Fritz Geißler (party official)

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Fritz Geißler (born December 2, 1907 in Zeulenroda ; † September 22, 1968 ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and a functionary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the early German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 1956 to 1960 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED Neuer Weg .

Life

KPD functionary

Geißler, the son of a rubber worker, learned the trade of wire weaver after primary school. In 1922 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) and in 1923 the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD). From 1925 to 1928 he was the local chairman of the KJVD in Zeulenroda and from 1928/29 a member of the KJVD district management in Greater Thuringia .

In 1925 Geißler became a member of the German Metal Workers' Association (DMV) and in 1928 of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1929 he became a full-time KPD functionary and worked as an instructor in Greiz until 1931. In 1930 he attended the Reich Party School of the KPD . In 1931 he took part in several weeks of training at the International Lenin School in Moscow and stayed in the Soviet Union until August 1933 .

After the National Socialists came to power in Germany and communist activities were banned, Geissler returned to Germany covertly and worked for the now illegal KPD. On October 26, 1933, he was arrested in Hamburg and sentenced on June 15, 1934 by the Hanseatic Higher Regional Court for “preparation for high treason” to 30 months in prison. He was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp and held there until May 1939. He then returned to Thuringia and lived under police supervision until 1943.

In February 1943, Geissler was drafted into the Wehrmacht and fought in Penal Battalion 999 in World War II . In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British in Greece , later interned in Egypt and Iraq and released in 1947.

Functionary in the GDR

In March 1947, Geissler returned to Germany and became a member of the SED. In 1947/48 he was a functionary of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) and the SED in the Greiz district . In November 1948 he became district chairman of the SED.

In 1951 he was appointed to the state management of the SED in Thuringia and was head of the agriculture department until 1952. After that he was district chairman of the SED in Eisenach until May 1955 and then changed, as the successor to Walter Strobel, as secretary for agitation and propaganda in the SED district leadership in Erfurt .

From June 1956 to May 1960, Geissler was the successor to Rudi Wetzel , editor-in-chief of the magazine of the SED Central Committee Neuer Weg and had the rank of department head of the SED Central Committee. The magazine appeared biweekly throughout the GDR from 1950 to 1990 and had a circulation of up to 210,000 copies.

Geißler later became deputy head of department in the office of the Politburo of the SED .

Honors

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland, September 4, 1958, p. 13
personal data
SURNAME Geissler, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anti-fascist resistance fighter and SED functionary in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH December 2, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Zeulenroda
DATE OF DEATH 22nd September 1968