Karl Raddatz

This article deals with the UN Secretary General. For the actor see Carl Raddatz .

Karl Raddatz (born November 7, 1904 in Magdeburg ; † February 12, 1970 in Berlin ) was a German KPD functionary and general secretary of the VVN .

Life

Raddatz came from a working class family. His father was a functionary of the SPD . After attending community school , he trained as a typesetter. In 1919 he became a member of the "Educational Association of Young Workers and Workers" or the Socialist Proletarian Youth ; Then in 1920 in the Association of German Book Printers and in 1921 in the USPD , later he became a member of the SPD, but was banned from working there for one year, which is why he left the SPD in 1926. In 1924 he was sentenced to two weeks in prison for participating in a demonstration. In 1925/26 he went on a journey through Austria and Italy.

In 1927 he became a member of the KPD and the Red Aid . Because of his membership in the RGO , he was expelled from the book printers' association in 1928. In the KPD he was particularly active in their "military-political defense apparatus"; from 1931 to 1933 he took over the management of an illegal printing house of the KPD.

When the KPD had to go underground after the transfer of power to Hitler in 1933, he became the political head of the Magdeburg district leadership and, from August 1933, the organizational head of the Thuringia district leadership. He was arrested on November 15, 1933 and sentenced in July 1934 to three years in prison together with Hermann Danz for "high treason" . After his imprisonment in Luckau prison , from which he was released in December 1936, he was under police supervision and worked in a printing company from 1937 to 1940. He was closely connected with Eva Lippold , whose prison conditions he took care of during this time through correspondence with the prison management in Jauer and Waldheim.

In 1938 he resumed his illegal activity despite the police supervision, was arrested again in July 1941 and imprisoned in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . There he met Karl Schirdewan , with whom he is organized in the communist camp resistance. In April 1945 he was able to flee during the Sachsenhausen inmates' death march and join the Red Army . After the re-admission of the parties by the Allied occupation authorities, he was elected head of the KPD organization in Berlin-Hermsdorf .

On June 12, 1945 he was appointed head of the main committee “ Victims of Fascism ” (OdF) at the Berlin magistrate. In March 1946 with the beginning of the Cold War , he was dismissed from this official position by the Western Allied city commanders.

Due to the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ), he became a member of the SED in 1946. Raddatz continued his work for the OdF committees even after his dismissal and on February 23, 1947 he participated in the founding of the Association of Persecuted Persons of the Nazi Regime (VVN). From February 1947 to spring 1949 he took over the office of General Secretary of the VVN in the Soviet Zone and, together with Hans Schwarz, managing director of the VVN's Interzonal Secretariat . With these functions he campaigned for the formation of a non-partisan and non-denominational organization of all groups of the anti-fascist resistance. In February 1948 he was elected to the inner committee of the VVN. However, in April 1949 he received a severe reprimand from the party for his work as general secretary and for his political positions on organizational activities for all anti-fascists. Raddatz was then dismissed by the VVN.

In 1948 Raddatz was elected to the 1st People's Council of the Soviet Zone as a representative of the VVN. From June 1, 1949 he worked in the party operations department of the SED party executive; from August 1949 to 1953 he was editor of the party magazine Documentation of the Time ; from 1953 to 1960 he was appointed to the Committee for German Unity . In 1952, 1953 and 1954 party regulations were repeatedly initiated against him. On April 13, 1960, the Central Party Control Commission of the SED (ZPKK) decided to delete all of his party penalties.

On June 22, 1960, he was arrested on absurd charges. During his pre-trial detention, he was expelled from the SED in October 1961. On May 10, 1962, together with Heinz Brandt and Wilhelm Fickenscher , he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison by the Supreme Court of the GDR for "serious espionage" for the SPD's east office and "violation of official secrecy in a particularly serious case". December 1964 after an international campaign for the release of Brandt by IG Metall , left-wing socialists , Amnesty International and Bertrand Russell also amnestied. However , he was denied recognition of his VdN pension until his death.

From February 15, 1965 until his death, he worked as an archivist in the Berlin State Library .

On April 5, 1994, he was legally rehabilitated by the Berlin Regional Court , after the PDS , which had emerged from the SED, had rehabilitated him on October 3, 1992 and accepted him back into its ranks posthumously.

Awards

• 1956 Patriotic Order of Merit of the GDR in silver;
• 1958 medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945 ;
• 1959 Ernst Moritz Arndt Medal

Fonts

• Commemorative rally for the victims of the anti-fascist struggle in Berlin-Neukölln on September 9, 1945, Werner-Seelenbinder-Kampfbahn (1945)
• Fascism and war. (1952)
• The men's mirror (1954)
• Vacation on Sylt (1958)
• Enterprise Teutonic Sword (1959)

literature

• Wilfriede Otto :  Raddatz, Karl . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Raddatz, Karl . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Raddatz in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Beatrix Herlemann : Raddatz, Karl. In: Guido Heinrich, Gunter Schandera (ed.): Magdeburg Biographical Lexicon 19th and 20th centuries. Biographical lexicon for the state capital Magdeburg and the districts of Bördekreis, Jerichower Land, Ohrekreis and Schönebeck. Scriptum, Magdeburg 2002, ISBN 3-933046-49-1 , p. 566.
2. ^ Eva Lippold estate in the Federal Archives: 6. Documents from friends and family members ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.