Walter Krämer

Walter Kraemer (Krämer) (; 21 June 1892 – 6 November 1941) was a German politician of the German Communist Party (KPD) and member of the resistance against Nazism. From 1932/33, he was a deputy of the Prussian Landtag, was arrested in 1933 and murdered in 1941 in a sub-camp of the concentration camp Buchenwald in Goslar. He assisted prisoners with getting medical help, becoming known as the "Doctor of Buchenwald", for which he received from the State of Israel the posthumous title "Righteous among the Nations" in 2000. Early life Kraemer was a professional locksmith and, from 1910 volunteered to serve in the Imperial German Navy. At the end of the First World War, he was detained for his involvement in the mutiny of revolutionary sailors in Kiel. Freed by the November Revolution, Kraemer returned in 1918 to Siegen, where he was active in the workers' and soldiers committee. He joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and took part in March 1920 in the fighting in the wake of the Kapp Putsch on the side of the Ruhr Red Army, in which he served as a section commander. Towards the end of 1920, he joined the Communist Party, and was organisation secretary in the subdistrict - he scored victories and from 1923 to 1925, he represented the Communist Party in the city council. He worked as district secretary in Krefeld, Wuppertal, Kassel and Hanover. From 1932-33 he was a member of the Prussian Landtag. He was next to Fritz Fränken (KPD) and Fritz Fries (SPD) as one of three leaders in the Weimar state parliament of the political left. In May 1932, Kraemer was seriously injured in an attack by Nazi deputy members on the KPD Group. Kraemer was a member of the German Peace Society (DFG).