Arthur Lieberasch

Arthur Lieberasch (2 November 1881 – 10 June 1967) was a Communist trades union official who became a member of the Parliament of Saxony ("Sächsischer Landtag") and, after 1933 an anti-government resistance activist.

Life Provenance and early years Arthur Lieberasch was born in Döbeln, the third of his parents' ten children. His father, a tool-maker by trade, worked in the town's cigar factory. Strikes broke out in various cities in response to the food crisis: Leipzig was exceptional for the extent to which conservative elements in the Social Democratic mainstream collaborated with the authorities to frustrate the strikers, reflecting the particularly stark divisions in the city between moderates and radicals on the political left. Lieberasch's role as a strike leader led to his being charged with High Treason. However, the revolutionary outbursts in the German ports and cities directly after the war left the authorities with more urgent priorities, and his case never went to trial. Meanwhile, comrades tempted to make contact with Arthur Lieberasch after 1952 risked party sanctions including, in some cases, exclusion from the party for themselves.

By 1957, taking its queue somewhat belatedly from Comrade Khrushchev, the East German government implemented a cautious amount of De-Stalinization during the course of which Arthur Lieberasch was readmitted to the party. During 1958 he was awarded the Medal for Fighters Against Fascism, which had initially been withheld from him.

Arthur Lieberasch died in Leipzig on 10 June 1967.