Josef Forster (trade unionist)

Josef Forster (born June 23, 1876 in Bamberg , † December 10, 1961 in East Berlin ) was a German communist union official and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Forster attended elementary school for seven years and learned the lathe trade . Then he went on a journey. In 1893 he became a member of the SPD and the German Metalworkers Association (DMV), in which he took on several functions over the years. In 1917 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). When the left wing of the USPD switched to the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Forster became a member of this party at the end of 1920.

From 1913 to 1929 Forster was a member of the Berlin Dreher industry committee, which he headed from the early 1920s to 1929. That is why he was an employee of the Berlin DMV for years. As a representative of the Berlin DMV lathe industry, Forster committed himself to the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) in early 1929 . Many members of this branch shared his opinion, which is why a significant number of communist-oriented lathe operators were excluded from the Berlin DMV in the summer of 1929. Forster was also excluded from the DMV as head of the branch. He then headed the independent lathe operators 'association, which had been split off from the DMV and which was called the German Metalworkers' Association - branch of iron, turret lathe, lathe operators and cylindrical grinders (opposition) and in which several hundred members were organized at local level. At the end of 1930, Forster took part in the founding of the Unified Association of Metalworkers in Berlin (EVMB), which many lathe operators joined. Forster was a member of the closer board of the EVMB and was elected "cashier". He was considered one of the most important people in building the EVMB. He also held functions in the KPD.

After the seizure of power by the National Socialists Forster was arrested in early March 1933 and mistreated. His home was ransacked several times by the persecutors and some of his property was confiscated. On April 16, 1937, the Gestapo arrested Forster again. He was then imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp for several weeks . After his release, Forster became involved in the resistance against the Nazi regime. Among other things, he was active in the resistance group around Robert Uhrig . Later he belonged to the wider circle of the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein organization .

After the end of the Second World War, Forster worked at the nutrition office in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg . He took on functions in the SED .

Literature / sources

• Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 22, 47 f., 114–116 (short biography), 118 f.
• Stefan Heinz: Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 150, 368 f., 375 ff, 385 f., 390 f., 395 ff., 421 ff., 437 ff., 439 ff., 473 ff., 528
• Landesarchiv Berlin , inventory C Rep. 118-01, No. 14277 (documents in connection with recognition as a “victim of fascism”).