Friedrich Krüger (politician)

Friedrich Kruger grave

Friedrich Krüger (born January 3, 1896 in Berlin , † March 15, 1984 in West Berlin ) was a German politician ( SPD ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Friedrich Krüger grew up as the son of a municipal clerk and attended a preparatory institute . He became a teacher and later a senior school councilor. In the First World War he served as a soldier. After the war he became a member of the USPD , but joined the SPD in 1922 . He was a member of the Berlin district board and was head of the Welfare and Youth Commission and a member of the Reichsbanner .

In the Berlin election in 1925 , Krüger was elected to the district assembly in the Prenzlauer Berg district. From 1927 to 1930 he studied at the Administration Academy in Berlin and the Berlin University . In 1932 he became the head of the adult education center in the Neukölln district .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he was suspended and disciplined in 1933, but due to an acute shortage of teachers he was hired again as an assistant teacher six months later. Kruger became a member of the Red Shock Troop . After it was first broken up in 1933, he managed the money for the relief fund. From 1933 to 1936 he went on hikes to Czechoslovakia , where he met with émigré party friends.

Otherwise he camouflaged his resistance activities, in which he was involved in numerous Nazi organizations, such as the National Socialist Teachers' Association , the Reich Air Protection Association and the National Socialist People's Welfare .

In 1943 Krüger left the Red Shock Troop because he had to leave Berlin. On March 9, 1944, he was arrested for undermining military strength . He had shared his political opinion with his son in a letter. However, a trial date failed because the front was approaching and because his lawyer Hans Reusch dragged out the proceedings. On February 10, 1945, he managed to escape while being transferred. He hid in the basement of his old house until the end of the war.

In 1947 he was exonerated in a denazification procedure, but charged again in a later procedure. Kruger later said the burden had political reasons. As an opponent of a union between KPD and SPD , he saw no future for himself in the Soviet occupation zone and went to the western part of the city.

In the west, Krüger was a co-founder of the "Association of Teachers and Educators" and from 1946 to 1961 the main school council in the Wedding district . In February 1955, the district mayor of Wedding Walter Röber resigned from the Berlin House of Representatives and Krüger was able to move up in parliament. From 1963 he was chairman of the school committee in the House of Representatives and left parliament in 1967. He was also co-founder and chairman of the Albert Schweitzer Children's Village in Berlin .

Krüger was honored in 1971 for his services as city ​​elder of Berlin . In 1965 he was also awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class and the Order of the French Allies. After his death he was given an honorary grave by the city of Berlin at the Seestrasse urn cemetery (grave S II-9-44).

literature

• Werner Breunig, Siegfried Heimann , Andreas Herbst : Biographical Handbook of Berlin City Councilors and Members of Parliament 1946–1963 (=  series of publications by the Berlin State Archives . Volume 14 ). Landesarchiv Berlin , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9803303-4-3 , p. 156 (331 pages).
• Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: The Red Shock Squad. An early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism . Lukas Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-86732-274-4 , pp. 446 f .
• Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : Resistance in Neukölln , issue 4 of the series on the resistance in Berlin 1933 to 1945, Berlin 1990, ISSN  0175-3592 , p. 233.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Dennis Egginger-Gonzalez: Der Rote Stosstrupp: an early left-wing socialist resistance group against National Socialism . Lukas Verlag, 2018, ISBN 978-3-86732-274-4 , pp. 446 f .