Bernhard Ecks

Bernhard Ecks as a pensioner in Tschassow-Yar.

Bernhard Ecks (born October 26, 1884 in Bremen , † after 1961 in the Soviet Union ) was a German politician of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). During the November Revolution in 1918 he was chairman of the Bremen Soldiers' Council and in January 1919 briefly city commander of the Bremen Council Republic , took part in the Hamburg uprising in 1923 and was part of the KPD's intelligence service, the anti-military apparatus (AM apparatus) , until 1932 . He later moved to the Soviet Union.

Life

Ecks, the son of a carpenter , learned the profession of bricklayer after elementary school and went hiking in Switzerland and Denmark until 1904 . In 1902 he became a member of the Central Association of Masons. From 1904 to 1907 Ecks did military service as a simple soldier. In 1907 he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 1914 Ecks took part in demonstrations against the First World War and in August was called up to the construction battalion in Hamburg-Harburg for "anti-militarist actions" . From 1916 he fought on the German Eastern Front and was wounded several times.

Through Hans Brodmerkel , Ecks came to the Bremen left-wing radicals and became a member of the International Communists of Germany (IKD), a party that only existed for a short time and was absorbed into the KPD in 1918. During the November Revolution of 1918 Ecks was chairman of the Bremen Soldiers' Council and in January 1919 city commander of the Bremen Soviet Republic. After the crackdown, he fled in February 1919, was captured and three and a half years prison sentenced. He did not have to serve the sentence due to an amnesty . Ecks took part as a representative of the IKD at the founding party convention of the KPD on December 31, 1918 in Berlin .

In 1923 Ecks took part in the Hamburg uprising , a suppressed attempt at overthrowing the North German KPD, and was again imprisoned for two months. From 1924 Ecks was an employee of the Central Committee (ZK) of the KPD in Berlin and from 1925 headed the business of various trade union associations. From 1926 to 1932 he was an agent of the KPD's illegal intelligence service, the AM apparatus, which existed until 1937.

In November 1932 Ecks moved to the Soviet Union with his companion Heinrich Vogeler , worked as a mason foreman in Moscow , became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) and later became a citizen of the Soviet Union through marriage. Eck's first wife Else died in July 1934, with her he had a son named August Ecks.

Ecks was a victim of Stalinist purges at the time of the Great Terror . On November 4, 1937, he was arrested, expelled from the CPSU and imprisoned in Siberia until 1939. After his imprisonment, Ecks was forcibly relocated to Kazakhstan with his second, Soviet wife Pelagea Alekeeebona (married in Yalta in 1936) .

The couple later lived in the Ukrainian city of Chasov-Yar . In 1954 Ecks retired.

In 1956 Ecks submitted an application to return to Germany, which was approved by both the Soviet authorities and the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in East Berlin . However, he stayed in the Soviet Union.

Ecks was a staunch supporter of Trotsky .

literature

• Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online ).