Fritz Apelt

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Fritz Apelt (born February 4, 1893 in Tiefenfurth , Görlitz district ; † January 28, 1972 in East Berlin ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and a politician of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). He was editor-in-chief of the FDGB - central organ Tribune and from 1954 to 1956 State Secretary and Deputy Minister for Culture of the GDR.

Life

After primary school , the son of a miner and a factory worker finished his apprenticeship as a locksmith in 1910 . He worked in this profession until 1923. Since 1911 Apelt was a member of the German Metal Workers' Association (DMV) and since October 1912 a member of the SPD . In 1912/13 Apelt attended a workers' training school. From 1915 to 1918 he fought in the First World War and in 1918 was a member of a workers 'and soldiers' council in Liegnitz and a member of the People's Navy Division . In December 1918, Apelt joined the USPD and was DMV shop steward and works council at AEG in Berlin until 1921 .

In 1920 Apelt became a member of the KPD . Apelt was excluded from the DMV in 1923 for leading a wildcat strike in the AEG turbine factory in Berlin-Moabit . In June 1923 he became editor of trade union issues for the KPD newspaper Die Rote Fahne . In 1923 Apelt was a member of the management of the KPD sub-district Berlin-Moabit. 1924 Apelt was arrested and on November 7 by the Supreme Court to one year imprisonment sentenced that he served in the fortress Gollnow. After his dismissal in August 1925, Apelt became editor of the press service of the KPD and then in the trade union department of the central committee of the KPD responsible editor of the newspaper Der Arbeiterrat and employee of the department for works councils.

In January 1927, Apelt, as a representative of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition, became a member of the Executive Committee of the Red Trade Union International in Moscow and deputy head of the organization department, and from 1928 was head of youth issues. In these functions Apelt traveled to the Netherlands , Austria , Finland and Czechoslovakia . In October 1929 Apelt returned to Germany, briefly worked again for the press service of the KPD in Berlin and was then editor-in-chief of the Thuringian Volksblatt in Erfurt and member of the KPD district management in Thuringia until the end of 1932 . From November 1932 to January 1933 Apelt was editor-in-chief of the Badische Arbeiterstimme in Mannheim and until August 1933 a member of the illegal KPD district leadership in Baden-Palatinate. Arrested in August 1933, he was imprisoned in the Heuberg and Kislau concentration camps until May 1934 . After his release he resumed illegal party work and from July 1934 to March 1935 was the KPD's senior political advisor for the Middle Rhine and North Rhine-Westphalia districts .

In March 1935 Apelt emigrated to Amsterdam , then Paris and at the end of April 1935 via Sweden and Finland to the Soviet Union . Until 1939, Apelt was press correspondent for German-language newspapers in the agitation department of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and worked on the editorial team of the general Comintern bulletin. In September 1941 Apelt was spokesman and editorial secretary for the German national broadcaster and the broadcaster of the National Committee for Free Germany . In these functions, on October 31, 1942, Apelt received a “severe reprimand with a serious warning” from the Moscow KPD leadership for “lack of party vigilance”. From February to August 1944, Apelt worked on a working committee to develop the KPD's post-war program.

On June 15, 1945, Apelt returned to Germany and became a member of the preparatory trade union committee for Saxony and second chairman of the state committee of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). In September / October 1945 Apelt became editor-in-chief of the newspaper Die Free Trade Union , from 1947 the tribune and remained so until 1951. In 1946 Apelt became a member of the SED. From 1947 to 1953 he was the successor to Paul Ufermann, chairman of the Association of the German Press . From 1947 to 1955 Apelt was a member of the federal executive committee until 1950 of the executive committee of the FDGB. In 1947/48 he was head of the main press and radio department and from September 1949 to October 1950 he was head of the international connections department of the FDGB's federal executive committee. He was also the second chairman of the IG Kunst und Literatur and a member of the council of the International Organization of Journalists. From August 1951 to January 1954 Apelt was head of the Office for Literature and Publishing in the GDR. From 1951 to 1953 Apelt completed a distance learning course at the Karl Marx party college in Kleinmachnow . In 1952 he married Frieda Malter .

In January 1954 Apelt became State Secretary and First Deputy Minister for Culture and retired in 1956 for health reasons. From 1956 to 1967 Apelt was a member of the Central Working Group of Merited Union Veterans and chairman of the commission for research into the history of the German union movement.

tomb

His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Awards

  • 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
  • 1963 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
  • 1965 Order Banner of Labor
  • 1968 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
  • 1970 Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit

Works

  • The World Trade Union Federation and the German trade unions . Berlin 1947.
  • The unions in the Soviet Union . Berlin 1949.
  • Stalin and the trade unions . Berlin 1949.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Apelt, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SED) and editor-in-chief
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Tiefenfurth , Görlitz district
DATE OF DEATH January 28, 1972
Place of death East Berlin