Karl Mewis

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Karl Mewis (1960)

Karl Mewis (born November 22, 1907 in Hann. Münden ; † June 16, 1987 in East Berlin ) was a resistance fighter against National Socialism, interbrigadist, SED functionary and chairman of the State Planning Commission in the GDR .

Life

Mewis completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith on the railroad. He joined the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) in 1922 , the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) in 1923 and the KPD in 1924 . From 1925 to 1928 he was chairman of the KJVD Hessen-Waldeck and from 1929 to 1932 organizational secretary of the KPD district leadership in Magdeburg-Anhalt.

From 1932 to 1934 Mewis attended the International Lenin School in Moscow , after which he worked illegally for the KPD as the political leader of the Wasserkante party district until 1936 . He became a candidate in 1935 and a member of the Central Committee of the KPD in 1939 . In 1936 he emigrated to Denmark , from where he headed the "Section Head North" of the illegal KPD. At the end of 1936 Mewis went to France . He then succeeded Franz Dahlem from 1937 to 1938 in the management of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War . In April 1937 he worked as a high-ranking Comintern representative in Barcelona . From May 1938 he was head of the "KPD Section Headquarters" in Prague . After the occupation of the Czech Republic by the National Socialists, he fled to Stockholm via Denmark . There Mewis was initially the head of the new "KPD Section Management Center". In the autumn of 1939 he was summoned to Moscow. He was commissioned to work with Herbert Wehner and Heinrich Wiatrek to set up a new state leadership of the KPD in Sweden, which should coordinate illegal activities in the German Reich. Then there were considerable conflicts and arguments with Herbert Wehner.

After Herbert Wehner and Heinrich Wiatrek were arrested, Mewis was also arrested on August 19, 1942. He was interned in Smedsbo until the summer of 1943 . After his release, Mewis headed the KPD state leadership in Sweden. He worked closely with Richard Stahlmann . During this time, Mewis increasingly distanced himself from orthodox communist views and the Soviet model of communism. He advocated close cooperation with social democratic and bourgeois exile and resistance groups.

From autumn 1943 Mewis was a member of the "National Group of German Trade Unionists" in Sweden and a leading member of the board of the Free German Cultural Association in Sweden. At the same time he was the editor of the political information and publications of the German emigration management.

At the end of 1945 Mewis returned to the Soviet occupation zone via Poland . At first he took over the function of a secretary in Mecklenburg for the KPD. From March 1946 to May 1949 he was a city councilor and member of the SED secretariat in Berlin. From 1950 to 1963 he was a member of the People's Chamber , from 1950 to 1952 a candidate and from 1952 to 1981 a member of the Central Committee and from 1958 to 1963 a candidate for the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED . In 1963 Mewis was relieved of his offices as a result of the so-called supply crisis in the GDR (1962/63). He then worked as ambassador to Poland until 1968 . From 1969 he took up a position as a research assistant at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED.

As the first secretary of the Mecklenburg State Management and Rostock District Management of the SED, he pushed through the collectivization of agriculture from 1950 to 1961 . He is considered to be the initiator of the construction of the Rostock overseas port and the "Rostocker Ostseewochen ".

Karl Mewis justifies the decision on the 1962 national economic plan in the Volkskammer
tomb

Between 1960 and 1963 he was a member of the State Council , from 1961 to 1963 chairman of the State Planning Commission and a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers .

Mewis died on June 16, 1987. His urn is buried in the memorial of the socialists in the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Honors

Mewis received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver on May 6, 1955 . He was also awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1960 and 1972, the Karl Marx Order in 1967 , the Honor Clasp for the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1970 and the Star of Friendship of Nations in 1977 . In 1975 he became an honorary citizen of Rostock , but this dignity was revoked again in December 1990.

Fonts

  • On behalf of the party. Experiences in the fight against the fascist dictatorship . Dietz, Berlin 1971. DNB 720061822

family

He married Auguste Reichert in Kassel in 1927 (divorced in 1934). In 1939 he married the daughter of the communist politician Franz Dahlem Luise (called Liesel), who lived with him in Stockholm (* 1919, divorced 1953, † 1957). Both marriages resulted in children, with Liesel Catherine (* 1941, married Haacke, qualified Africanist), Franz (longtime opera singer in Rostock) and Annette (doctorate in media studies).

Others

As part of his research for the novel The Aesthetics of Resistance , Peter Weiss had a long conversation with Karl Mewis about his time of emigration.

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Mewis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Willy Brandt: Memories , ISBN 3-549-07353-4 , 3rd edition, page 118
  2. ↑ Karl Mewis in the DRAFD Wiki
  3. ↑ Gauck dubious predecessor , SVZ.de, March 5, 2012
  4. ↑ Dahlem, Franz | Federal foundation to come to terms with the SED dictatorship. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  5. ^ German biography: Mewis, Karl - German biography. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Personal correspondence with family members - German Digital Library. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  7. ^ Visit to Peter Weiss , In: Neues Deutschland , April 26, 1975, p. 4
personal data
SURNAME Mewis, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SED), MdV, Chairman of the State Planning Commission in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Hann. Münden
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1987
Place of death East Berlin