Eduard Welter

Eduard Welter (born March 8, 1900 in Jägersfreude ; † March 16, 1979 in Saarbrücken ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and then Saarland chairman of the forerunner industrial association of the railway industry .

Life and Political Work

After elementary school, Welter worked at the Jägersfreude mine . He then became a railroad worker and joined the KPD in 1925 . He rose quickly and became chairman of the workers' committee and head of the party cell of the Saarbrücken marshalling yard as well as district faction leader. In Dudweiler he was elected to the local council. In 1929 he was also elected as a delegate from the Saar region to the Reich leadership of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). In August 1931 Welter was dismissed for political reasons and entered the service of the party full-time.

In 1933 Welter began to engage in illegal anti-fascist resistance against the German Reich . He also took over the district management of the Red Aid . In the voting battle for the Saar area, he stayed in the background. After the reintegration, he earned his living as a sales representative. He used his work to actively build an illegal KPD. After his comrades were arrested on August 2 and 3, 1935, his name was also mentioned. He was arrested by the Gestapo on the night of September 6th and 7th and tortured for three days. However, he was released because no incriminating material was found during a house search and his wife testified positively for him.

Together with his brother Josef Welter , he finally emigrated to Paris, where he worked in a printing company from 1937. In 1940 he volunteered for the French army, but was demobilized in January 1941. Then he settled in the unoccupied part of France. There he made connections with the Resistance and translated leaflets, but did not take part in the armed struggle.

After the Second World War , he first worked as a printer in Paris, but then returned to Dudweiler, where he became deputy president of the unified union and was involved in the Communist Party (KP). However, he came into conflict with the leadership and was expelled from the party in 1947. Welter remained on the board of the unified union until 1949. The Social Democratic Party of Saarland (SPS) became the new political home . He was then chairman of the Railway Industry Association until 1955. After the referendum in 1955 and the connection of the Saarland to the Federal Republic of Germany, he built up an existence as an insurance salesman .

literature

• Klaus-Michael Mallmann , Gerhard Paul : The splintered no. Saarlanders against Hitler . Ed .: Hans-Walter Herrmann (=  resistance and refusal in Saarland 1935–1945 . Volume 1 ). Dietz, Bonn 1989, ISBN 3-8012-5010-5 , p. 267-273 .