Fritz Schreiter

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Bruno Friedrich ("Fritz") Schreiter (born April 27, 1892 in Dresden ; † September 13, 1944 ibid) was a communist politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

In the labor movement

Fritz Schreiter completed an apprenticeship as a metalworker. As an apprentice, he joined the German Metalworkers' Association in Dresden in 1908 , the Educational Association of Young Workers in 1909 , and the SPD in 1912 . As an anti-militarist , he agitated against the war in the army and deserted to Denmark in 1917 . He was extradited and sentenced to a long prison term by a German court martial, but was already released from prison during the November Revolution of 1918.

He was a supporter of the Spartakusbund and belonged to the left wing of the USPD . In the DMV he was a spokesman for the class struggle direction. In 1920 he became a member of the KPD and employed in the Dresden local administration of the DMV. Fritz Schreiter was elected mayor in Dresden in 1922 and as mayor at the end of 1924 in Zschachwitz , at that time a neighboring municipality to Dresden, which is why he returned his Dresden mandate. Because he had traveled to Moscow as a delegate to the Fifth World Congress of the Comintern , he was dismissed from the DMV administration. Fritz Schreiter raised criticism of the ultra-left turn of the KPD, he opposed the policy of the revolutionary trade union opposition and the social fascism thesis , which is why he was expelled from the party in November 1928. Schreiter joined the Communist Party Opposition (KPD-O), in which he became an active functionary. This was a major reason why he was not re-elected as mayor of Zschachwitz in 1930. Until 1933 he remained a member of the Zschachwitz municipal parliament.

resistance

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, he had to flee. In April 1933 he emigrated to Czechoslovakia and worked there for the illegal organization of the KPD-O. On April 27, 1934, he was expatriated from Germany. He and his family had to continue to flee to Denmark . There he was active against fascist propaganda. After the German occupation in 1940 he fled to Sweden . From there, despite violent protests, he was expelled to Denmark on July 12, 1940, where he was arrested and transferred to Germany.

He, his wife Emma and his son Axel, along with the Czech resistance fighter Rudi Skohoutil and the Freital resistance fighter Willy Schneider, were indicted by the People's Court for preparing high treason in Germany and abroad, especially in what was then Czechoslovakia and Denmark, and for preparing subversive writings To have brought rich and distributed. The three were sentenced on March 20 and March 21, respectively. In the grounds of the judgment it was said: Fritz Schreiter had to “meet the severest punishment ... With the importation of the KPD-O's writings into Germany ... he made a major contribution to making the national community more difficult People who were blinded by the content of the letters allowed themselves to be seduced again and again into opposing the whole of the people ... In addition, after his behavior ... in the main hearing, he is still to be regarded as a stubborn and unteachable communist. "It this was followed by a sentence of 15 years in prison for preparation for high treason. He was transported to the Waldheim prison . There, on the initiative of Schreiter, an illegal management of socialist prisoners was formed. With this he succeeded in bringing the socialists together at least in prison in the sense of a united front . However, this illegal work among prisoners has been betrayed. Another trial took place. Schreiter was sentenced to death for preparing for high treason and favoring the enemy and was executed on September 13, 1944 in Dresden.

In 1946 a street in Zschachwitz was named after him.

Fate of other people

  • His wife Emma Schreiter was sentenced to 3 years and 2 months in prison in 1941, but was imprisoned for a total of 4 years and 10 months. In 1945 she was freed from Waldheim prison. She became a member of the KPD, then the SED , the FDGB and the Democratic Women's Association (DFD) . In 1945 she took over the management of a rest home in Bansin . As a member of the VVN in 1947 , she became chairwoman of the DFD in Bansin in 1949 and vice-chairwoman of the Dresden VVN in 1950. She died there in 1953.
  • Rudi Skohoutil, who carried out the illegal border work together with Fritz Schreiter and continued it after Schreiter's escape in Denmark, was sentenced to 5 years in prison and 5 years of loss of honor in the trial against Schreiter. Nothing is known about his further fate.

literature

  • Theodor Bergmann : Against the current. The history of the KPD (opposition) . VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2004 (therein: Short biography of Fritz Schreiter, p. 530).
  • Pöppel (1984) files of the main state archive of Saxony, files of the VVN
  • Schreiter, Fritz. In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Schreiter, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schreiter, Bruno Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist and resistance fighter
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH September 13, 1944
Place of death Dresden