Fredo Ritscher

Fredo Emil Ritscher (born July 18, 1903 in Gersdorf ; † October 9, 1974 ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ), editor and head of the border and riot police in the state of Brandenburg .

Life

Ritscher came from a working class family. From 1914 to 1918 he attended the upper classes of the elementary school and began an apprenticeship as an anchor winder. Because he was involved in a strike , he was fired in 1920 without a professional qualification. Ritscher then worked as a hardening shop worker and machine worker in Chemnitz until 1926 . In 1919 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and took on a leading position in the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD). He was subdistrict and district leader of the KJVD in the Chemnitz-Erzgebirge-Vogtland district and was elected to the subdistrict leadership, then to the district leadership of the KPD Chemnitz.

Ritscher was one of the founding members of the Red Front Fighters Association (RFB) and the Red Young Front. From 1925 to 1926 he was Gauleiter of the Red Young Front and a member of the Gauleitung of the RFB in the Chemnitz-Erzgebirge-Vogtland district. From 1926 Ritscher worked full-time for the party press, first in the advertising expedition until 1929 , then as an editorial volunteer and photo reporter and finally as editor of the KPD newspapers Der Kämper (1931) and Das Echo (1932/33) in Chemnitz.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Ritscher took part in the communist resistance . On March 13, 1933 Ritscher was arrested and later to two years in prison convicted. Until 1935 he was imprisoned in Bautzen prison. After serving his sentence, Ritscher was not released, but instead deported to various concentration camps. From 1935 to 1937 he was imprisoned in the Sachsenburg and Sachsenhausen concentration camps and then in the Buchenwald concentration camp until 1939 . In 1939 he was given an amnesty. He returned to Chemnitz and got by with odd jobs. On June 28, 1944, he was pressed into the 999 Penal Battalion . Ritscher fell on May 2, 1945 in US captivity , but he was dismissed already on 21 May 1945 and was able to return to Chemnitz.

In Chemnitz, Ritscher was immediately appointed director of the city police and special representative of the denazification commission . From November 1945 to 1948 he was police chief of the city of Chemnitz (successor to Ernst Wabra ), then until 1949 head of the border and riot police of the state of Brandenburg. In 1946 Ritscher became a member of the SED.

In 1949 Ritscher went to Bild as a picture editor at the time . In 1950/51 he was department head at Sachsenverlag and from 1952 to 1954 head of publishing at Vordruckleitverlag Freiberg. From 1954 to 1959 he worked as the technical manager of the commission and wholesale book trade in Leipzig and then worked until 1962 on behalf of the SED as a sales representative in the company Tränkner & Würker in Leipzig. From 1962 to 1966 he was the main dispatcher in the Economic Council of the Leipzig district . For health reasons he was released from this position and took over the management of the archive in the Economic Council, which he held until his death in 1974.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in Bronze (1963)

literature

• Gabriele Baumgartner: Ritscher, Fredo . In: dies., Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla . KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , pp. 721f.
• Foundation Archive of the Parties and Mass Organizations of the GDR in the Federal Archives (SAPMO), DY 55 / V 278/6/1504.