Johannes Schröter (politician)

Johannes Schröter (born September 23, 1896 in Erfurt , † November 26, 1963 in Mexico City ) was a German politician ( KPD ).

Live and act

Schröter attended the elementary school in Theißen . He then learned the locksmith trade. Until the 1920s he worked as a locksmith and electrician in Zeitz. After Schröter had been involved in the trade union in his youth, he had been a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) since 1921 . In this he acted there initially as district secretary of the KPD in Halle-Merseburg .

In 1923 Schröter was expelled from the German Metalworkers Association for oppositional activities. The following year he was sentenced to one and three quarters of years imprisonment for his political activities. In 1927 he was elected to the central committee of the KPD before he moved in as a member of the Reichstag for the first time in 1928. In parliament, to which he belonged until 1932, Schröter represented constituency 11 (Merseburg). In addition, Schröter was a member of the BFD and the Heine Club.

In the internal party dispute of 1928 over the position of KPD chairman Ernst Thälmann , Schröter was one of the most consistent advocates of reducing Thälmann's power, alongside Gerhart Eisler , Georg Schumann , Arthur Ewert and Hugo Eberlein (so-called Compromisers group). One of Schröter's most energetic opponents in this controversy was Walter Ulbricht , who later became chairman of the SED . As a result of his positioning against Thälmann, Schröter was expelled from the Central Committee and removed from his position as District Secretary of the KPD in Halle-Merseburg.

After 1933 Schröter was illegally worked for the KPD and eventually went into exile in Paris , where he in the Secretariat worked the KPD.

In 1938 Schröter went to the United States of America, where he worked for the Soviet intelligence service in New York City and supported the Communist Party of the USA in its political work. In 1942 he came to Mexico . There he was active in the Bund Freier Deutscher and in the Heinrich Heine Club .

literature

• Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online [accessed January 4, 2013]).
• Wolfgang Kießling : He never found out what he was accused of: Johannes Schröter . In: Ders., Partner in fools paradise. The circle of friends around Paul Merker and Noel Field. Dietz, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-320-01857-4 , pp. 250-262.

Web links

• Johannes Schröter in the database of members of the Reichstag