Siegfried Berger (civil rights activist)

Memorial plaque on Römerweg 40, in Berlin-Karlshorst

Siegfried Berger (born June 24, 1918 in Sebnitz , † January 29, 2002 in Kiel ) was a German engineer and social democratic resistance fighter against the GDR dictatorship . He worked illegally for the east office of the SPD in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and was a strike leader in the uprising of June 17, 1953. For his participation in it he was sentenced to seven years in prison in the Vorkuta labor camp in Siberia . In 1955 he returned.

Life

Berger, the son of a metalworker and baker , became a member of the KPD in 1920 and attended the experimental school until 1930 and then the higher experimental school in Dresden . Until 1933 he became a member of the workers 'youth organization Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft der Kinderfreunde , the workers' sports club , the workers 'mandolin federation and the socialist workers' youth (SAJ). From 1938 to 1940 Berger studied engineering and was then drafted as a civil engineer. In 1945, although he was not a member of the German Wehrmacht  , he was taken prisoner by the Americans , from which he was released in October 1945.

1946 Berger worked in SAG OPERATION Sachsenwerk in Radeberg and guided there after the forced merger of the SPD and KPD to SED an illegal Socialist group which contact the Ostbüro the SPD held. In September 1950 Berger moved to East Berlin and became a development engineer at VEB Funkwerk Köpenick , where he again built up an illegal, social democratic group. Berger smuggled radio equipment and other logistics illegally into the GDR in cooperation with the east office of the SPD.

During the popular uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953 , Berger was a strike leader in the Funkwerk Köpenick. He was arrested on June 20 and sentenced to seven years in a labor camp on July 2 by a Soviet military tribunal . In May 1954 he was sent to the Siberian Vorkuta labor camp . In October 1955, Berger returned to Berlin and learned that the MfS wanted to arrest and convict him again for working for the SPD East Office. He then moved to Hamburg and later to Kiel . There he worked as an engineer.

He remained an active member of the SPD. Until his death in 2002, Berger was active in the SPD working group of former political prisoners in Kiel.

There is a memorial plaque on his home at Römerweg 40 in Berlin-Karlshorst .

Works

• Siegfried Berger: "I do not accept the judgment". A Berlin strike leader on June 17th before the Soviet military tribunal . 4th, through Edition. Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-934085-10-7 .

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Berger (SPD)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

• Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk :  Siegfried Berger . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Bernd Eisenfeld , Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Ehrhart Neubert : The suppressed revolution. The place of June 17th in German history . Edition Temmen, Bremen 2004, ISBN 3-86108-387-6 .
• Torsten Diedrich: Arms against the people. June 17, 1953 in the GDR . Oldenbourg, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-486-56735-7 .
• Stefan Heym : Five days in June . 1st edition. Der Morgen, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-371-00244-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ History of the Berlin SPD: Siegfried Berger ( Memento of the original from January 13, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.