Otto Gehler was born into a working-class family in Aschersleben in 1894. He was seriously wounded as a soldier in World War I. In 1919, he became one of the founding members of the Spartacus League in Aschersleben. From 1921 onwards, he was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
Otto Gehler was briefly imprisoned in 1933 because of his political activities. He was arrested again in 1934 and sentenced to prison for his illegal activity in the KPD. After serving his sentence, he was transferred to the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. When his son was killed in action as a Wehrmacht soldier, he applied for release from the concentration camp, which the SS granted him in 1944. He then worked at the Junkers aircraft factory in Aschersleben, where he was responsible for providing medical care to 500 Soviet forced labourers. Under pressure from the Gestapo, Gehler wrote a report on the mood at the factory.
After the war, the Americans appointed him as the police chief of Aschersleben. The Soviet occupation authorities appointed him as the mayor in July 1945. On 22 October 1945, he was arrested by the Soviet secret service. He was accused of having been a Gestapo agent after his release from a concentration camp. Otto Gehler was initially sent to the Special Camp No. 1 in Mühlhausen and later transferred to the Special Camp No. 2 in Buchenwald. In 1950, he was sentenced to ten years in prison by the GDR judiciary in the course of the “Waldheim Trials.” He was released early in 1952.
The SED rehabilitated him in 1956, and he became a member of the SED. Otto Gehler died in Aschersleben on 30 October 1958.
The SS categorized Otto Gehler as a “repeat protective custody prisoner” (R. Sch.) because he had been arrested two times.
