Wilhelm Mayer (resistance fighter)
Wilhelm Mayer (born December 28, 1905 in Reutlingen , Württemberg ; † March 3, 1978 ) was a German communist, resistance fighter against National Socialism , state functionary of the GDR and major general of the barracked people's police .
Life
A mechanic by trade, he joined the KPD in 1924 , did illegal work from 1933, was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison. After his release from Luckenwalde prison in 1939, he was sent under police supervision as unworthy of defense in the village of Felgentreu , which had been evacuated for the military in 1937 and where a satellite camp of the Luckenwalde prison was located. Mayer built an illegal resistance group there, initiated an uprising against the guards on April 17, 1945, and played a key role in the surrender of the city of Luckenwalde to the Soviet army without a fight .
After the end of the war he was KPD district chairman in Luckenwalde in 1945/46. His wife Irmgard (1907–1985) took over the office of mayor in Felgentreu. In 1946 he became a member of the SED and worked from 1947 to 1950 as a curator at the German Administrative Academy in Forst Zinna . As special representative of the GDR government and personal advisor to the Minister for Construction, Lothar Bolz , he was responsible for the completion of the Werner-Seelenbinder-Halle and various large buildings for the World Festival of Youth and Students in Berlin from 1950. In November 1951 he was appointed State Secretary for Construction in the Ministry of Construction. On January 1, 1953, he joined the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) . He was then Deputy Minister of the Interior for Construction and Housing until 1955, initially in civilian clothes, and from November 1, 1953 with the rank of major general.
The State Security accused him not only of being technically incompetent, but also of showing an overall "dubious" political stance. Mayer felt he was being shadowed by the MfS and repeatedly let the secret service staff feel his dislike. On October 31, 1955, he was dismissed from the KVP, and was then commissioned by the East Berlin magistrate for beautification work on Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, director of the German Building Exhibition and, until 1962, director of economics and finance at the German Building Academy Berlin. Most recently he was a scientific advisor to the Bauakademie. He and his wife Irmgard were in grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.
Awards and honors
- 1951 Honorary title hero of work
- 1970 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
- 1975 Karl Marx Order
- In 1979 a unit of the NVA was given the name "Wilhelm Mayer".
literature
- Torsten Diedrich , Hans Ehlert and Rüdiger Wenzke (editor): In the service of the party. Handbook of the armed organs of the GDR. Published on behalf of the Military History Research Office . Ch. Links Verlag , Berlin 1998.
- Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke: The Generals and Admirals of the NVA - A biographical manual . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2000.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Friederike Sattler “Economic Order in Transition”, 2002, part 1, p. 947
- ↑ http://www.dg-felgentreu-ev.de/Artikel-Felgentreu/artikel-felgentreu-2.pdf
- ^ New Germany of October 14, 1951
- ^ New Germany from November 6, 1951
- ↑ Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke: The generals and admirals of the NVA: A biographical manual . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-438-9 .
- ^ New Germany of December 8, 1957
- ^ New Germany of December 28, 1965
- ^ New Germany of May 7, 1965
- ^ New Germany of March 10, 1978
- ^ New Germany of March 2, 1979
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mayer, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German communist, resistance fighter against National Socialism, state functionary of the GDR and major general of the barracked people's police |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 28, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Reutlingen , Württemberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 3, 1978 |