He was a
railroad worker and journalist who
publicized Naziatrocities through the
underground Communistpress
and fought against National
Socialism in the German Resistance.
He was a key member of the Red Orchestra.
He
returned to the Detroit and met his future wife, Sophie, in 1924, while working
as a college intern. He stayed in the United States until February 1928, when
Sieg and his wife returned to Germany and he became a freelance author in Berlin He began writing articles for Die Tat, a
newspaper published by Adam Kuckhoff.
After joining the Communist Party
of Germany that same year, he began to write for the arts
section of the KPD newspaper, Die Rote Fahne and
he got to know Wilhelm Guddorf and Martin Weise.
He was arrested by
the Sturmabteilung (storm
troopers) in March 1933 and held till June. Upon his release, he began working
with the Communist Resistance in the Berlin suburb of Neukölln,
becoming the focal point of several groups. He had close contact with Arvid Harnack and
Kuckhoff. He took part in leafletting campaigns and shared political
information. In 1937, he got a job with the Deutsche
Reichsbahn, eventually working as a signaller at the S-Bahn station at Papestraße. As a
railroad employee, Sieg was able to make use of work-related travel and free
travel to build connections with other Resistance groups, such as the one
organized around Bernhard Bästlein.[1]
He worked with Herbert Grasse, Otto Grabowski and the Saefkow-Jacob-Bästlein Organization to produce the
newspaper, Die Innere Front (The Internal Front).[1] He was a core member of the Rote Kapelle,
along with Guddorf and Kuckhoff.
He was arrested on
October 11, 1942 and was taken to the Gestapo prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Straße,
where he endured intensive interrogations and abuse. The previous spring, he
had confided to a friend that if he were ever arrested, he would commit suicide
rather than risk betraying friends. On October 15, 1942, following severe
mistreatment, he hanged himself in his cell
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