Eduard Switalla
Eduard Switalla also Eduard Switala (born November 27, 1919 in Hamburg , † May 28, 2004 in Berlin ) was a colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). In 1952 he was head of the MfS district administration in Rostock and from 1955 to 1971 he was head of department at the MfS headquarters in East Berlin.
Life
Eduard Switalla, son of the communist and later GDR politician Anton Switalla , graduated from elementary school in Hamburg in 1933. After the takeover by the Nazis and the ban on Communist activities in April 1933, he went with his parents to the emigration to France and in 1935 in the Soviet Union . In 1935 and 1936 he worked as a locksmith in Leningrad . From 1936 to 1941 he worked as a lathe operator in Voroshilovgrad and Moscow . From 1941 to 1946 he was a member of the Red Army and fought on the side of the Soviet Union in World War II .
In 1946 Switalla returned to Germany and became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). Until 1947 he was an instructor in the SED district leadership in Schwerin and then joined the People's Police . By 1949 he completed an apprenticeship at the district party school and was then hired by the administration for the protection of the Mecklenburg economy as head of the political culture department and deputy of the operational department. In February 1950 the authority became the state administration of Mecklenburg of the MfS. After the administrative reform and the dissolution of the states in the GDR, he became head of the newly formed Rostock district administration of the MfS in August 1952 . In October 1952, Switalla was demoted from inspector to commander and removed from his post after violent attacks against prisoners for "violating democratic legality".
He was transferred to Halle (Saale) , where he became head of the armaments industry of the Halle district administration of the MfS. In January 1953 Switalla became head of the MfS district office in Dessau . In November 1953 he moved to East Berlin and became deputy head of the main economics department of the MfS and from 1955 head of the armaments industry. In 1962 he was promoted to colonel . In 1963 he became head of the passport control and manhunt department and, from 1970, head of the manhunt group in the MfS. In 1971 Switalla retired.
After the fall of the Wall in the GDR , he became a member of the Initiative Group for the Protection of Social Rights (ISOR) and last lived in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen .
Honors
- 1964 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
- 1980 Patriotic Order of Merit (GDR)
literature
- Jens Gieseke : Eduard Switalla . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel, Arno Polzin, Walter Süß : The MfS Lexicon. 3rd updated edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-900-1 , p. 328.
- Manfred Wilke (ed.): Anatomy of the party headquarters . Studies by the SED State Research Association at the Free University of Berlin. Akademieverlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-003220-0 .
Web links
- Eduard Switalla Short biography at the VVN-BdA Köpenick
- Jens Gieseke: Switala, Eduard in the MfS-Lexikon at www.bstu.de (accessed on February 5, 2019).
Individual evidence
- ↑ We mourn our deceased members. (PDF) In: ISORaktuell No. 6/2004. P. 6 , accessed on February 3, 2019 .
- ^ Berliner Zeitung of October 6, 1964
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Switalla, Eduard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Switala, Eduard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Colonel of the Ministry for State Security in the GDR |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 27, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hamburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 28, 2004 |
| Place of death | Berlin |