Wilhelm Knigge

Wilhelm Knigge (born December 16, 1906 in Bremen , † December 20, 1995 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . In 1933 and from 1946 to 1951 he was a member of the Bremen citizenship and later a union official in the GDR .

biography

The worker's son Wilhelm Knigge learned the trade of bricklayer in 1921 and was already active as an apprentice in communist organizations. In 1921 he became a member of the building trade association, in 1924 of the Red Front Fighters Association and in 1927 of the KPD and the Red Aid of Germany . Until 1932 he was head of the Red Young Front in Bremen and directed defense-political training for the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus (KGF). From 1928 to 1932 Knigge worked as a bricklayer and dock worker in Bremen and was a member of the building trade union. In 1932 he was political director at the International Workers Aid (IAH). In 1933 Knigge was elected a member of the Bremen citizenship for the KPD .

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists and the ban on the KPD, Knigge continued the party work under the code name Max . In September 1933 Knigge emigrated to the Netherlands , then to Belgium , from where he was expelled to France in 1935 . From 1935 to 1939 Knigge was a member of the KPD leadership in exile in Paris and was responsible for cadre issues of the International Brigades . In 1937 Knigge was expatriated from the German Reich . From 1937 Knigge was a special courier for the Politburo of the KPD in Paris, from 1940 under the code names Schiller and Robert Vautier a member of the Resistance in southern France . From 1944 Knigge worked for the magazine “Soldat im Westen” and, with Walter Vesper, was involved in the smuggling of KPD members into Germany.

Knigge returned to Bremen in September 1945. From 1945 to 1951 he was chairman of the KPD regional leadership in Bremen. From 1946 to 1951 Knigge was again a KPD member of the state parliament of the Bremen citizenship.

In June 1951 Knigge moved to the GDR, where he became a member of the SED and an instructor at the Bau-Union in Dresden . In 1951 and 1952 he studied at the Karl Marx party college in Liebenwalde . From 1953 to 1959 Knigge was first secretary of the SED city administration in Potsdam and at times a member of the district administration. From 1954 to 1959 he was a member of the central board of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF). From 1959 to 1963 Knigge was secretary of the federal executive board and member of the presidium of the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB). 1964/65 he was a sector manager in the Ministry of Construction of the GDR .

From 1966 to 1971 Knigge was head of the state secretariat for all-German issues and from 1971 to 1987 deputy head of the transport department in the Central Committee of the SED . From 1980 he was a member of the central management of the committee of anti-fascist resistance fighters . In 1988 Knigge was relieved of all functions for reasons of age. In 1990 Knigge became a PDS member. Knigge died in Berlin in 1995.

Awards

• 1946 French Liberation Medal
• May 6, 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
• 1966 Order Banner of Labor
• 1971 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
• 1975 Medal of Merit of the National People's Army
• 1976 Karl Marx Order
• 1982 Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit
• 1986 Star of Friendship between Nations

Web links

• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Wilhelm Knigge . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• FDGB-Lexicon Wilhelm Knigge , Berlin, 2009
• Wilhelm Knigge in the DRAFD Wiki