Siegfried Rädel Siegfried Rädel ( 7 March 1893 - 10 May 1943 ) was a German politician , a member of the Communist Party of Germany ( KPD ) and a resistance fighter against the Nazi ] ] régime . [ [ File : Stamps of Germany ( DDR ) 1983 , MiNr 2769 . jpg | thumb | 180px | Stamp Biography . Rädel was born in Pirna - Copitz , Saxony . At the age of 20 , in 1913 , Rädel became a [ [ soldier ] ] . With his Pioneer Battalion , he lived through four years of [ [ World War I ] ] on the front lines and was wounded twice . In 1919 , his colleagues elected him as the chairman of the plant council at the rayon works in Pirna . As of 1921 , he was a town councillor in Pirna and leader of the KPD faction . He also became a member of the KPD central committee , and from 1924 to 1933 , a member of the Reichstag . With some interruptions , he was for many years either a candidate or a member of the KPD central committee . Rädel ' s commitment to the relief efforts for those affected by floodwaters in the Gottleuba and Müglitz valleys between 1927 and 1932 is well known , as is his commitment to dam construction aimed at controlling the floods . However , such a system of dams was not realized until much later , between 1958 and 1974 – retention basins in Buschbach , Liebstadt , Friedrichswalde - Ottendorf , Mordgrundbach and [ [ Glashütte ] ] , and the Gottleuba dam . Rädel ' s endeavours to organize social initiatives , powers , and organizations led in 1927 to the founding of the Work Community of Social - Political Organizations ( " Arbeitsgemeinschaft sozialpolitischer Organisationen " ; ARSO ) on a national scale . The ARSO , with Rädel as publisher , published the magazine " Proletarische Sozialpolitik " beginning in May 1928 . Rädel was among the German delegates at the World Peace Congress in August 1928 in Amsterdam . After [ [ Adolf Hitler ] ] and the [ [ Nazis ] ] [ [ Machtergreifung | seized power ] ] in 1933 , Rädel had to go into exile . He went to Prague , France , the [ [ Soviet Union ] ] , and Zurich . The Party began proceedings against him for " factional activities " , but this ended with a simple reprimand . The Swiss police arrested him in late 1936 along with his common - law wife , Maria Weiterer , with whom he had lived and worked since 1927 . In France , where he found himself after being expelled from Switzerland , the Secretariat of the KPD Central Committee , which at that time was based in Paris , transferred to Rädel the leadership of the Communist emigrant organization . Rädel took part in attempts to build up an antifascist people ' s front while in France . At the KPD ' s " Bern Conference " in Draveil near Paris , he was chosen to be one of the 17 members of the Central Committee . Among his circle of German émigré friends were [ [ Heinrich Mann ] ] , [ [ Lion Feuchtwanger ] ] , [ [ Rudolf Leonhard ] ] , [ [ Leonhard Frank ] ] and [ [ Paul Merker ] ] . Extensive work in publicity was undertaken against fascist German aggression politics . However , with the German - Soviet non - aggression pact came the arrest and detention in 1940 of every German Communist émigré in France , including Rädel , who was delivered to [ [ Le Vernet concentration camp ] ] . In 1942 , Rädel was handed over to the [ [ Gestapo ] ] by the Vichy régime . In a high treason trial , he was sentenced by the " Volksgerichtshof " to death on 25 February 1943 , shortly before his 50th birthday , and executed on 10 May 1943 in the infamous " murder garage " at Brandenburg Prison . The [ [ rayon ] ] plant in Pirna was named after Rädel when Pirna was part of [ [ East Germany ] ] . With reunification , his name disappeared , and in the end , the rayon plant was later shut down and then demolished . However , a street in downtown Pirna is still named after him . External links . [ [ Category : 1893 births ] ] [ [ Category : 1943 deaths ] ] [ [ Category : German military personnel of World War I ] ] [ [ Category : Communist Party of Germany politicians ] ] [ [ Category : People condemned by Nazi courts ] ] [ [ Category : People from the Kingdom of Saxony ] ] [ [ Category : Communists in the German Resistance ] ] [ [ Category : Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic ] ]