Alexander Abusch

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Alexander Abusch (born February 14, 1902 in Krakow ; † January 27, 1982 in East Berlin ) was a politician, cultural functionary and author in the GDR .

Alexander Abusch (1967)

education

The son of a coachman attended elementary school and commercial training school in Nuremberg . From 1916 to 1919 he completed a commercial apprenticeship.

Political career

In 1916 he became a member of the Free Socialist Youth (FSJ). In 1918 Abusch joined the KPD . From 1918 to 1923 he took part in the revolutionary struggles in central Germany and was charged with high treason in 1920 and 1922. From 1921 he was the editor of various communist newspapers. From 1930 to 1932 he was editor-in-chief of the Rote Fahne . In 1931 he married Hildegard Aßmann, the daughter of the Social Democrat Richard Aßmann .

exile

After the takeover of the NSDAP Abusch fled to France. His first place of exile was Paris , where from 1934 he was editor-in-chief of the magazines Our Time , The Counter-Attack and, from 1935 to 1939, of the Rote Fahne . He was also co-editor of the Brown Book on the Reichstag fire and Hitler terror . In the Lutetia district (1935 to 1936) he was involved in the attempt to create a “ popular front ” against the Hitler dictatorship. After the invasion of German troops in France, he was interned (1939/1940). Abusch escaped from the camp and fought in the French Resistance in southern France. In 1941 he emigrated to Mexico , where, along with Paul Merker, he was one of the founders of the Free German Movement in Latin America and the National Committee for Free Germany in Mexico, where he was also editor-in-chief of the monthly magazine Free Germany until 1946 .

return

From left to right: Julius Hay , Bertolt Brecht , Ernst Legal , Alexander Abusch (1948)

In 1946 Abusch returned to Germany and joined the SED . In 1946 he became department head in the Kulturbund of the GDR and in 1948 a member of the German Economic Commission (DWK), practically the first German central government in the Soviet zone of occupation . From 1948 to 1950 he was a member of the SED party executive. In 1949 he became vice-president of the Kulturbund and a full-time employee of the central committee of the SED . In August 1950 he was temporarily dismissed from all functions in connection with the Merker affair .

Evidently since 1953 Abusch worked as a secret informator (GI Ernst) at the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. In 1956, Abusch was a member of the German Academy of Arts (DAdK) on a working committee for the further development of the GDR literary magazine Sinn und Form . In 1954 Abusch became Deputy Minister for Culture, and in 1956 also State Secretary. On February 1, 1957, he was co-opted to become a member of the Central Committee of the SED. From December 1958 to February 1961 he headed the Ministry of Culture of the GDR , from 1961 to 1971 he was the deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers responsible for culture and education. After that he was Vice President from October 1972 and Honorary President from 1975 of the Kulturbund der DDR.

As early as 1949/50 he was a member of the Provisional People's Chamber, in November 1958 he was again a member and was chairman of the Kulturbund parliamentary group for many years.

tomb

After his death, his urn was buried in the Socialist Memorial at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Alexander Abusch published under the pseudonym Ernst Reinhardt .

Honors

In 1986 a street in Berlin-Hellersdorf was named after him (since 1992 Peter-Huchel-Straße).

Fonts

The wrong path of a nation , El libro libre , 1945
  • The fight in front of the factories. A story. Association of International Publishing Establishments, Berlin 1926.
  • Brown book about the Reichstag fire and Hitler terror. (Associate Editor), Paris 1933.
  • The wrong path of a nation. A contribution to understanding German history. Mexico 1945.
  • Stalin and the questions of fate of the German nation. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1949.
  • Who are you with, masters of culture? The role of cultural workers in the struggle for peace. Berlin 1950.
  • Literature and reality. Contributions to a new German literary history. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1952.
  • Johannes R. Becher. Poet of the Nation and Peace. Berlin 1953.
  • Learn creatively from the science and art of the Soviet Union. Berlin 1953.
  • Schiller - Greatness and Tragedy of a German Genius. Berlin 1955.
  • The young artist in our time. Berlin 1956.
  • In the ideological struggle for a socialist culture. Berlin 1957.
  • Schiller's image of man and socialist humanism. Berlin 1960.
  • Our epoch requires humanists for action. Berlin 1961.
  • Cultural problems of socialist humanism. Contributions to German cultural policy. 1946-1961. Berlin 1962.
  • Johann Gottlieb Fichte and the future of the nation. Berlin 1962.
  • The national task of socialist culture in the German Democratic Republic. Berlin 1963.
  • Shakespeare. Realist and humanist, genius of world literature. Berlin 1964.
  • Twenty years of the Kulturbund in the struggle for the spiritual rebirth of the German nation. Berlin 1965.
  • Humanism and Realism in Literature. Essays , Leipzig 1966
  • The tasks of the Deutscher Kulturbund in the developed social system of socialism. Berlin 1968.
  • Tradition and Present of Socialist Humanism. Berlin 1971.
  • The alias. Memoirs. Dietz, Berlin 1981.
  • The world of Johannes R. Bechers. Works from the years 1926–1980. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1981.
  • Views on some classics. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 1982.
  • With an open visor. Memoirs. Dietz, Berlin 1986.

literature

Web links

Commons : Alexander Abusch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Abusch, Alexander
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Reinhardt, Ernst (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, writer and politician (SED), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH February 14, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Krakow
DATE OF DEATH January 27, 1982
Place of death East Berlin