# Alfred Faust > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alfred_Faust > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Alfred_Faust.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Faust > Source revision: 1344594946 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) **Alfred Faust** (15 December 1883, [Soultzmatt](/source/Soultzmatt) – 14 June 1961, [Bremen](/source/Bremen)) was a German advertising executive, journalist, editor, and left-wing politician. ## Biography Born in [Alsace](/source/Alsace) (today part of France) in 1883, Faust was the son of a master plumber and winemaker. He had a business education, and an apprenticeship in printing, as well as attending a [Catholic](/source/Catholic_Church) seminar in Belgium. In his youth he did military service, graduating as a [Grenadier](/source/Grenadier) in Berlin, going on to teach [French](/source/French_language) from 1905 on. From 1909 to 1914 Faust was a journalist, later working with advertisement for the company [Café HAG](/source/Caf%C3%A9_HAG), working in [Bremen](/source/Bremen). Between 1914 and 1918, Faust was called into the [Imperial German Army](/source/Imperial_German_Army), and fought in the [First World War](/source/First_World_War). In 1917, before the war's end, he joined the [Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany](/source/Independent_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) (USPD), a left-wing split from the [Social Democratic Party of Germany](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) (SPD). When the war ended in 1918, he became heavily involved in radical politics, joining the December [Reich Council Congress](/source/German_workers'_and_soldiers'_councils_1918%E2%80%931919#Reich_Congress_of_Workers'_and_Soldiers'_Councils) (German: *Reichsrätekongress*) in Berlin. Returning to Bremen, he joined the government of the brief [Bremen Soviet Republic](/source/Bremen_Soviet_Republic) (existing between January and February 1919). He was selected by the city's [workers' and soldiers' council](/source/German_workers'_and_soldiers'_councils_1918%E2%80%931919) to serve as People's Commissar of press and propaganda, together with [Curt Stoermer](/source/Curt_Stoermer). He also served as editor of the *[Bremer Bürger-Zeitung](/source/Bremer_B%C3%BCrger-Zeitung)*, which had been occupied by the workers. After the defeat of the Bremen Soviet Republic at the hands of the Army and [Freikorps Caspari](/source/Freikorps_Caspari), he became chief editor of the *Bremer Arbeiterzeitung*. In March 1919 he became a member of the Bremen National Assembly, serving as a deputy of the [Bürgerschaft of Bremen](/source/B%C3%BCrgerschaft_of_Bremen) from 1920 to 1933. In 1922 he joined the SDP, after the USDP was merged with it once more. Faust became an editor of the *Bremer Volkszeitung*, led by [Wilhelm Kaisen](/source/Wilhelm_Kaisen), becoming its chief editor in 1928. Elected to the [Reichstag](/source/Reichstag_(Weimar_Republic)) after the [November 1932 federal election](/source/November_1932_German_federal_election), it was not until March 1933 that his seat was confirmed. The same month, after the rise of the [Nazi Party](/source/Nazi_Party) and [Adolf Hitler](/source/Adolf_Hitler), he helped the fellow SDP politician [Rudolf Breitscheid](/source/Rudolf_Breitscheid) escape to [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland), but returned to Bremen himself. A month later, on 28 April, he was put in "[protective custody](/source/Protective_custody_(Nazi_Germany))" by the *[Sturmabteilung](/source/Sturmabteilung)* (SA), and held in *KZ Mißler*, an early [concentration camp](/source/Nazi_concentration_camps) in Bremen that later also held his fellow Bremen Soviet Republic politician [Hermann Böse](/source/Hermann_B%C3%B6se). Later placed in other detention centers, Faust was strongly physically abused by his captors, especially in *KZ Mißler*.[1] He spent time in prison until 1934, when he was released from jail and expelled from Bremen, settling in Berlin. He worked for [Ludwig Roselius](/source/Ludwig_Roselius), conservative founder of his previous employer Café HAG, at the *Angelsachsenverlag*. [Barbara Goette](/source/Barbara_Goette) worked and corresponded extensively with Faust in Berlin. Her son Ludwig Leidig sold 80 items of their correspondence to the Bremen State archives in 1998.[2] When the publisher was closed in 1944, he fled to his native Alsace, working as an editor in [Mulhouse](/source/Mulhouse) until 1949. In August 1949 Faust returned to Bremen again, rejoining the *Angelsachsenverlag*. From 11 July 1950 on until his death he was head of the press office of the [Senate of Bremen](/source/Senate_of_Bremen). After his death in 1961, the a street was named for him in the Obervieland district of Bremen: *Alfred-Faust-Straße*. ## References 1. Wollenberg, Jörg. ["Vom Freiwilligen Arbeitsdienst zum Konzentrationslager"](http://www.akens.org/akens/texte/info/36/3.html) (in German). *www.akens.org*. Retrieved 11 September 2014. 1. Leidig, Ludwig. Bombshell. sbpra 2013. ISBN 978-1-62516-346-2 ## Bibliography - *Der Freiheit verpflichtet. Gedenkbuch der deutschen Sozialdemokratie im 20. Jahrhundert* (in German). Marburg: [Social Democratic Party of Germany](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany). 2000. p. 92. - Kloos, Werner (1980). *Bremer Lexikon* (in German). Bremen: Hauschild. pp. 143–144. - Roselius, Kurt (1969). *Bremische Biographie 1912–1962* (in German). Bremen: Hauschild. - Schwarzwälder, Herbert (2003). *[Das Große Bremen-Lexikon](/source/Das_Gro%C3%9Fe_Bremen-Lexikon)* (in German). Bremen: Edition Temmen. ISBN 3-86108-693-X. --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alfred Faust](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Faust) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Faust?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.