Leo Radtke

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Leo Radtke (born March 28, 1897 in Rudziniec (West Prussia), † May 1, 1969 in Dortmund ) was a German trade union official, resistance fighter, functionary of persecuted associations and civil servant.

Life

Radtke came from East Prussia and did an apprenticeship as a hairdresser after school. Before the First World War he and his family moved to western Germany. He joined the SPD and the free trade unions after the November Revolution .

Between 1920 and 1929 Radtke worked for the Deutsche Reichsbahn . From 1927 to 1929 he was chairman of the works council of the Hamm railway maintenance company , and at the same time he was a member of the district and main works council of the Reichsbahn. In addition to his professional activity, Radtke continued his education. He attended the business school in Berlin and the Academy of Labor in Frankfurt am Main. From 1930 he was the union secretary of the Union of German Railway Workers (EdED) based in Hamm.

He lost his position with the beginning of the Nazi era and the breakdown of the trade unions on May 2, 1933. In 1933 he was arrested and abused for the first time by the National Socialists. In the following years he remained unemployed despite the general economic boom.

From 1934/35 Radtke belonged to the core of the resistance movement of the railway workers in Rhineland and Westphalia supported by the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). In the summer of 1935 he became district leader of the resistance group of the illegal EdED in Westphalia. His experience as a union official qualified him for this position. His good contacts with other former trade unionists, especially Hans Jahn, were also important . From 1936 he belonged to the close leadership of the railway resistance against the Nazi state. He traveled to meetings in Venlo in the Netherlands to report to the emigrated trade unionists about the situation of workers in the Reich. Illegal writings were smuggled into Germany from Holland. In mid-February 1937, the Gestapo succeeded in crushing the resistance group in West Germany and arresting its leading functionaries. You were convicted of preparing a treasonable enterprise. Unlike some other defendants Radtke was on 3 December 1937 at the trial of Hans Funger , and from the people's court to a fairly mild sentence of four years ' imprisonment convicted. After serving his sentence, he was released. In contrast to other people convicted of “high treason”, he was not immediately sent to a concentration camp after serving his sentence. After his release from prison, he found a job as an employee. He was arrested in Hamm on August 15, 1944 as part of the Grid Action and imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp until liberation (late April 1945).

After the war, Radtke entered the public service in 1946 and headed the special department for the care of victims of Nazi persecution at the Arnsberg district government . At times he was also responsible for the administrative districts of Münster and Minden. He was also involved in rebuilding the trade unions and the SPD in Westphalia. Radtke was also one of the three chairmen of the Association of Persecuted Persons of the Nazi Regime in the British Zone . He played a key role in founding the Working Group of Persecuted Social Democrats . Later he was an avowed opponent of the VVN. From 1948 until his retirement in 1962 he headed the compensation authority and was the department head for reparations at the district government in Arnsberg. Most recently he was a senior councilor. In addition, he was politically active in the SPD local association Arnsberg.

literature

  • Marlene Klatt: The Compensation Practice in the Arnsberg District and the Reaction of Persecuted Jews . In: Christiane Fritsche (ed.): "Aryanization" and "reparation" in German cities, Cologne a. a. 2014, p. 372.
  • Siegfried Mielke , Stefan Heinz : Railway trade unionists in the Nazi state. Persecution - Resistance - Emigration (1933–1945) . Metropol-Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86331-353-1 , pp. 110, 143, 148 ff., 339, 369, 397, 606, 622 f. (Short biography), 645 f., 729.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The split of the anti-fascists after 1945
  2. ^ Streiflichter from 50 years of unification of the persecuted of the Nazi regime in North Rhine-Westphalia, Wuppertal, 2002 S-26 digitized
  3. ↑ see: 70 years of the SPD local association in Arnsberg. Arnsberg, 1988
personal data
SURNAME Radtke, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade union official, resistance fighter, functionary of persecuted groups and civil servants
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Rudziniec (West Prussia)
DATE OF DEATH May 1st 1969
Place of death Dortmund