Erich Kops

Erich Ernst Kops (born January 20, 1905 in Jena ; † May 28, 1961 in Dresden ) was a German party functionary ( SPD / KPD / SED ), Spain fighter , former prisoner in Sachsenhausen concentration camp and GDR ambassador to Hungary .

Life

Kops came from a working-class family in Jena . His father was a metal worker . After attending primary school, he learned the trade of a locksmith . In 1922 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In Jena he became the chairman of the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) and its organizational secretary for Thuringia . In August 1923 he left the SAJ and the SPD and joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He became the full-time secretary of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) in Thuringia. The KPD district leadership classified him as a supporter of the ultra-left wing of the party . From 1924 to 1924 he was imprisoned . From 1925 to 1928 he was Gaufführer of the Red Young Front , the junior organ of the Red Front Fighters Association (RKB). From 1928 to 1929 he attended an advanced training course at the Lenin School in Moscow , after which he became local editor of the “Neue Zeitung” in Jena. From 1931 to 1933 he was secretary for agitation of the KPD district leadership Halle - Merseburg .

After the transfer of power to the NSDAP , he worked illegally against the Nazi regime and had to emigrate to Czechoslovakia in 1934 . Here he established connections for the smuggling of anti-fascist propaganda into the German Reich . In 1935 he went to the Soviet Union and worked there as a machinist. From 1937 he fought as an officer in the Thälmann battalion against the Franco dictatorship in Spain . During this time he was expelled from the KPD. He was later interned in France . In 1943 he was extradited to the Nazi authorities and transferred as a prisoner to Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

When the Nazi regime was eliminated, he briefly acted as district administrator in Ludwigslust and from August 1945 became KPD organizational secretary for Thuringia. After the forced unification of the SPD and KPD , Kops was a member of the SED party executive from 1946 to 1950, and from September 1947 he was joint Thuringian state chairman of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) together with Heinrich Hoffmann (SPD ). After his replacement from the party leadership, he worked for a short time as ambassador to the Hungarian People's Republic (UVR), but then in subordinate positions in the trade sector. From 1958 to 1961 he was 1st deputy chairman of the Dresden council of the district .

H. Lindner: Kops, Erich Ernst . In: History of the German labor movement. Biographical Lexicon . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1970, pp. 250-251.
Kurt Menzel: For the unity of action of the working class. From the life of the communist Erich Kops . Come to research the history of the local labor movement at the district leadership of the SED Bitterfeld, Bitteleld 1988.
Steffen Kachel : A red-red special path? Social Democrats and Communists in Thuringia 1919 to 1949 . Böhlau, Cologne 2011 (= Publications of the Historical Commission for Thuringia . Small Series Volume 29), p. 557.
Kops, Erich . In: Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Karl Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 .

personal data
SURNAME	Kops, Erich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Kops, Erich Ernst (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German party functionary (SPD, KPD, SED), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH	January 20, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH	Jena
DATE OF DEATH	May 28, 1961
Place of death	Dresden