Kurt Berthel
Kurt Hermann Berthel (born July 9, 1897 in Gera ; † January 18, 1960 in Karl-Marx-Stadt ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was Lord Mayor of Chemnitz and Karl-Marx-Stadt.
Life
Kurt Berthel, the son of a cotton spinner, was the second oldest son of eleven children. In 1905 the family moved to Chemnitz. From 1903 to 1911 Berthel attended elementary school and then learned the trade of a carpenter . In 1912 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ). After completing his apprenticeship, Kurt Berthel went on a hike from 1915 to 1917 . The years of traveling took him to many German cities. In 1916 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in Wittenberg . In the same year he became a member of the Central Association of Carpenters. In 1917 he was drafted into the Imperial Army and took part in the First World War as an artilleryman . He was released from military service in 1919 and worked in Dortmund and Chemnitz. In 1920 Berthel became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and in 1923 of the Red Front Fighter League . He was one of the organizers of the Proletarian Hundreds in the Chemnitz subdistrict. In 1924 he joined the German Red Aid and the International Red Aid . From 1926 to 1933 he was a member of the KPD parliamentary group in the Chemnitz city council. Almost all of this time he was an unpaid councilor. From 1928 to 1933 he acted as head of the KPD district of Chemnitz-West. After a strike in 1930, he became unemployed.
After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Berthel continued to work illegally for the KPD. His apartment was turned upside down by the Gestapo dozen times . The henchmen found clues for the illegal activity of his wife Gertrud. On October 25, 1935, she was convicted of preparing for high treason by the Dresden Higher Regional Court and had to go to prison for 28 months . Kurt Berthel was imprisoned in 1936 for preparation for high treason, but released again for lack of evidence and placed under police supervision. From 1937 he worked as a carpenter in Chemnitz, later he was drafted into the Hermann Göring works in Salzgitter . In January 1940 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and employed as a carpenter in a construction company. While building a bridge in Graudenz he was wounded in 1945 and was taken prisoner of war by the Soviets in March 1945 , from which he was released in October 1945.
In November 1945 he returned to Chemnitz and at the end of 1945 was appointed by the Saxon Ministry of Trade and Supply as a supply inspector and head of the food inspection of the Chemnitz district. He rejoined the KPD and in 1946 became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). The city council of Chemnitz elected him in November 1948 to the city council for internal administration. From 1949 he was first mayor and from June 1950 deputy mayor. From 1951 acting Lord Mayor, he was Lord Mayor of Chemnitz from March 1953 until his death in 1960. During his tenure, the Chemnitz Opera House reopened (1951), the city was renamed Karl-Marx-Stadt on May 10, 1953, the new building for the University of Mechanical Engineering on Kurt-Fischer-Strasse (1957) was inaugurated the artificial ice stadium at Küchwald (1958), the construction of the pioneer railway (today Parkeisenbahn) and the commissioning of the first drinking water fluoridation plant (1959).
From 1953 Kurt Berthel was a member of the district and city management of Chemnitz and Karl-Marx-Stadt of the SED. He was a member of the city council and from 1958 the Karl-Marx-Stadt district assembly. From 1955 he was a member of the Presidium of the German City and Municipal Association of the GDR .
Kurt Berthel died on January 18, 1960 after a long and serious illness at the age of 62.
Awards and honors
- Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (1957)
- Medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945 (1958)
- Medal of Merit of the GDR
- Until 1989, a street, a children's home and a battle group hundred carried his name.
literature
- From the life of revolutionary fighters , published by the city leadership of Karl-Marx-Stadt of the SED, Commission for Research into the History of the Local Labor Movement, Karl-Marx-Stadt 1979.
- Bernd-Rainer Barth : Berthel, Kurt Hermann . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Portrait of Kurt Berthel in the Berliner Zeitung , May 12, 1953, p. 5.
- ^ Obituary in Neues Deutschland , January 20, 1960, p. 2.
Wilhelm André (1874-1896) | Heinrich Gustav von Beck (1896–1908) | Heinrich Sturm (1908–1917) | Johannes Hübschmann (1917–1930) | Walter Arlart (1930–1933) | Otto Härtwig (1933–1936) | Walter Schmidt (1936–1945) | Ernst Ring (1945) | Fritz Gleibe (1945) | Heinrich Engelke (1945) | Kurt Wuthenau (1945) | Max Müller (1945–1952) | Kurt Berthel (1952–1960) | Fritz Scheller (1960–1961) | Kurt Müller (1961–1986) | Eberhard Langer (1986–1990) | Dieter Noll (1990-1991) | Joachim Pilz (1991–1993) | Peter Seifert (1993-2006) | Barbara Ludwig (since 2006)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Berthel, Kurt |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Berthel, Kurt Hermann |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (KPD / SED) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 9, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gera |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 18, 1960 |
| Place of death | Karl Marx City |