Kurt Rossberg

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Kurt Roßberg (born May 7, 1906 in Leipzig , † August 19, 1991 in Berlin ) was a German youth, political and trade union functionary , editor and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime . He was also chief executive of Popular Solidarity .

Life

Roßberg, son of a working-class family, learned the trade of machine fitter . In 1920 he joined the Free Socialist Youth , the German Metalworkers Association and in 1923 the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1928/29 he was the full-time secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Association of Germany . In 1930/31 he worked as a trainee or editor at the communist Saxon workers' newspaper in Leipzig. In 1931/32 he was a student at the International Lenin School in Moscow . After his return from the Soviet Union in December 1932 he went to the as editor-in-chiefLower Saxony workers' newspaper to Hanover .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, from February 1933 he acted as organ leader of the KPD's illegal Lower Saxony district leadership. Roßberg was arrested by the Gestapo in January 1934 and later sentenced to two years and three months in prison. He was imprisoned in the prisons in Hanover, Minden and the prison in Herford / Westphalia. In 1939 he was arrested again and taken to Buchenwald concentration camp , from which he was released in 1940. He found work as a machine fitter in the mechanical engineering company Müller & Montag in Leipzig and was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1942 .

Roßberg belonged to the resistance group around Georg Schumann in Leipzig and was involved in the organization of the Leipzig group of the National Committee "Free Germany" . After the devastating bombing raids on the city on December 3, 1943, Leipzig resistance fighters distributed the leaflet "Experience and Lessons from the Bombing War" written by Roßberg in large numbers. In this leaflet, Roßberg linked specific requests with the call to broaden the resistance:

“The Leipzig anti-fascists tell you what to do. If there is an air raid, you must first secure your life. Therefore, stop all work in the event of a pre-alarm! Get yourself to safety! In the event of an attack, leave the armaments factories and take care of your families and homes! The whole arms industry can be smashed, but you must keep your life! Don't let Nazi company bigwigs or factory security hold you in the company! Stay away from work after an attack. Apologize with cleaning up or bad traffic conditions! Working slower will bring the war to an end as quickly as possible. Support each other when it comes to salvaging your life, your apartments and your belongings! The life of the German workers, their wives and families is a thousand times more important than the armaments factories of the Nazi criminals. Fight with us anti-fascists against the total war of Hitler, for total peace! "

- Kurt Roßberg : Experience and lessons from the bombing war

Roßberg was arrested again in 1944. In January 1945 Roßberg managed to escape from the Gestapo prison in Leipzig amid the turmoil of the bombing raids on Leipzig.

On July 16, 1945, the Soviet city commandant, Major General Trufanow , appointed the Social Democrat Erich Zeigner as Lord Mayor and Roßberg as the first Deputy Mayor. Roßberg remained first mayor of Leipzig until September 1945. He was a founding member of the People's Solidarity in Dresden and from October 1945 to April 1946 he was the executive state secretary of the People's Solidarity in Saxony . From May 1946 to February 1950 he acted as chief executive of the newly formed Central Committee of People's Solidarity. Roßberg emphasized that “the people's solidarity has a broad, non-partisan basis and combines the solidarity of the working class with the Christian charity of the churches”

He then worked on the federal board of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB), from 1952 editor or deputy editor-in-chief of the Tribune , the central organ of the FDGB.

In connection with the uprising of June 17, 1953, Roßberg was accused of "capitulant behavior" and recalled. He was then only used as a business editor. From 1962 to 1971 he was again deputy editor-in-chief of the tribune .

After his retirement in 1971, Roßberg was still chairman of the residential district committee in the Hans-Loch-Viertel in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde .

He was on the Central Cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde in the graves plant for the victims and persecuted by the Nazi regime buried

Awards

literature

  • Günther Krüger: Two types of occupation policy in Leipzig (April to September 1945) . In: Contributions to contemporary history (1960), pp. 104–112 (especially p. 110).
  • Martin Broszat et al. (Ed.): SBZ manual: State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949 . Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1990, ISBN 3-486-55261-9 , p. 1008.
  • Gabriele Baumgartner: Rossberg, Kurt . In: dies., Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla . KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 734.
  • Rossberg, Kurt . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst (ed.): German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .
  • Christine Roßberg: Memories of Kurt Roßberg . In: In focus. People's solidarity in Berlin (2/2015) , p. 17.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gerda Zorn: Resistance in Hanover . Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1977, pp. 90 and 162.
  2. ^ Gerda Zorn: Resistance in Hanover . Röderberg, Frankfurt am Main 1977, p. 162.
  3. ↑ Norbert Haase, Birgit Sack (ed.): Münchner Platz, Dresden. The criminal justice of the dictatorships and the historical place . Gustav Kiepenheuer, Leipzig 2001, p. 92.
  4. ^ Walter A. Schmidt: So that Germany live. A source work on the German anti-fascist resistance struggle 1933–1945 . Congress, Berlin 1959, p. 369.
  5. ^ Michael Rudloff: SED foundation in a social democratic stronghold. The example of Leipzig . In: Werner Bramke, Ulrich Heß (Hrsg.): Economy and society in Saxony in the 20th century . Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 1998, pp. 371-413 (here: p. 375).
  6. ↑ Leipzig Lexicon .
  7. ↑ Marcel Boldorf: Social Welfare in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–1953: Causes, extent and coping with post-war poverty . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1998, p. 174.
  8. ↑ Remembrance days 2016 on the side of the central cemetery Friedrichsfelde.
personal data
SURNAME Rossberg, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German youth, political and trade union functionary, editor and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime, functionary of popular solidarity
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH August 19, 1991
Place of death Berlin