Doctor, Arthur Georg

Educator, politician

Born: 09.10.1880 in Reichenbach (Vogtland)

died: 22.05.1953 in Wiesbaden

Even while working as a primary school teacher in Dresden, among other places, Arzt became politically active and joined the left-liberal Progressive People's Party under Friedrich Naumann. He took part in the First World War as a non-commissioned officer.

During the November Revolution of 1918, he was a member and chairman of the soldiers' council of an army corps in the east and joined the SPD. From 1919-28, he was a member of the Saxon state parliament and campaigned in particular for new school legislation. He also served as district school inspector and district school inspector in Dresden until 1927. Arzt was particularly involved in the teachers' movement, including on the board of the Saxon Teachers' Association.

From 1928-33, he was a member of the Reichstag for constituency 28, where he was regarded as a rousing speaker who was feared by his political opponents. With the SPD parliamentary group, he voted against the Enabling Act in 1933. Shortly afterwards, he decided to emigrate.

He initially found refuge in Czechoslovakia; in 1938 he was in Paris and from 1939 in England, where he was interned as an "enemy" foreigner on the Isle of Man until December 1940. He returned to Germany in October 1946 and lived in Wiesbaden from 1947, where he worked in the Ministry of Culture, most recently as a senior government councillor.

As a freelance writer, he wrote numerous articles on school issues. His experiences as a leading politician in Saxony during the Weimar Republic with the KPD had made him an uncompromising opponent of communism.

Arzt found his final resting place in the Südfriedhof cemetery.