Anton Ruh

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Anton Ruh (left) in conversation with a reporter for German television , November 3, 1960.

Anton ("Toni") Ruh (born February 20, 1912 in Berlin ; † November 3, 1964 in Bucharest ) was a German diplomat . Until 1962 he was head of the customs administration of the GDR and then ambassador of the GDR in Romania .

Life

Ruh was born the son of a laborer and an ostrich feather worker. His parents came from Austria , his father was killed in the First World War . His mother, who was an active communist , raised him alone. From 1918 to 1926 he attended elementary school in Berlin. He then completed an apprenticeship as a stone printer until 1930 and joined the association of stone printers and lithographers. After his training, he worked as an electric welder .

In 1927 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) and in 1929 the Red Front Fighters Association (RFB), then also the KPD . In 1931 he became a member of the Communist Young Front and in the same year he was sentenced to six months in prison , which he spent in the Lehrter Strasse cell prison in Berlin. Due to his Austrian citizenship , he was expelled to Austria after his release from prison. In 1933, Ruh worked again in the BB apparatus (the KPD's intelligence service for operational reports) in Berlin and was arrested several times . From 1933 to 1937 he was a member of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ) and the Schutzbund in Vienna . In 1934 he took part in the Austrian civil war against the government of Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss .

In 1934 , Ruh emigrated to Czechoslovakia and in 1938 to England . There Anton Ruh married the emigrant Elisabeth Schwarz (1909–1994) on February 4, 1940 and was interned as an " Enemy Alien " at the beginning of the Second World War and deported to the HMT Dunera for a year to Australia . After his release he worked from 1942 in a London armaments factory as a welder. He was also a member of the central leadership of the KPD in England in London.

Ruh returned to Germany illegally at the end of 1944 to participate in the resistance against National Socialism on behalf of the OSS . On the night of March 2nd to March 3rd, he and his partner Paul Lindner (1911–1969) jumped parachutes over Friesack in Brandenburg , the USA had almost no knowledge of the economic and military situation in the interior of Germany . During Operation Hammer, Ruh and Lindner reported to the OSS until April 25, 1945 about the operation of a Berlin power station, the Berlin traffic systems, concentration levels of the Wehrmacht and the psychological and moral state of the population. Their reports were of limited importance and not decisive for the war. They then went into Soviet captivity and were handed over to US troops after two months .

Ruh rejoined the KPD in 1945 and became a member of the SED in 1946 . He became an employee in the party apparatus of the Berlin state leadership as well as in the Central Commission for Sequestration , later also in the Central Commission for State Control . From 1950 to 1962, Ruh was head of the office for customs and control of the movement of goods, later of the customs administration of the GDR . Since 1957 he was the holder of the Patriotic Order of Merit of the GDR . From 1961 to 1962 Anton Ruh was at the party college of the Central Committee of the CPSU in Moscow . From 1963 to 1964 he was - as the successor to Wilhelm Bick (1903–1980) - ambassador of the GDR in Romania. His successor as head of the customs administration in the GDR was Gerhard Stauch .

Anton Ruh committed November 3, 1964 in Bucharest still not clarified backgrounds suicide .

tomb

His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the Memorial of the Socialists in the Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

In 2004, due to his bravery during his service shortly before the end of the war , Ruh was awarded the Silver Star posthumously, which his son received on April 5, 2006.  

literature

Web links

Commons : Anton Ruh  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stock list of the "Hay Internment Camp"
  2. ^ Lars-Broder Keil : Secret Operation Hammer, in Die Welt, May 23, 2006
  3. ↑ Bund deutscher Zöllner - Berlin Brandenburg District Association ( PDF ) 1/2006, p. 14.
  4. ↑ The OSS Society, Spring 2006 ( Memento of July 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ( PDF ) p. 8.
  5. ↑ Sassnitz: Storm talk in the fishing and harbor museum about "Silver Star" for Anton Ruh . ( Memento of March 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Ostsee-Anzeiger , May 14, 2008 (accessed March 31, 2008).
  6. ↑ Bund deutscher Zöllner - Berlin Brandenburg District Association ( PDF ) 2/2006, p. 14.
personal data
SURNAME Rest, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Quiet, Toni
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat, KPD member, resistance fighter against National Socialism, ambassador of the GDR in Romania
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 3rd November 1964
Place of death Bucharest