Werner Kraus (politician)

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Werner Kraus (born June 14, 1898 in Lüdenscheid ; † November 12, 1964 in Rhumspringe ) was a German politician (KPD).

Life

Kraus attended elementary school and then worked as a construction worker. In 1923 Kraus became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), for which he initially exercised honorary functions. In 1929 he became a full-time functionary. He officiated first as an organ leader , then from 1931 to 1933 as a poll leader of the KPD district of Pomerania.

From 1932 to 1933 Kraus was a member of the Prussian state parliament . In the Reichstag elections in March 1933 he was elected to the Reichstag as a candidate of the KPD for constituency 6 (Pomerania). However, due to the Nazi persecution of communists that began in February 1933, he could no longer take up his mandate. On March 30, 1933, like all KPD members, his mandate was revoked by “law”.

In April 1933 Kraus took over the management of the KPD district of East Prussia. Later, however, after his arrest on July 15, 1933, in an illegal quarter in Königsberg, he changed sides: He betrayed members of the communist underground movement - including the treasurer of the KPD Central Committee, Walter Beling - to the Gestapo . According to internal correspondence of the Gestapo from September 1934, "[t] the treason proceedings initiated against Kraus [...] were initiated at the request of the SA. Obergruppe I provisionally discontinued by the attorney general, because Kraus excelled himself in the fight against the illegal communist apparatus and also proved himself very well as an SA man. ”The SPD politician Herbert Wehner , who was a communist in the 1920s and 1930s , reports in his memoirs that in exile communist circles it was assumed that Kraus had also denounced the KPD member of the state parliament Paul Grobis and "won [...] for the Gestapo while in custody". On May 1, 1937 Kraus became a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP); in the Sturmabteilung (SA) he reached the rank of Sturmführer, he was also a member of the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Hermann Weber states that Kraus was "responsible for the liquidation of the illegal KPD in East Prussia" through his denunciation activities and that he himself emphasized this in a report to the Gestapo in 1936.

After 1945 Kraus was able to cover up his past. He worked as a worker again and lived in Rhumspringe in the Harz Mountains. He was chairman of the works council of his company and was active in the union and in the local health insurance fund. Although he did not belong to any party, Kraus was for a short time on the list of the SPD member of the local council of Rhumspringe. In 1962 he suffered a stroke, resigned all offices and retired into private life.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdR The Reichstag members of the Weimar Republic in the time of National Socialism. Political persecution, emigration and expatriation 1933-1945. Droste-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1991, ISBN 3-7700-5162-9 , pp. 739f.
  2. ^ Message from the Gestapo Königsberg to the Gestapo Düsseldorf of September 7, 1934, quoted in Schumacher, MdR , p. 739.
  3. ^ Herbert Wehner: witness , 1982, p. 391.
  4. ^ Hermann Weber: The transformation of German communism and the Stalinization of the KPD , 1969, p. 194.
personal data
SURNAME Kraus, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD, NSDAP), MdR
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludenscheid
DATE OF DEATH November 12, 1964
Place of death Jump around