Arthur Franke
Arthur Franke (born August 5, 1909 in Berlin ; † October 23, 1992 in Rüdersdorf near Berlin ) was a German lieutenant general in the NVA . He was the head of the NVA's military intelligence service .
Life
The son of a working-class family attended elementary school and learned to be a carpenter from 1923 to 1927 . In 1930 he became a member of the KPD . He was the cashier, organization and political director of a street cell. After three years of unemployment, he worked as a carpenter for Philipp Holzmann AG Berlin in 1933/34 .
After 1933 he did illegal anti-fascist resistance work in Berlin-Moabit and in February 1934 emigrated to the ČSR , where he also worked illegally and smuggled endangered German communists across the border on the Czechoslovakian-German border. Disguised as a wholesale merchant, he flew from Prague to Brussels in January 1938. He came to Spain via Paris, where he fought in the International Brigades in Spain from 1938 to 1939 . In July 1938 he was seriously wounded in fighting outside the city of Gandesa . From 1939 to 1941 he was interned in France. He was extradited to Germany in April 1941 and sentenced to 18 months in prison. He spent his imprisonment in Berlin-Tegel , after which he was deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In 1945 he managed to escape on the prisoners' death march .
In 1945 he became a member of the KPD and later the SED leadership in Berlin-Tiergarten , and in 1947 an employee of the SED regional leadership in Berlin. On January 1, 1949, he joined the German People's Police , became a commissioner and department head at the criminal police in the Berlin People's Police Headquarters. In 1950/51 he studied at the party university and in 1951 became deputy chief and head of the political department of the VP air and the administration of the aero clubs with the rank of VP inspector (colonel).
When the NVA was founded in 1956, he was deputy chief and head of the political department of the LSK / LV command until February 10, 1959 . 1956 to 1958 he was also a member of the SED district leadership in Cottbus . From February 1959 he first acted as deputy chief and from August 31, 1959 to November 1974 as head of the NVA's intelligence administration in the Ministry of National Defense (successor to Willy Sägebrecht ). In 1966 he was appointed major general by Walter Ulbricht and promoted to lieutenant general in 1974 by Erich Honecker . On January 31, 1975 he was released from military service and in June 1975 he was appointed president of the diving club in the GST (successor to Helmut Wolff). He held this office until 1987.
Franke last lived in Schöneiche near Berlin .
Awards
- 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, 1959 in silver and 1979 in gold
- 1958 medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
- 1969 Order Banner of Labor
- 1974 Karl Marx Order
- 1976 Ernst Schneller Medal in gold
- 1977 Artur Becker Gold Medal
- 1982 Certificate of Honor from the Central Council of the FDJ
- Scharnhorst Order
literature
- Andreas Herbst (eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 3: Lexicon of functionaries (= rororo manual. Vol. 6350). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16350-0 , p. 89.
- Klaus Froh & Rüdiger Wenzke , (ed.): The generals and admirals of the NVA: A biographical manual. 5th, through. Edition. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-438-9 , p. 94.
- Bernd-Rainer Barth , Helmut Müller-Enbergs : Franke, Arthur . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ People's Army No. 49/1981
- ↑ People's Army No. 24/1986
- ^ New Germany of August 5, 1989
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Franke, Arthur |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Lieutenant General (NVA) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th August 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 23, 1992 |
| Place of death | Rüdersdorf near Berlin |