described as "harsh" and "tough"; the well above average wages in Mannheimer Mühlen at the end of the 1980s are regarded as his merit. Within the NGG, Locherer became known through critical settlements with the main board at union days. Locherer was not expelled from the union because of his communist attitude, as the NGG's main board feared difficulties with the Mannheim organization.

Fonts

  • Commitment to the interests of the "common people". Fifty years active in the union, thirty years in the Mannheim municipal council. ( Special publication of the Mannheim City Archives , Volume 21) Edition Quadrat, Mannheim 1989, ISBN 3-923003-44-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of death: August Locherer is dead. Old Town Councilor died at the age of 95 / lawyer for the “little people.” In: Mannheimer Morgen 25/1998 (January 31, 1998), p. 19.
  2. ↑ Biographical information from Wolfgang Bosch: The Mannheimer Gemeinderat 1945–1984. Biographical manual of the lord mayors, mayors and honorary members of the Mannheim municipal council. (= Special publication of the Mannheim City Archives, Volume 8) Südwestdeutsche Verlagsanstalt, Mannheim 1984, ISBN 3-87804-162-4 , pp. 79f.
  3. ↑ Klaus Dagenbach: Introduction . In: Locherer, Einsatz , pp. 11–20, here p. 16.
  4. ↑ Situation report of the Secret State Police Office Karlsruhe of April 14, 1934. Printed in Jörg Schadt (edit.): Persecution and resistance under National Socialism in Baden. The situation reports of the Gestapo and the Attorney General Karlsruhe 1933–1940. ( Publications of the Mannheim City Archives , Volume 3) Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1976, ISBN 3-17-001842-6 , pp. 86–96, here p. 92.
  5. ↑ Situation report of the Secret State Police Office in Karlsruhe from April 29, 1938. Printed in Schadt, Persecution , pp. 201–203, here p. 202.
  6. ↑ Walter Kuppel: "Throw the coalition government car against." "Democratic Left" held founding congress in Stuttgart. In: Schwäbische Donau-Zeitung , November 23, 1967. Printed in: Peter Grohmann (Ed.): Eugen Eberle, Wort und Tat. Speeches, essays and initiatives by Eugen Eberle from 1948–84. Grohmann, Stuttgart 1988, ISBN 3-927340-01-4 , p. 28.
  7. ↑ Quoted in: Thanks and applause for parting. August Locherer released from the duties of a city councilor. In: Mannheimer Morgen , 271/1977 (November 24, 1977), p. 28.
  8. ^ Gerhard Widder: Foreword. In: Locherer, Einsatz , p. 5.
  9. ↑ This assessment in Dagenbach, Introduction , p. 18f.
  10. ↑ Dagenbach, Introduction , p. 19.
personal data
SURNAME Locherer, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German miller, politician (SAPD, KPD, DFU, DKP), trade unionists and resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH January 30, 1998
Place of death Mannheim