23 Facts About Walter Weidauer

Walter Weidauer was the "lord mayor" of Dresden during the most intensive period of the city's rebuilding, between 1946 and 1958.

Walter Weidauer attended school locally and then between 1914 and 1917, undertook an apprenticeship as a carpenter.

In 1929 Weidauer was elected leader of the Carpentry Trades Union in the Essen district, but he resigned three days later on account of "party factionalism" which was a feature of left-wing politics in Germany during the 1920s.

In 1934, on his release from the concentration camp, Walter Weidauer undertook further work for the Communist Party, which now counted as illegal activity.

Walter Weidauer received the conventional fifteen-year prison sentence for "Preparing to commit High Treason".

In February 1945, after the Destruction of Dresden, Walter Weidauer was part of a Prisoners' Detachment moved to the city to help make a start on clearing the residual rubble.

The end of World War II, in May 1945, heralded a return to multi-party politics and on his release Walter Weidauer rejoined the KPD.

Walter Weidauer joined the local "Anti-Fascist Committee" for the Strehlen quarter of Dresden.

The whole of the area was under Soviet Military Administration, and before the end of May 1945 Walter Weidauer had been placed in charge of regional administration for Dresden-Leuben.

Walter Weidauer justified his newly acquired power on the grounds that he possessed "proper political convictions" while condemning political opponents as reactionaries.

Walter Weidauer was one of thousands of Communist Party members who promptly signed his membership across to the new SED which would become the young country's ruling party under its ever more overtly Soviet style constitution.

In October 1947 a de-Nazification Commission was established, over which Walter Weidauer presided in person.

Walter Weidauer would be re-elected Lord Mayor and confirmed in office by the Party Central Committee in 1950,1953 and 1957, resigning eventually in 1958.

Walter Weidauer had already, in January 1946, produced a paper entitled "1946, the first year of the great rebuilding" in which he set out a proposed political framework.

Walter Weidauer himself was a proponent of "new build", and had no time for architectural treasures or the care of old memorials.

Walter Weidauer conducted a vigorous and long-running public argument with the Dresden art historian and conservationist Fritz Loffler on the issues involved.

On 3 December 1958, with the agreement of the city council, Walter Weidauer resigned as mayor.

However, on 21 January 1961 Walter Weidauer was released from this office as well, on account of serious illness.

Walter Weidauer remained a member of the Dresden city council till 1967.

Walter Weidauer retained his position in the Dresden Party Leadership and district head of the AntiFascist Resistance fighters.

Beyond his responsibilities in the city itself, Walter Weidauer sat as a member of the regional legislative assembly for Saxony, where he chaired the "Communities Committee" from 1946 till 1952 when the regional assemblies and the regional tier of government were abolished in the German Democratic Republic: this was part of a process of concentrating power within The Party that had been under way since before the country's foundation three years earlier.

Walter Weidauer found himself compelled to ideological confrontation of the "toxic role of German imperialism".

Walter Weidauer died in Dresden on 13 March 1986, aged 86.