Egon Dreger

Egon Dreger (actually Johann Bojanowski ; born July 28, 1899 in Berlin , † March 25, 1970 in Dresden ) was a German fighter and diplomat . He was the GDR's ambassador to the People's Republic of Bulgaria .

Life

Dreger was born into a working class family. In 1918 he joined the USPD and the German Metalworkers' Association , and in 1920 he became a member of the KPD. Until 1933 he held various party and trade union functions. From 1931 he was an employee in the military apparatus of the KPD.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, he was arrested several times and imprisoned in prison and prison. After his release in 1937 , Dreger emigrated to Spain via Prague and France , where he was a lieutenant in the International Brigades . He then went to internment camps in France and North Africa. On December 29, 1943 Dreger met 17 other former Spanish fighters, coming from a French internment camp in Algeria via Iran in the port city of Krasnovodsk . He remained in emigration in the Soviet Union until 1945 and worked for the NKFD , where he was assigned to the radio editorial team. He carried out educational work among German prisoners of war .

In May 1945 he went to Dresden as a member of the Ackermann group and did political organizational work. In 1945 he became a member of the KPD again, in 1946 a member of the SED. Dreger helped to rebuild the administration in Saxony . From 1945 to 1950, in the rank of ministerial councilor, he was head of the personnel office in the internal department of the state administration of Saxony and from 1950 to 1952 head of the office of the Saxon Prime Minister Max Seydewitz .

From 1952 to 1953 Dreger was head of the diplomatic mission, from December 1953 to December 1955 ambassador to Sofia . He then went into retirement.

Awards and honors

• Patriotic Order of Merit in silver (May 6, 1955) and in gold (1969)
• Hans Beimler Medal (1956)
• Labor Banner (1965)

From 1971 the 7th NVA news battalion and the Egon Dreger barracks in Dresden were named after Dreger, as was the 104th POS "Egon Dreger" in Dresden (Jägerstrasse 34).

literature

• Political administration of the military district of Leipzig (ed.): Your legacy. Our act. Material about revolutionary models after which troops and units of the Leipzig military district are named. Printing house of the Leipzig military district in 1988.
• Martin Broszat et al. (Ed.): SBZ manual: State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949 . Oldenbourg, Munich 1993, pp. 142, 143, 145 and 455.
• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , pp. 135-136.
• Andreas Thüsing: A new democratic beginning? Development, organization and transformation of the Saxon Ministry of Justice 1945–1950 . (Reports and Studies, Volume 42). Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism, Dresden 2003, p. 74.
• Gottfried Hamacher et al. (Ed.): Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. Short biographies (series: Manuscripts / Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung; Vol. 53) (PDF; 894 kB). Dietz, Berlin 2005, p. 47.
• Andreas Thüsing (Ed.): The Presidium of the State Administration of Saxony: The minutes of the meetings from July 9, 1945 to December 10, 1946 . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, passim.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary in the Sächsische Zeitung of March 28, 1970.