Alfred Neumann

Alfred "Ali" Neumann (15 December 1909 – 8 January 2001) was an East German politician. He was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and for a short time, he was East German Minister of Materials Management. Life Neumann was born in Berlin-Schöneberg and completed training as a joiner. In 1919, he joined the worker's sport club "Fichte" ("Fir" or "Spruce"), which in 1928 became a member of the "Fighting Community for Red Sport Unity" ("Kampfgemeinschaft für Rote Sporteinheit"; KG). Neumann became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929, and in 1930, a member of the KG state leadership. Second World War In 1933-1934 he worked together with Karl Maron illegally – for Hitler had come to power by now – for the KG. In 1934, he emigrated through Sweden and Finland to the USSR, where he worked as a sport teacher. In 1938, he was expelled from the Soviet Union as he had no Soviet citizenship, and he went to Spain where he participated in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the International Brigades. In 1939, he was arrested in France and interned, in 1941, he was handed over to the Gestapo, and in 1942 he was sentenced by the Volksgerichtshof to eight years at hard labour in a Zuchthaus for high treason. In February 1945, he was transferred from Brandenburg-Görden Prison to the Dirlewanger SS penal battalion, from which he succeeded in escaping. He became a Soviet prisoner of war, however, and stayed until 1947 in several prison camps. East Germany After his return to Germany, he joined the Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands"; SED) and was an administrative staffer and an SED functionary at the district level in Berlin. In 1949, he became Secretary for Propaganda for the SED Berlin state leadership, from 1951 to 1953, he was East Berlin's acting mayor, and from 1953 to 1957, succeeding Hans Jendretzky, he was First Secretary of the Berlin SED district leadership.