Berta Daniel
Berta Daniel , née Berta Dick , (born November 20, 1896 in Ulm , † April 7, 1981 in Berlin ) was a German photographer and communist . In the 1920s and 1930s she worked as an agent for the illegal intelligence service of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and the intelligence service of the Communist International (Comintern) . In 1937 she was a victim of Stalinist purges in Moscow and sentenced to eight years in a camp . In 1957 she was rehabilitated and was allowed to travel to the German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Life
Dick, daughter of Robert Dick, a social democratic city councilor in Ulm and master tailor , learned the profession of photographer from her brother after high school . In 1914 she joined the workers' youth , in 1916 in the Spartacus group , in 1919 in the Free Socialist Youth (FSJ) and in 1923 in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1919 she married the architect and communist Richard Daniel .
Right from the start, Daniel belonged to the anti-military apparatus (AM apparatus), the KPD's illegal intelligence service that existed until 1937. In addition, she was responsible for the finances of the KPD in Stuttgart and Munich until 1924 .
Daniel was arrested in Ulm in February 1924, but released after her father had given her a guarantee . She went underground and lived illegally in Berlin and other cities for two years . From 1924 to 1930 she worked in the illegal apparatus of the Central European Office of the International Red Aid (IRH) with Jelena Stassowa and Eugen Schönhaar . In December 1931, the Daniel couple and their daughter Lore moved to the Soviet Union .
Until 1935 Daniel was an archivist in Moscow and undercover head of the encryption department of the Intelligence Service of the Communist International (OMS) , from which she was deployed in several countries. In 1935/36 she was imprisoned in Austria for one year.
After serving her sentence, Daniel was able to emigrate to the Soviet Union in December 1936, where she fell victim to the Stalinist purges in 1937. In March 1937 Daniel was arrested in Moscow and sentenced on November 19, 1937 to eight years in a labor camp. In 1942 she was sentenced to another ten years in a camp in Novosibirsk . In 1952 Daniel was released and forcibly resettled near Kazan . Her husband, who was also convicted, did not survive the camp detention. On March 26, 1957, Daniel was fully rehabilitated by the Military College of the Supreme Court of the USSR (MKOG).
On June 29, 1957, Daniel and her daughter left for the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).
Honors
- 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit in Bronze (GDR)
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 ).
- Reinhard Müller : Line and Heresy, in EXIL 1991 No. 1.
Web links
- Literature by and about Berta Daniel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Estate database of the Federal Archives on nachlassdatenbank.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wladislaw Hedeler, Inge Münz-Koenen (ed.), I came to your country as a guest ...: German opponents of Hitler as victims of Stalin terror. Family fates 1933 - 1956 , Lukas Verlag, 2013
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Daniel, Berta |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Berta Dick (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician and agent (KPD) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 20, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ulm |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 7, 1981 |
| Place of death | Berlin |