Erich Akt

Erich Akt (3 July 1898 – missing 1945; declared dead 4 July 1961) was a German Nazi Party official in Gau Berlin and an SA-Oberführer in the Sturmabteilung. From 1938 to 1945 he was a member of the Reichstag. Officially listed as missing at the end of World War II in Europe, he was legally declared dead in 1961.

Early life Akt was born in Krotoschin (today, Krotoszyn) in the Prussian province of Posen. After attending Volksschule and Realschule, he volunteered for service with the Imperial German Army in the First World War. Akt served from 1914 to 1918 on both the eastern and western fronts. He was wounded twice and was awarded the Iron Cross 1st and 2nd class. After the war, Akt earned his living as an entry-level administrative assistant at the Königsberg Landratsamt (district administrative office) then becoming a bookkeeper and a bank clerk in Berlin from 1920 to 1934.

Nazi Party career On 1 November 1929, Akt became a member of the Nazi Party (membership number 160,354). From November 1930 to 1932, he was deputy section leader in the Andreasplatz neighborhood of Berlin. In 1932, he became a district training manager for the Friedrichsfelde district and, in 1933, he joined the Gauleitung (Gau leadership) under Gauleiter Joseph Goebbels as deputy head of staff of the Gau Berlin organizational department. In 1934, he advanced to Gauausbildungsleiter (Gau training manager), a post he would occupy through 1945. In 1936, he was appointed Gau Inspector (East) and, in 1938, Gau Inspector III. Akt was also active in the city government, working at the Berlin city council from 1933 to 1934, and serving as a city councilor for the Prenzlauer Berg district from 1935 to 1938.

From 10 April 1938 to the end of the Nazi regime in 1945, Akt was a deputy in the Reichstag for electoral constituency 3 (Berlin-East). During the Second World War, he performed military service from 1941 to 1943. In 1944, he was made the head of the Special Air Protection Department in the Gau Berlin leadership and also was given responsibility for the cities of Vienna, Budapest and Bucharest in the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Relief of Air War Damage, which was headed by Goebbels. In the Nazi paramilitary organization, the Sturmabteilung (SA), Akt was promoted to SA-Oberführer on 20 April 1944. After the end of the war, Akt was officially reported missing. In 1961, he was declared dead by the Prenzlauer Berg District Court with effect from 4 July 1961.