Christof Kirschnek

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Christof Kirschnek (born November 29, 1912 in Haslau , today Hazlov in the Czech Republic , † March 15, 1971 ) was a Czechoslovak-German politician ( KPTsch / SED ), party and radio functionary. Among other things, he was director of Radio Berlin International , the foreign broadcaster for broadcasting in the GDR, as well as deputy chairman of the GDR State Broadcasting Committee.

Life and activity

Early years and emigration

Kirschnek grew up as the son of a spinning worker and a worker in the Sudeten regions. After attending elementary and community school, he was trained as a clerk from 1928 to 1933 as part of a commercial apprenticeship (without a qualification). He then worked for a few years in a weaving mill in Haslau.

Around 1926 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Czechoslovakia and in 1929 the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KPTsch). In this he took over from 1931 as political secretary in Haslau for the first time tasks as a functionary (until 1933). Kirschnek was unemployed from 1933 to 1937. Politically, he was meanwhile from 1933 to 1935 the function of the organizational secretary of the CPTSch district leadership Asch . In addition, from 1933 onwards, he actively supported emigrants who had fled Nazi Germany. In particular, he was involved in smuggling anti-Nazi publications of communist style into Germany. From 1935 to 1936 Kirschnek was doing illegal work against the Nazi regime in Bavaria . After his return to Czechoslovakia he became a member of the KPTsch provincial leadership in West Bohemia (until 1938) and in 1938 full-time secretary of the KPTsch district leadership in West Bohemia, based in Karlovy Vary . During these years he was also the editor of the West Bohemian newspaper Rote Fahne . In September 1938 Kirschnek fled to Prague due to the annexation of the Sudeten areas - the western outskirts of the Czechoslovak state - by the German Empire . When in the spring of 1939 the occupation of the parts of Czechoslovakia that had remained independent in autumn 1938 by German armies became apparent, he emigrated to Great Britain in February 1939. In Great Britain Kirschnek worked as a laborer in Manchester from 1940 to 1944 . From 1944 he worked as an assistant and from 1945 to 1946 as secretary of the Czechoslovak British Friendship Club in London .

post war period

In June 1946 Kirschnek went to the Soviet occupation zone via Czechoslovakia . In the same year he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From September to December 1946 he was briefly a councilor in the resettlement department of the Mecklenburg state government , then editor and from March 1947 editor-in-chief at the state broadcaster Schwerin . From 1948 to 1949 Kirschnek studied at the party college "Karl Marx" . From 1949 to 1952 he was director of the state broadcaster Schwerin and chairman of the state board of the Association of the German Press in Mecklenburg. In 1952 and 1953 Kirschnek was head of the newsroom of the State Committee for Broadcasting , then for four years, until 1957, head and editor-in-chief of the Leipzig broadcaster . From 1957 to 1958 he was employed as editor of the German-language editorial staff of Radio Moscow . From 1958 to 1962 Kirschnek held the post of First Secretary of the SED Works Party Organization in the State Committee for Broadcasting. From 1962 to 1968 he served as deputy chairman and until 1971 as a member of the GDR State Committee for Broadcasting. From 1962 to 1971 he was the director of Radio Berlin International.

Awards

literature

personal data
SURNAME Kirschnek, Christof
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (KPTsch, SED) and radio functionary
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Haslau
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1971