Friedrich Schlotterbeck

Friedrich Schlotterbeck was a German author, playwright, writer of radio plays, and local leader of the German Resistance (January 9, 1909 - April 7, 1979). Born in Reutlingen, Baden-Württemberg, as the son of a metal worker, he joined the KJD, the German Communist Youth Party, in 1923, and the KPD (the Communist Party of Germany) in 1927. He studied in Moskou from 1929 to 1930, returned to organize groups against the Nazis, and was arrested by the Nazi govermnent. He was held in various concentration camps from 1934 to 1943, when he was released from the Welzheim concentration camp. He continued his anti-Nazi activities with the Widerstandsgruppe Luginsland, but the group was captured by the authorities and transported to Dachau, where all captured members were summarily executed, including Schlotterbeck's entire family (except for a three-year old boy) and his fiance, Else Himmelheber, on November 30, 1944. Schlotterbeck managed to flee to Switzerland. [http://baseportal.de/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/jarmerdhm/main&localparams=1&db=main&cmd=list&range=0,10&Name~=Schlotterbeck&cmd=all&Id=136] [ [http://www.vvn.telebus.de/anachric/2005/01/01h.htm VVN-BdA Baden-Württemberg - ANACHRIC/2005/01/ 01h.htm ] ]

After 1945 he led the VVN, an association of victims of Nazi-persecution, in US-occupied Württemberg-Baden. He moved to Dresden in 1948 and was active in low-level political functions, but was removed from the SED, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, in 1951, and imprisoned from 1953 to 1956. Author of an autobiograpy, "Je dunkler die Nacht, desto heller die Sterne: Erinnerungen eines deutschen arbeiters 1933-1945" (1945), and "Im Rosengarten von Sanssouci" (1968). [ [http://www.literaturport.de/index.php?id=26&no_cache=1&user_autorenlexikonfrontend_pi1%5Bal_opt%5D=1&user_autorenlexikonfrontend_pi1%5Bal_aid%5D=1786 Literaturport.de - Lexikon - (Albert) Friedrich Schlotterbeck ] ] His autobiography was translated by Edward Fitzgerald as "The Darker The Night, The Brighter The Stars: A German Worker Remembers (1933-1945)" (London: Gollancz, 1947).

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