Erich Matthes (union official)

Erich Matthes (born November 19, 1908 in Jena , † 1987 ) was a German trade union official , resistance fighter against National Socialism , city ​​councilor (SED) and economic functionary .

Life

Matthes attended elementary school and then learned the profession of mechanic , in which he worked at Carl Zeiss AG . He joined the German Metal Workers' Association (DMV), was involved as a worker sportsman and with the Friends of Nature . In 1932 he joined the Communist Party Opposition (KPO).

After the NSDAP came to power , he was arrested in 1934 and remained in prison and in the Buchenwald concentration camp until 1941 . He then went back to work at Zeiss, but was arrested again in 1944.

When the Nazi regime had been removed, Matthes was elected deputy works council chairman and took over the chairmanship in 1947. In this function he was committed to maintaining the Zeiss foundation model . Matthes also became a member of the city council with the mandate of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). In 1948 he became a member of a working group for economic planning in the state government. At the party review in 1950, he denied his former membership in the KPO and incriminated others for it. In 1952 he became chairman of the district plan commission of Suhl . From 1959 to 1960 he studied in Moscow and then worked in other business management areas.

literature

• Steffen Kachel : A red-red special path? Social Democrats and Communists in Thuringia 1919 to 1949 . Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia, Small Series Volume 29, p. 560