Karl Elgas
Karl Elgas , also Karl Elgass , (born June 3, 1900 in Sankt Johann , † May 4, 1985 in Berlin (West) ) was a German politician of the KPD and in the post-war period the SPD. Persecuted as a communist by the National Socialists , convicted and imprisoned in prison and several concentration camps, he participated in the resistance after his release at the end of 1939 .
Life
Elgas attended elementary school . Later he lived as a metal worker in Berlin and belonged to the German Metal Workers Association . After the First World War , he joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1919 . In the following years he graduated from party and union schools.
On December 21, 1932 one month after the Reichstag elections of November 1932 , Elgas came after replacement for the retired KPD deputies Paul Albrecht in the Reichstag . There he represented constituency 2 (Berlin) until March 1933.
After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Elgas was persecuted as a prominent communist. Arrested in Breslau on June 14, 1933, Elgas was initially imprisoned in the Dürrgoy concentration camp near Breslau and the local remand prison. On August 15, 1934, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the People's Court for joint preparation for high treason and serious forgery of documents . Georg Schumann , member of the Reichstag, and Frieda Franz, member of the state parliament from Breslau, were also defendants . After serving his sentence in the Luckau prison, Elgas was taken into " protective custody " and held in Lichtenburg and Sachsenhausen concentration camps. In later records, Elgas reported repeated abuse, for example he was held in a cell bunker in Sachsenhausen for weeks in February and March 1938 and chained to the bars of the cell window for hours. On April 20, 1939 Elgas was released on probation and under police surveillance, but was again in "protective custody" in November and December 1939. Previously unemployed, he found a job in December 1939 as the technical manager of a cabinet maker. In the summer of 1940 Elgas was classified as "unworthy of defense". According to his own statements, Elgas was involved in the resistance group " New Beginning " during the Second World War .
After the Second World War, Elgas turned away from communism. In 1945 he became deputy district mayor of Treptow , and in 1946 deputy district mayor of Berlin-Mitte . He joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany . In 1948 he fled to the west . From 1959 to 1967 Elgas was a member of the House of Representatives in Berlin .
Elgas' estate is now in the archives of the Social Democrats. The estate has a total of 1.20 linear meters of shelves and includes materials from the years 1918 to 1983. This includes personal documents, correspondence and materials, especially records, relating to the Nazi era, concentration camps and the “New Beginning” group .
literature
- Werner Breunig, Siegfried Heimann , Andreas Herbst : Biographical Handbook of Berlin City Councilors and Members of Parliament 1946–1963 (= series of publications by the Berlin State Archives . Volume 14 ). Landesarchiv Berlin , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-9803303-4-3 , p. 90-91 (331 pages).
- Elgass, Karl . 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 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933-1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , p. 195.
- ↑ Records in Elgas' estate, see Schumacher, MdR , p. 195.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Elgas, Karl |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Elgass, Karl (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politicians (KPD, SPD), MdR, MdA |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 3, 1900 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint Johann |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 4th 1985 |
| Place of death | Berlin (West) |