Karl North

Karl Nord (born January 10, 1912 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ; † April 11, 2003 there ) was a trained laboratory technician and driver. From 1933 to 1938 he worked in the underground of the illegal SAP in the resistance against National Socialism and was imprisoned from 1938 to 1941. After the Second World War , Karl Nord was head of the cultural office of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein from 1945 to 1977.

Life

Political activity until 1933

In 1926, the son of a coal merchant, at the age of 14, joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) during his training as a chemical laboratory assistant and continued his education at party and trade union seminars as well as in a course at the Tinz community college and worked as a driver in his father's company. In 1930 he went to the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold , then in 1931 to the Iron Front . 1932/1933 joined Charles North with SAJ friends to Socialist Workers Party of Germany over (SAP). With the "seizure of power" by the NSDAP , the majority of the SAP executive board decided in March 1933 to dissolve itself and join the SPD or KPD ; the majority of the membership resisted the dissolution and adjusted to underground work.

Work in the illegal SAP 1933–1938

Karl Nord continued to work underground in the illegal SAP. B. in which he distributed Fanal , the SAP newspaper and pasted posters against Hitler on factory gates. Due to the strictly conspiratorial way of working of the SAP in southwest Germany, the organizational structures of the party there remained largely intact until spring 1938.

Political imprisonment 1938–1941

At the beginning of September 1938, Karl Nord was arrested and questioned by the Gestapo Ludwigshafen as part of the break-up of the SAP structures in southwest Germany. On the same day he was taken to the Mannheim pre-trial detention center and interrogated by the Mannheim Gestapo. In a trial in June 1939 accused of preparing for high treason and sentenced to seven years in prison and loss of honor, Karl Nord served his sentence in Ludwigsburg prison .

Release from prison and military service 1941–1945

Karl Nord was released on parole in 1941 and drafted into Penal Division 999 of the German Wehrmacht in 1943. He was taken prisoner by the British in 1945, but was released in the same year.

Cultural work for Ludwigshafen after 1945

Karl Nord became head of the cultural office of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein at the end of 1945 and joined the SPD. In addition, the city's press office was in charge in the first post-war years. Until his retirement in 1977 he remained head of the cultural office. During his term of office, a. the new building of the palace building, the foundation of the theater community and the city music school.

literature

• Karl Nord: In the fight against injustice and for freedom. Published by SPD-Stadtverband Ludwigshafen 1986, ISBN 3-923505-04-3 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Nord in the catalog of the German National Library
• Obituary for the death of Karl Nord on the website of the city of Ludwigshafen am Rhein