Born in the Kingdom of Bohemia, Bräutigam joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and was a member of a local resistance movement during World War II.

Bräutigam, the son of a miner, was born on 28 April 1916 in Grünlas, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today Loučky, part of Nové Sedlo, Czech Republic).

At the start of World War II in September 1939, he was drafted back into the Wehrmacht and served in an artillery regiment.

[1][2] After the war, he was head of the Antifa Office in Neusattl and served in the Czechoslovak police force in 1945/1946.

[5][6] The Niederschlema mining disaster, with 33 dead and over 100 injured, and subsequent cover-up happened during his tenure.

[1][2][7][8][9] Fischer was demoted to chairman of the Bezirk Erfurt SED Party Control Commission.

[11] In the 1960s, he also was a member of the National Defense Council of the GDR,[1][12] likely due to the significant northwestern border of Bezirk Erfurt with West Germany, though he had to leave in 1972.

[1] In April 1980, Bräutigam had to announce his resignation,[1][7][13] officially for health reasons, following massive internal criticism that had been anonymously directed at Erich Mückenberger, then the Chairman of the Central Party Control Commission.