Fritz Kater
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Fritz Kater | |
---|---|
Born | |
Died | 20 May 1945 | (aged 83)
Occupation | trade unionist |
Fritz Kater (12 December 1861 – 20 May 1945) was a German
The son of a
Kater joined the mason's trade union in Magdeburg in 1883 at a time when the Anti-Socialist Laws forbade most union activities. He came into contact with socialists from Berlin and Hamburg soon becoming a socialist himself under their influence. Kater soon began spending much of his spare time reading illegal socialist literature, and became active in the union's clandestine activities.
In 1887, Kater joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the same year he also founded a masons' union in Barleben, becoming the organization's first chairman. His unionist activities, which included trying to organize workers from the sugar factory he had worked in his youth, attracted resentment from the local authorities, especially from the head of the district authority, an extremely conservative Junker. In 1889 he was sentenced to a two-month prison term for holding an illegal meeting and in the following year he served even more time in jail for giving a speech held to be seditious.
After the expiration of the Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890, Kater had close contacts with the opposition political movement Die Jungen, which was influenced by anarchist ideas. Kater was one of the founders of the Magdeburger Volksstimme, a social democratic newspaper started soon after the sunset of the Anti-Socialist Laws. The editors of the newspaper included several adherents of Die Jungen. At the 1891 Social Democratic Party (SPD) congress, Kater voted against the expelling Die Jungen movement from the party. Nevertheless, he remained in the party and did not join the new organization formed by Die Jungen, the Association of Independent Socialists.
In 1892, Kater moved to
In 1907, after Kater refused a staff job with the centralized trade unions and declined to run as a delegate to the
Fritz Kater was instrumental in sustaining the FVdG's structures during World War I and was one of the founders of the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) after the war. He worked for the FAUD as a speaker and author, representing the trade union at various congresses of the International Workers' Association. In 1930, he resigned as chairman of the FAUD because of his age.
On May 8, 1945, Kater attempted to defuse a dud Panzerfaust shell. The shell exploded, causing burns to his face and chest. Kater died twelve days later in the hospital.
References
- ISBN 3-88215-037-8
- Fritz Kater in Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon. Retrieved July 24, 2007.