Hermann Matern

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Hermann Matern, 1957

Hermann Matern (born June 17, 1893 in Burg , † January 24, 1971 in Berlin ) was a German politician of the KPD and SED .

Life

Political career

As the son of a social democratic worker, he completed an apprenticeship as a tanner from 1907 to 1911 after attending elementary school and then went on a journey as a journeyman. In 1907 he joined the socialist youth workers , in 1910 the German agricultural workers' association and in 1911 the SPD . In 1914 he resigned from the SPD in protest against the approval of war credits . During the First World War he was a soldier in France .

In 1918 he joined the USPD and was a participant in the November Revolution and a member of the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council . Here he was elected commander of the guard regiment in Magdeburg . From 1919 to 1926 he worked as a tanner in Burg, became a member of the KPD and was KPD chairman in Burg, works council chairman , honorary city ​​council and from 1926 to 1928 KPD trade union secretary. He was a member of the Gau Board and the Reich Tariff Commission of the German Leather Workers' Association. From 1928 to 1929 he attended the International Lenin School in Moscow and was then political director of the KPD in Magdeburg for Magdeburg-Anhalt until 1931 and then until 1933 political director of the East Prussia district . In 1932 and 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament .

In February 1933 he took part in the conference convened by the Central Committee of the KPD in the sports store Ziegenhals near Berlin . From April 1933 he headed the illegal Pomeranian district party organization .

Arrest, escape, exile

He was arrested in July 1933. In September 1934 he managed to escape from the Stettin - Altdamm prison . He emigrated to Czechoslovakia , then via Switzerland to France . It was here in 1935 that he met his future wife Jenny , who followed him from then on and also became a politician. In the Lutetia district (1935 to 1936) he was involved in the attempt to create a popular front against the Nazi regime . His escape took him on via Belgium to the Netherlands , Norway and finally Sweden . In the spring of 1941 he moved to Moscow . He became a member of the National Committee for Free Germany . Later he was a teacher at the Central Antifa School in Krasnogorsk .

return

Hermann Matern, 1949

On May 1, 1945 he returned to Germany with Anton Ackermann's group . He was one of the signatories of the programmatic appeal of the Central Committee of the KPD of June 11, 1945. Until 1946 he was the first secretary of the district leadership of Saxony of the KPD and after the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet occupation zone from 1946 to 1948, together with Karl Litke, chairman of the regional association of Greater Berlin of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From 1946 to 1950 he was a member of the central secretariat of the party executive, from October 21, 1948 chairman of the Central Party Control Commission (ZPKK) and from 1950 a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED . In the Politburo, he was responsible for controlling the “Traffic Department” of the Central Committee, which was responsible for the secret links to the KPD in West Germany, which was illegal from 1955, and later to the DKP, and for the financing of these parties. As one of the leading politicians he took part in the Marxist-Leninist orientation of the SED.

Hermann Matern (left) and Max Reimann at the 5th party congress of the SED, 1958

As deputy chairman of the committee for the conclusion of a peace treaty with Germany (later called peace committee ) in the German People's Council, he helped to formulate it. In the People's Congress movement , he took part in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd People's Congress. He headed the Volkskammer delegation to the German Bundestag, which suggested ways to achieve an all-German understanding. The delegation was received by the President of the Bundestag Hermann Ehlers on September 19, 1952 , but the suggestions were not answered.

From 1949 he was a member of the Provisional People's Chamber , from 1950 to 1954 as vice-president, then as first deputy of the president and from 1957 to 1960 as chairman of the standing committee for the local representations. He was a member of the National Defense Council of the GDR .

Matern had been a member of the FIR General Council since 1963 .

Matern was convinced of the SED's claim to leadership. At the 7th All-German Workers' Conference in Leipzig in 1958, he said:

“To have state power in your hands is a big deal. [...] We never think of giving up workers 'and peasants' power again. We will not allow anyone to run for election who wants to rebuild capitalism. [...] That is why there is no opposition based on bourgeois ideas. "

- Hermann Matern : Neues Deutschland from March 18, 1958

Matern's urn was buried in the memorial of the socialists in the central cemetery Friedrichsfelde in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Awards and honors

Grave slab at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin

The German Post of the GDR issued a special stamp on the occasion of his 80th birthday on June 13, 1973 .

The rolling mill operated today by Walzwerk Burg GmbH , the VEB axle, spring and forge works "Hermann Matern" in Roßwein (integrated in the IFA combine) and the transformer and X-ray plant (TuR) in Dresden (formerly Koch & Sterzel AG) bore the name Materns, as did the VEB strip steel combine "Hermann Matern" in Eisenhüttenstadt and the Reichsbahn repair shop in Cottbus (now DB vehicle maintenance). In the small town of Annaberg-Buchholz in the Ore Mountains , a prefabricated housing estate ("Hermann Matern residential area") bore his name. In Halberstadt , too , a prefabricated residential area was called "Hermann-Matern-Ring".

Many streets and schools bore the name of Hermann Materns. The Luis street in Berlin contributed from 1971 to 1991 his name. In Möckern in Saxony-Anhalt , in Wilthen in Saxony, as well as in the Brandenburg towns of Neuruppin and Neuhardenberg and in Bergen on Rügen , there are still streets named after him. The pioneer house in Magdeburg was named after him. In his hometown of Burg there was a district cultural center with the name Hermann-Matern-Haus until the beginning of the 1990s , which is now called Stadthalle Burg after renovations. The Matern monument in front of it was removed after the fall of the Wall in the GDR.

The 8th Fighter Squadron of the Air Force of the National People's Army (LSK / LV) in Marxwalde had had his name since 1972, as did the technical school of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR in Heyrothsberge .

A memorial plaque on the enclosure of Wackerbarth Castle still commemorates the meeting of Soviet politicians and military personnel ( Anastas Mikojan and Iwan Konew ) with German politicians (Hermann Matern, Kurt Fischer and Rudolf Friedrichs ) in May 1945.

Fonts

  • Berlin and Germany. Talk about problems of the time. Berlin, 1947.
  • 1947 the year of the greatest decisions. Our tasks in the new year. Speech at the SED functionaries' conference on January 5, 1947. Berlin 1947.
  • The way. Peace, freedom, prosperity. Berlin 1948.
  • The role of Ernst Thalmann in the creation of the revolutionary mass party of the working class. Presentation a. d. Propagandist Conference d. Propaganda Department at the Central Committee of the SED on July 14th and 15th, 1951 in Berlin. Berlin 1951.
  • Broad development of criticism and self-criticism. Contribution to the discussion at the 2nd party conference of the SED, Berlin, 9. – 12. July 1952. Berlin 1952.
  • (Ed.): White Book on the General War Treaty. Leipzig 1952.
  • About the implementation of the decision of the Central Committee of the SED “Lessons from the trial against the Slansky conspiracy center ”. 13th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED, 13.-14. May 1953. Berlin 1953.
  • The unwavering unity and unity of the party - source of its power and victories! Report of the Central Party Control Commission at the IVth Party Congress of the SED from March 30 to April 6, 1954. Berlin 1954.
  • Germany in the period of the Great Depression 1929–1933. The struggle of the Communist Party of Germany for the unity of action of the working class against the danger of fascism and war. Berlin 1956.
  • Germany in the period of relative stabilization of capitalism 1924–1929. The struggle of the German proletariat under the leadership of the KPD against the resurgence of German imperialism. Berlin 1956.
  • Erich Weinert : The National Committee Free Germany 1943–1945. Report on its activities and its impact. With a foreword by Hermann Matern. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1957.
  • From the life and struggle of the German labor movement. Dietz, Berlin 1958.
  • The party congress of the SPD and the policy of the SED to establish the unity of action of the German working class in the fight against nuclear armament and for the formation of a confederation of the two German states. Berlin 1958.
  • In the struggle for peace, democracy and socialism. Selected speeches and writings. Berlin 1963.

literature

Web links

Commons : Hermann Matern  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Communiqué of the 14th session. In: New Germany . October 22, 1948, p. 1.
predecessor Office successor
–––– Chairwoman of the Central Party Control Commission of the SED
1948–1971 		Erich Mückenberger
personal data
SURNAME Matern, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPD, SED), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH June 17, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Castle
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1971
Place of death Berlin