Paul Werther

Paul Werther (born January 5, 1908 in Duisburg , † November 18, 1965 in Schwerin ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ), resistance fighter against the Nazi regime and a VVN and FDGB functionary.

Life

Werther was born the son of a master blacksmith . He learned the trade of blacksmith himself. In 1930 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and was active for the city and sub-district leadership of Duisburg of the KPD. In 1932 he was shot in the lung during a demonstration.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Werther took part in the communist resistance. In September 1933 he emigrated to the Saar area . He then stayed in Switzerland until December 1935 and did cadre and border work under the code names "Sepp" and "Otto". He was imprisoned several times in 1934 and 1935. In September 1935 he was subjected to a party control and then in October 1935 Hermann Matern appointed him for the cadre and personnel control of the emigrants in France (code names: "Karl" and "Martin"). From May 1936 Werther stayed in Denmark , where he was in charge of border work and was a contact for the Communist Party of Denmark (code name: "Axel"). In January 1937 he went to Copenhagen and became a "technician" on the northern section management. On March 25, 1939, he was expatriated by the National Socialists (List 100). Between 1941 and 1943 he was active in the Danish resistance movement. In October 1943, Werther went to Sweden on behalf of the party . He was imprisoned in Smedsbo and released on February 19, 1944. After his dismissal, Werther ran a small business for the manufacture of handicrafts in Alingsås together with Wilhelm Bick . Werther was a member of the KPD leadership in Gothenburg - Borås . At the end of 1944 / beginning of 1945, after consultations with the Soviets, Karl Mewis and Erich Glückauf brought Werther into contact with the American secret service OSS . With the involuntary help of the Americans, Werther was able to restore contact with the illegal KPD group in Copenhagen in March 1945. At the same time he brought weapons and ammunition for the Danish resistance movement. He returned to Sweden in late April to report back. Werther was the first emigrant to return to Denmark from Sweden on May 7, 1945, two days after the German surrender in Denmark.

In December 1945 Werther returned to Germany, in the Soviet Zone . He became an instructor for the KPD regional leadership in Mecklenburg . In 1946 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From April 1946 to 1947 he headed the district police in the Schönberg border district and was a police advisor in goods . From January to March 1948, Werther attended the SED state party school. In April 1948 he became party secretary of the Neptun shipyard in Rostock , and from June 1949 he worked there as cultural director. From July 1950 to December 1951 he was head of an MTS control workshop. In 1952 he attended the MAS Central School and then worked as an MAS instructor in Schwerin . From October 1952 to April 1953 he acted as district secretary of the Association of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime (VVN) in Schwerin, from April 1953 to January 1957 he was deputy chairman of the district committee of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) Schwerin. From 1954 to 1958 Werther was also a member of the district assembly . From 1957 to 1965 he was first deputy and then department head of the Schwerin district management office of the SED and responsible for all German work.

literature

• Michael F. Scholz : Herbert Wehner in Sweden 1941-1946 (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history , volume 70). Oldenbourg. Munich 1995, ISBN 3-486-64570-6 , pp. 84-88, 108f. and passim
• Michael F. Scholz: Would you like some Scandinavian experience? Post-exile and remigration. The former KPD emigrants in Scandinavia and their further fate in the Soviet Zone / GDR . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07651-4 , p. 380 and passim.

Web links

• Biographical sketch on the Copenhagen Workers Museum page (Danish).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Scholz: Wehner (1995), p. 85.
2. ↑ Scholz: Wehner (1995), p. 86.
3. ↑ Scholz: Wehner (1995), p. 108f.