Fritz Kater was a German trade unionist active in the Free Association of German Trade Unions and its successor organization, the Free Workers' Union of Germany.
15 Facts About Fritz Kater
2.
The son of a farmhand, Kater was born in 1861 in Barleben.
3.
Fritz Kater's mother died when he was two years old.
4.
Only during the winter did Fritz Kater have spare time to read and educate himself.
5.
Fritz Kater joined the mason's trade union in Magdeburg in 1883 at a time when the Anti-Socialist Laws forbade most union activities.
6.
Fritz Kater came into contact with socialists from Berlin and Hamburg soon becoming a socialist himself under their influence.
7.
Fritz Kater soon began spending much of his spare time reading illegal socialist literature, and became active in the union's clandestine activities.
8.
In 1887, Fritz Kater joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
9.
Fritz Kater was one of the founders of the Magdeburger Volksstimme, a social democratic newspaper started soon after the sunset of the Anti-Socialist Laws.
10.
At the 1891 Social Democratic Party congress, Fritz Kater voted against the expelling Die Jungen movement from the party.
11.
Fritz Kater became the first chairman of the federation's Business Commission.
12.
In 1907, after Fritz Kater refused a staff job with the centralized trade unions and declined to run as a delegate to the Reichstag delegate, he left the SPD.
13.
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 after the war.
14.
Fritz Kater worked for the FAUD as a speaker and author, representing the trade union at various congresses of the International Workers' Association.
15.
On May 8,1945, Fritz Kater attempted to defuse a dud bazooka shell.