Location
Kreutzigerstr. 28
District
Friedrichshain
Stone was laid
05 July 2008
Born
02 July 1883 in Fraustadt (Posen) / Wschowa
Occupation
Buchdrucker, Stadtverordneter
Murdered
13 June 1937 in Berlin
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Stolpersteine für Fritz Thurm © Koordinierungsstelle Stolpersteine Berlin
When he came back after his release he had lost all his top teeth due to beatings and had also been kicked in the groin. [...] Several thousand party comrades came to escort his coffin: a sign of how well known and popular my husband was.
Helene Thurm, 1951
Fritz Thurm was a printer and son of a master tailor He joined the SPD in 1905. In 1913 he was employed by the AOK health insurance company in Lichtenberg, before it was incorporated into Berlin. He fought in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 and left the SPD for the USPD. In 1919, he was voted in to Lichtenberg council, which elected him a salaried city councillor and second district mayor. However, his appointment was not approved by the senior president of Brandenburg province. Thurm rejoined the SPD in 1922, and in 1926 he was re-elected salaried city councillor in Lichtenberg. This time the senior president approved his appointment. The Lichtenberg section of the Nazi Party tried in vain to win Thurm over to its cause. In March 1933 he was dismissed from the city council for political reasons. He joined a resistance group made up of former SPD members whose main activity was distributing banned writings. He was arrested in autumn 1933 and released the following spring. He was unable to find employment. In January 1936, a demonstration was planned at the grave of Karl Liebknecht in Lichterfelde cemetery, in spite of the Nazis’ ban on commemorating Liebknecht, who had been murdered 17 years earlier. The demonstration was cancelled after someone informed the authorities but Thurm went to the cemetery anyway. There, he encountered only Gestapo officers. The next night the Gestapo came to search his house and told Helene Thurm her husband had been arrested. He was detained in Berlin and in Lichtenburg concentration camp. In October 1936 he was brought back to Berlin to be tried in Moabit. Despite being acquitted, he was not released until 17.4.1937. He died eight weeks later as a result of the severe physical abuse he had suffered.
Fritz Thurm was a city councillor 1920 -1921, Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (USPD),;1922, Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (USPD/SPD); 1923 – 1926 Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (SPD)
Helene Thurm, 1951
Fritz Thurm was a printer and son of a master tailor He joined the SPD in 1905. In 1913 he was employed by the AOK health insurance company in Lichtenberg, before it was incorporated into Berlin. He fought in the First World War from 1915 to 1918 and left the SPD for the USPD. In 1919, he was voted in to Lichtenberg council, which elected him a salaried city councillor and second district mayor. However, his appointment was not approved by the senior president of Brandenburg province. Thurm rejoined the SPD in 1922, and in 1926 he was re-elected salaried city councillor in Lichtenberg. This time the senior president approved his appointment. The Lichtenberg section of the Nazi Party tried in vain to win Thurm over to its cause. In March 1933 he was dismissed from the city council for political reasons. He joined a resistance group made up of former SPD members whose main activity was distributing banned writings. He was arrested in autumn 1933 and released the following spring. He was unable to find employment. In January 1936, a demonstration was planned at the grave of Karl Liebknecht in Lichterfelde cemetery, in spite of the Nazis’ ban on commemorating Liebknecht, who had been murdered 17 years earlier. The demonstration was cancelled after someone informed the authorities but Thurm went to the cemetery anyway. There, he encountered only Gestapo officers. The next night the Gestapo came to search his house and told Helene Thurm her husband had been arrested. He was detained in Berlin and in Lichtenburg concentration camp. In October 1936 he was brought back to Berlin to be tried in Moabit. Despite being acquitted, he was not released until 17.4.1937. He died eight weeks later as a result of the severe physical abuse he had suffered.
Fritz Thurm was a city councillor 1920 -1921, Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (USPD),;1922, Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (USPD/SPD); 1923 – 1926 Constituency 14 Lichtenberg (SPD)