Alfred Grünberg was a worker, a member of the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

 (KPD) and a resistance fighter against the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 régime.

Life

Alfred Grünberg got involved quite early in the Communist youth movement, and in 1928, he joined the KPD in which he served as political leader of an illegal street cell in Bohnsdorf

Bohnsdorf

Bohnsdorf is a district in the borough Treptow-Köpenick of Berlin, Germany. It is located in the south-east of the city.-Position:The locality is situated in the southeastern suburb of Berlin and borders with Altglienicke, Grünau, and with the municipality of Schönefeld, in the Brandenburg district...

, a Berlin neighbourhood nowadays part of Treptow-Köpenick

Treptow-Köpenick

Treptow-Köpenick is the ninth borough of Berlin, Germany, formed in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform by merging the former boroughs of Treptow and Köpenick.-Overview:...

, until 1933. He published many leaflets for the KPD and wrote letters to doctor

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

s and other professional people warning them about Hitler and his henchmen, and touting freedom

Freedom (political)

Political freedom is a central philosophy in Western history and political thought, and one of the most important features of democratic societies...

.

After the KPD was banned in 1933 after Hitler and the Nazis came to power

Machtergreifung

Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...

, he busied himself between 1936 and 1938 as a courier between Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

 for the KPD's political leadership in exile. As Grünberg was coming back to Bohnsdorf from Prague shortly before Christmas

Christmas

Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...

 in 1938, he hid some writings that he had brought along at a feed dealer's, so that he could later hand them out on Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...

 to those to whose letterboxes they were destined, dressed as Santa Claus

Santa Claus

Santa Claus is a folklore figure in various cultures who distributes gifts to children, normally on Christmas Eve. Each name is a variation of Saint Nicholas, but refers to Santa Claus...

 (or Father Christmas

Father Christmas

Father Christmas is the name used in many English-speaking countries for a figure associated with Christmas. A similar figure with the same name exists in several other countries, including France , Spain , Brazil , Portugal , Italy , Armenia , India...

). After the war broke out in 1939, Grünberg was politically active at the Siemens

Siemens AG

Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....

 works. He was arrested many times, but for good in February 1940. In January 1941, he was given a prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

 term of 15 months.

On 10 January 1942, he was sentenced to death at the Volksgerichtshof for high treason

High treason

High treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps...

, along with Kurt Steffelbauer and Johann Gloger, and on 21 May 1942, he was hanged

Hanging

Hanging is the lethal suspension of a person by a ligature. The Oxford English Dictionary states that hanging in this sense is "specifically to put to death by suspension by the neck", though it formerly also referred to crucifixion and death by impalement in which the body would remain...

 at Plötzensee

Plötzensee

Plötzensee is a small glacial lake in Berlin. It is situated near the Rehberge public park in the former borough of Wedding, now a part of Mitte. The name stems from Plötze, one name for the roach in German, as the lake formerly teemed with it....

 Prison in Berlin.

Grünberg lived on Schönefelder Straße, which today bears the name Grünbergallee in his honour.

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