Paul Walter (politician, 1891)

Paul Walter (born February 13, 1891 in Viehhofen near Nuremberg , † February 1, 1978 in East Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD ).

Life

Paul Walter was the son of a journeyman butcher. After attending primary school, he learned the lathe trade. In 1908 he became a member of the union. In the following years he traveled as a wanderer to Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria and Switzerland. In 1911 he became a member of the International Workers' Association in Zurich. In 1912 Walter joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 1914 to 1916 Walter was a seaman on the cruiser Kolberg in Wilhelmshavenstationed. Due to anti-militarist activities he was arrested in August 1916 and sentenced to one year imprisonment in the fortress of Cologne. He was then dismissed from the armed forces as unworthy of defense. Instead he was conscripted for the Schwarzkopf company in Berlin. In 1917 he became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). In the fall of 1918 Walter took an active part in the November Revolution .

After the First World War , Walter joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Because of the occupation of the Vorwärts printing company, he was sentenced to one and a half years in prison for riot and breach of the peace, which he served in Plötzensee and Moabit. In 1921/1922 he acted as a shop steward for Hammerwerke in Berlin. Then he was chairman of the works council of Merkur Flugzeugbau for one year . From 1924 to 1932 he was chairman of the functionaries and chairman of the workers' council at AEG-Lokomotivbau Hennigsdorf . From 1930 to 1933 Walter Reichsleiter of the RGO metal industry group and a member of the "inner board" of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin (EVMB). As a functionary of this communist “red association” of the RGO he was responsible for the care and guidance of the EVMB supporters in the AEG plants in Berlin and in Hennigsdorf.

For the KPD, Walter took over the post of secretary of the KPD in Berlin-Niederschönhausen.

In September 1930 Walter was elected to the Reichstag as a candidate of the KPD for constituency 2 (Berlin) . As a result, he was a member of the Weimar parliament for four electoral terms until 1933. Since the elections of July 1932 , he represented constituency 4 (Potsdam I) there. In the Reichstag elections of March 1933 , Walter's mandate was confirmed, but due to the persecution of the Communists by the National Socialists that was beginning at that time, it was practically no longer possible.

From 1933 Walter was active in the communist underground movement. In the same year he was sentenced to three years in prison for preparation for high treason. From 1936 to 1938 and 1943 to 1945 he was held as a “ protective prisoner ” in Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

After the Second World War , Walter was in the leadership of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) and was involved in building up the trade unions in Berlin. From 1945 to 1949 Walter was a member of the state board of Greater Berlin, from which he finally resigned due to illness.

On November 1, 1951, Walter was entrusted with the management of the business of the preparatory committee for the formation of the National Building Organization (NAW) in Berlin. In February 1952 he was appointed secretary of the National Building Committee at the office of the President of the National Council. In 1954 he became a full-time employee of the National Council of the National Front . From 1958 to 1963 Walter was a political employee or department head of the Western Department of the National Council. From 1963 to 1966 he headed the agitation department there.

literature

• Walter, Paul . 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 .
• Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? The unified association of metal workers in Berlin. Development and failure of a communist union . VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , p. 151 ff., 236, 277, 380 ff., 421 ff, 453 ff., 473 f.
• Tobias Schäfer: Paul Walter (1891–1978) . In: Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 276-281.

Web links

• Paul Walter in the database of members of the Reichstag