Alfred Zahn

Alfred Franz Zahn (born August 17, 1903 in Hamburg ; † April 14, 1972 in East Berlin ) was a German communist politician ( KPD / SED ), journalist , resistance fighter against National Socialism , university professor and editor-in-chief of the GDR magazine Neue Berliner Illustrierte .

Life

The son of a machinist and a maid, Alfred Zahn, attended elementary school in Hamburg until 1918 and the teachers' college in Havelberg until 1921 . In November 1919, Zahn joined the KPD that had emerged from the Spartakusbund . In 1921, Zahn broke off his teacher training and became technical secretary of the KPD Hamburg and head of the youth supplement that appeared in the Hamburger Volkszeitung . In October 1923, Zahn took part in the Hamburg uprising and was wanted in a wanted list as a result. Zahn stayed illegally in Kassel , Halle and Berlin until 1924 . In May 1924, Zahn emigrated to the Soviet Union .

There, Zahn was school inspector and English teacher at the German school, course student at the Comintern school of national minorities and inspector at the People's Education Commission for National Minorities in Cherson . From 1925 to 1927 Zahn was an employee of the International Red Aid (IRH) in Moscow , head of the press office and responsible editor of the official journal of the IRH.

After an amnesty in Germany, Zahn returned to his homeland in 1927 and became a full-time correspondent for the Moscow railway newspaper Gudok in Hamburg . At the same time, Zahn was a theater and film critic for the Hamburger Volkszeitung . Until 1932, Zahn was managing director of the Hamburg branch of Zentrosojus . As an employee of the AM apparatus, the KPD's intelligence service , which existed until 1937, he was the owner of an antiquarian bookshop in 1932/33 , but worked in the passport forger headquarters of the KPD's central committee in Berlin.

In May 1933, Zahn was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison for “preparing to commit high treason ” and forging documents . He served his sentence in Plötzensee , Hamburg and Wolfenbüttel until 1935 . After his release from prison, Zahn emigrated to France and worked as a press photographer. Zahn became a member of the Committee for Law and Freedom in Germany and headed its propaganda department . In 1937 Zahn was expatriated from the German Reich . Until 1939 he worked for the German freedom broadcaster 29.8 . In September 1939, Zahn was arrested in Paris . From 1939 to 1941, Zahn was in the internment camps in Le Vernet and Les Milles . After his release he went to the USA and worked from 1943 on the newspaper The German American . In 1946 and 1947 he was editor-in-chief of Germany Today newspaper .

In December 1946, Zahn returned to Germany and in 1947 became a lecturer at the SED party college "Karl Marx" in Liebenwalde . Zahn directed the first course for journalists. From 1947 to 1949, Zahn was broadcasting director at the state broadcaster Schwerin and from 1949 to 1953, program director at Berliner Rundfunk . Since 1949, Zahn was also editor-in-chief of the magazine Unser Rundfunk .

In 1953 he became head of duty at the GDR news agency ADN in Berlin. 1954 to 1957 Zahn was deputy editor-in-chief of the magazine Das Magazin . 1954 to 1956 Zahn was editor-in-chief of the Kongress-Verlag and the monthly newspaper Der Reporter . In 1957 and 1958 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Neue Berliner Illustrierte and from 1958 editor for the magazine Problems of Peace and Socialism at Dietz Verlag . From 1959, Zahn was head of the Arabic editorial team at Radio Berlin International (RBI) and from 1961 to 1962 head of RBI's overseas program. He was then head of the press archive and library of the State Broadcasting Committee until 1968 .

Honors

• 1959 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
• 1963 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver

literature

• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Zahn, Alfred Franz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• 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 .