Bernard Koenen

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Bernard Koenen (1961)
Bernard Koenen (1946)
Bernard Koenen 1949
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Bernard Johann Heinrich Koenen (born February 17, 1889 in Hamburg , † April 30, 1964 in Berlin ) was a German politician.

Life

The son of a carpenter belonging to the socialist movement and a cook learned the trade of machinist and lathe operator. In 1906 he joined the German Metalworkers' Association (DMV), became a member of the SPD in 1907 and joined the USPD in 1917 and joined the KPD in 1920 . During the November Revolution he was deputy chairman of the Leuna Works Council . From 1920 he was a member of the KPD district leadership Halle-Merseburg , and from 1923 of the KPD headquarters. From 1922 to 1933 Koenen was a member of the Provincial Parliament of the Province of Saxony . From the mid-1920s Koenen belonged to the internal party movement of the Compromisers and for this reason was partially relieved of his functions by the party leadership around Ernst Thälmann in 1929 .

On Eisleber's Bloody Sunday , February 12, 1933, Koenen was beaten up in Eisleben by the SA and seriously injured, losing an eye. For the next few months he was hidden in his private clinic by a doctor who sympathized with the KPD, before he emigrated to the USSR in July of that year . Here he was first organizational secretary of the International Red Aid (IRH), in 1937 he fell into the Great Terror and was held prisoner until 1939. He was threatened with the death penalty and Wilhelm Pieck personally stood up for Koenen at Berija , which resulted in Koenen's release. In 1940 he was given tasks again by the KPD. From 1941 to 1943 he got work at the " German People's Broadcasting ", in 1943 Koenen became an employee of the NKFD , and at the radio station "Free Germany", in the same year he became a member of the Central Committee of the KPD.

Koenen was a co-founder of the SED in 1946, from 1946 to 1964 a member of the party executive or central committee of the SED and from 1949 until his death a member of the People's Chamber . In addition, from 1946 to 1952 he was a member of the state parliament and chairman of the SED parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt and held the post of First Secretary of the SED district leadership in Halle in 1952/53 and from 1958 to 1963 .

Between 1953 and 1958, Koenen worked as an ambassador of the GDR in Czechoslovakia . From 1960 to 1964 he was a member of the State Council of the GDR .

In addition to his political offices, Koenen worked as a journalist and teacher. He was married to Frieda Koenen , b. Bockentien (born April 18, 1890 - November 17, 1968) and the brother of Wilhelm Koenen . Like this he was buried in the memorial of the socialists in the central cemetery Friedrichsfelde in Berlin-Lichtenberg .

Bernard Koenen and his wife Frieda were the parents of their sons Viktor and Alfred, who both fought in the Red Army against Hitler Germany. While the elder Viktor was shot down on a reconnaissance flight over Poland , his brother Alfred survived the war and became an NVA officer and diplomat in the GDR .

Honors

The German Post of the GDR issued a special stamp in 1979 on the occasion of Bernard Koenen's 90th birthday . Two shafts of the Mansfeld Combine were named after him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Bernard Koenen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Axen in "I was a servant of the party", Berlin 1996, p. 117
  2. ↑ Hermann Weber: The change of German communism , vol. 2, p. 186 f.
personal data
SURNAME Koenen, Bernard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Koenen, Bernhard Johann Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politicians (SPD, USPD, KPD), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1964
Place of death Berlin