Josef Felder; Voted Against Nazi Takeover

Josef Felder, 100, the last surviving German legislator who voted against the 1933 law handing the Nazis control of the country. Felder was hailed on his 100th birthday two months ago by German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder as a “fighter for democracy and freedom.” Felder, who joined the Social Democrats at age 20, was first elected to the German Parliament in 1932. On March 23, 1933, he was one of 94 legislators who voted against the law ceding the Reichstag’s powers to Adolf Hitler’s Cabinet and sanctioning the Nazi totalitarian state. Felder wrote about that momentous session in a book soon to be published: “Why I Said No.” Despite Nazi persecution, Felder attempted to remain in the legislature, but his last session was May 17, 1933. After the Nazis banned the Social Democrats in July, Felder fled to Austria, working with the underground under an assumed name. A year later, he fled to Czechoslovakia. But unable to get his family out of Germany, he returned to Bavaria and was imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp near Munich for nearly two years. After the war, Felder worked as an accountant and head of the Suedost Kurier newspaper in Bad Reichenhall, gradually returning to politics. He was elected to the West German legislature in Bonn in 1957 and remained in office until 1969. Ten years ago, after the reunification of Germany, Felder was the only member of the nation’s prewar Parliament to attend the opening session of its new one. On Saturday in Munich.