Rudolf Thunig

Rudolf ("Rudi") Thunig (born August 4, 1899 in Dresden , † October 24, 1983 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ) and resistance fighter against the Nazi regime .

Life

Thunig, the son of a tailor, trained as a businessman . From 1917 to 1920 he worked in this profession - with the exception of his military service in 1918/19. In 1916 he joined the Free Socialist Youth and in 1918 the Spartakusbund . He was then a member of the KJVD and the KPD. From 1920 to 1922 he headed the communist publishing house Junge Garde in Berlin. In 1920 he was actively involved in the suppression of the Kapp Putsch . From 1922 to 1935 Thunig worked in the Western European office of the Communist Youth International , and in 1923/24 also worked in its publishing house.

In 1933, initially an instructor for the Communist Youth Association of Czechoslovakia , Thunig participated in the resistance against the Nazi regime. He was arrested in 1935 and twelve years ' imprisonment convicted, he in prison Brandenburg-Gorden (1937-1939 and 1943-1945), in the concentration camp Börgermoor (1939-1941) and in the penitentiary Sonnenburg spent (1941-1943).

From 1945 to 1949 he was a consultant in the magistrate of Greater Berlin . From March 1949 he headed the office of the secretariat of the party executive committee and the central committee (ZK) of the SED. From 1952 to 1975 he was deputy head of department in the Politburo office .

Thunig died in 1983. His urn was buried in the Pergolenweg grave of the socialist memorial in Berlin's Friedrichsfelde central cemetery.

Honors

• Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (May 6, 1955)
• Karl Marx Order (1959)
• Labor Banner (1964)
• Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold (1969)

literature

• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 931.
• Hans-Joachim Fieber, Lothar Berthold, Michele Barricelli: Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon . Volume 8. trafo, Berlin 2005, p. 44.
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Thunig, Rudolf . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• 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 , p. 937.