Hanns Maaßen

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Hanns Maaßen (born December 26, 1908 as Otto Johannes Maaßen in Lübeck , † June 23, 1983 in Mahlow ), son of Otto Friedrich and Maria Magdalena, born Hiller, was a German journalist and writer .

Life

Hanns Maaßen came from a working-class family. He completed an apprenticeship as a stonemason in Lübeck and then worked in this profession. He was a member of the Communist Youth Association of Germany and from 1928 the KPD . From the end of 1928 to the end of 1930 he worked as the district manager of the “Socialist Schools Association”. In 1931 he took part in a protest strike by the stone workers' association in Kiel against the incipient rearmament; The occasion was the launch of the Deutschland . Maaßen was editor of the communist Norddeutsche Zeitung . He then worked as an editorial assistant for the Hamburger Volkszeitung , the Klassekampf in Halle a / S. and the Arbeiterzeitung in Mannheim. After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, he went underground , but was arrested that same year and spent a year in the Heuberg concentration camp (Baden) . In February 1934 he was released from the concentration camp and lived under the false name Fritz Mertens in Mannheim and Berlin. In 1935 he left Germany and emigrated via the Saarland and France to Switzerland, where he lived in Basel, but was not granted political asylum.

After he had worked as a journalist for the “Committee for Law and Freedom” in Zurich , Maassen took part in the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side as a member of the “ International Brigades ” from November 1936 . He was a commissioner in the Chapayev battalion and editor of the German-language edition of the newspaper of the international brigades El voluntario de la libertad and in 1938/39 also spokesman for the German-language "Freiheitsender 29.8". After the defeat of the Republicans in 1939, Maassen was arrested and spent the following years in prisons and camps of the Franco regime . He was only able to return to Germany in 1946; he settled in the Soviet zone of occupation .

Hanns Maaßen became a member of the SED and initially worked as a commentator at Sender Leipzig , where he was dismissed in 1950 because of “left deviations”. From 1953 to 1966 he was an editor at the Leipzig magazine Volkskunst . As editor in chief, he was responsible for the specialist editions Wort und Spiel (1956–1961) and I write (1962–1966). From 1968 to 1971 he was deputy editor-in-chief of the GDR weekly newspaper Sonntag . From 1963 until his death he was a member of the board of the GDR Writers' Association . From 1971 he lived as a freelance writer in Kleinmachnow .

Hanns Maaßen wrote essays on literary topics and narrative works in which he a. a. processed the experiences of his long stay in Spain.

Hanns Maaßen received the Heinrich Mann Prize in 1957, the Bronze Patriotic Order of Merit in 1959, the Leipzig City Art Prize in 1960, the Silver Patriotic Order of Merit in 1969, the FDGB Art Prize and the Gold Patriotic Order of Merit in 1979 .

Works

  • The Barcelo Fair , Halle (Saale) 1956
  • The sons of Chapayev , Berlin 1960
  • The baptism of the cruiser , Berlin 1963
  • Spain , Leipzig 1965
  • Potsdam , Leipzig 1969
  • In the hour of danger , Berlin 1971
  • Memorial of the German Interbrigadists , Berlin 1974
  • A sharp wind blows from the Heuberg , Berlin 1978
Editing
  • Odio y amor , Leipzig 1967 (together with Karl Kormes)
  • Brigada Internacional is our honorary name ... , Berlin
    • Vol. 1 (1974)
    • Vol. 2 (1974)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ State Archive Basel-Stadt Signature: PD-REG 3a 22809 ( [1] )
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland , May 26, 1963, p. 4.
personal data
SURNAME Maassen, Hanns
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maaßen, Otto Johannes (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH December 26, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1983
Place of death Kleinmachnow