Wilhelm Rescher

Wilhelm ("Willi") Rescher (born March 1, 1911 in Forst (Lausitz) , † September 25, 1983 in Potsdam ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ). From 1957 to 1961 he was Lord Mayor of Potsdam.

Life

Rescher was born into a working class family from Lusatia. He started a commercial apprenticeship, but had to break it off. He then worked as an unskilled worker in the textile industry and in agriculture. In 1925 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD). In 1932 he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and was from 1931 to 1933 a member of the sub-district management of the KJVD in Forst.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Rescher joined the communist resistance and was imprisoned in the Sonnenburg concentration camp in February 1933 . After his release from “ protective custody ” in October 1933, he was again active in the resistance of the KPD until 1936, including working as a courier to Prague . In January 1936 he emigrated to Czechoslovakia . After German troops occupied Czechoslovakia, he was arrested again in Prague in 1939. He was sent to the Berlin-Moabit remand prison in February 1940 and was sentenced to seven years in prison by the People's Court in February 1941 . Until he was liberated by the Red Army in April 1945, he was imprisoned in the Brandenburg-Görden prison.

After his liberation in 1945, he worked in various functions in the state and party apparatus of the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR. Since 1946 he was a member of the SED, in 1949 first secretary of the SED district leadership in Calau and until 1951 party secretary in Forst and Senftenberg . From 1951 to 1952 he served as first chairman of the Osthavelland district council . From 1952 to 1957 he succeeded Paula Gürth as mayor of Luckenwalde and from December 1957 to September 1961, finally, mayor of Potsdam.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze (1959), silver (1971) and gold (1976)
• Gold Medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit (1981)

literature

• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Eds.): Politics, Economy, Public Life. Biographical Handbook of German-Speaking Emigration after 1933 . KG Saur, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-598-10087-6 , p. 598 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
• 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 , pp. 705-706.
• Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd Edition. Volume 8 (Poethen – Schlüter). KG Saur, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-598-25038-5 , pp. 331f.
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Rescher, Wilhelm (Willi) . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• 1. Secretaries of the SED district leadership in the state of Brandenburg (1949–1952) on the website of the Federal Archives (accessed on October 21, 2018).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , February 27, 1971, p. 2.
2. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , May 1, 1976, p. 4.
3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , May 2, 1981, p. 4.