Erich Heyl

Erich Heyl (born September 22, 1909 in Sömmerda ; † February 9, 1981 ) was a German KPD and SED functionary. Among other things, he was the second secretary of the Frankfurt (Oder) district leadership of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

Life

Heyl, son of a locksmith and a housewife ; attended elementary and middle school . Between 1923 and 1926 he completed an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk. From 1926 to 1933 he worked as a sales representative, at times he was unemployed. In September 1930 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and from 1932 he worked as chairman of the KPD local group Sömmerda and was a member of the extended district management of Greater Thuringia of the KPD.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Heyl took part in the communist resistance . He was taken into " protective custody " for three months . From 1933 to 1935 he worked in construction, then until 1941 as a commercial clerk and accountant in Erfurt . In October 1941 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . From May 1945 to January 1946 he was in Soviet captivity . He was a member of the Antifa Committee in the Auschwitz POW camp.

After returning to his hometown, he worked from January 1946 to July 1948 as secretary of the Sömmerda local leadership of the KPD and the SED. Heyl actively campaigned for the unification of the two workers' parties, the SPD and KPD, to form the SED . He was one of the Sömmerda delegates at the unification congress of the Thuringian party organizations in Gotha on April 6 and 7, 1946. From July to October 1948 he was chairman of the Erfurt - Weißensee district board , from October 1948 to December 1949 first secretary of the Erfurt district leadership and from January 1950 to January 1954 first secretary of the district leadership Sondershausen of the SED.

Between November 1950 and 1953, he completed a correspondence course to the extent of Einjahrlehrganges at the Party School "Karl Marx" . From February 1954 to March 1956 he was first secretary of the Nordhausen district leadership (successor: Gerhard Schinkel ) and worked from March 1956 to June 1960 as second secretary of the SED district leadership in Frankfurt (Oder). Subsequently, VdN retired, he still worked as chairman of the district committee of the anti-fascist resistance fighters in Frankfurt (Oder).

Heyl was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver and the medal for fighters against fascism from 1933 to 1945 . He died at the age of 71.

literature

• Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (Ed.): SBZ biography . Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, Berlin 1964, p. 144.
• Karl Mack: As workers and peasants came to an agreement ... Examples of the struggle of the working class of the Sömmerda district under the leadership of their party against fascism and for the anti-fascist-democratic transformation . In: Sömmerdaer Heimathefte. Contributions to the history of the Sömmerda district , Issue 1 (1989), pp. 1–56.
• Andreas Herbst (eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 3: Lexicon of functionaries (= rororo manual. Vol. 6350). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16350-0 , p. 141.
• 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 , p. 317.
• Mario Niemann , Andreas Herbst : SED squad: The middle level. Biographical encyclopedia of the secretaries of the state and district managements, the prime ministers and the chairmen of the district councils 1946 to 1989 . 1st edition. Ferdinand Schöningh, 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76977-0 , p. 240 .
• Mario Niemann :  Heyl, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary by the Frankfurt (Oder) district leadership of the SED. In: Neuer Tag , February 11, 1981, p. 2.