Erich Wendt

Erich Wendt (1964)

Erich Wendt (born August 29, 1902 in Leipzig , † May 8, 1965 in Berlin ) was a German communist politician and the first husband of Charlotte Ulbricht .

Life

As the son of a butcher, Erich Wendt completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter at the Ullstein publishing house in Berlin from 1916 to 1920 after attending primary schools in Eisleben and Berlin. In 1919 he became a member of the Free Socialist Youth and in 1920 in the resulting KJVD . In 1922 he also joined the KPD . Professionally, he switched to a job as a bookseller and was employed in the bookstore Die Junge Garde from 1921 to 1922 and then until 1923 in the Meshdunarodnaja Kniga (German: The international book ) in Berlin. Because of his political activities, he was arrested in 1923 for “preparation for high treason”, but the proceedings were then dropped. After his release from pre-trial detention, he worked for the publishing house of the Communist Youth International (KJI) in Vienna until 1924 . In 1925 and 1926 he worked as an editor for the KJI in Moscow. In 1926 Wendt was elected to the Central Committee of the KJVD and he worked as an editor at the Central Committee of the KJVD in Berlin until 1928. He then worked as a manufacturer and editor at KJI-Verlag in its Berlin headquarters.

After the Reichsgericht initiated proceedings for literary treason , Wendt emigrated to the Soviet Union in 1931 . From 1931 to 1936 he worked in a publishing company in the USSR. In August 1936 he was a victim of the Stalinist purges , expelled from the KPD and was held in NKVD custody in Saratov until 1938 . After his release he worked as a German teacher at a middle school and as a translator in Engels . In 1939 his exclusion from the party was withdrawn. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union , he was deported to Siberia in 1941 and was first a worker, then an accountant in a national estate. From 1942 to 1947 he worked for Radio Moscow .

Wendt returned to Germany in the Soviet zone of occupation in March 1947 . He became a member of the SED and head of the Aufbau publishing house in Berlin, which initially specialized in communist and anti-fascist literature and Russian books . In addition, he was also the Head of the Department from 1949 Soviet propaganda in Berlin Radio and in Germany transmitters of radio of the GDR . From 1949 to 1965 he was a member of the Presidential Council of the Kulturbund of the GDR , from 1951 to 1953 its first federal secretary, from 1958 vice-president. From 1950 to 1958 he was a member of the People's Chamber and chairman of the Kulturbund faction.

From 1953 to 1957 he was head of the Lenin Department at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED . From 1957 to 1965 he was first deputy and later state secretary in the Ministry of Culture of the GDR . In 1963 Erich Wendt played a key role in the negotiations on the pass agreement .

Private

Erich Wendt's first wife was Lotte Kühn , his second wife Charlotte Treuber (1907–1999), daughter of the KPD functionary Julius Treuber and Herbert Wehner's former partner .

Awards

• 1952 hero of work
• 1956 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
• 1959 medal for fighters against fascism
• 1962 Karl Marx Order
• 1962 Labor banner
• 1964 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold

literature

• Erich Wendt in memory. August 29, 1902 - May 8, 1965 . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin / Weimar 1967
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Wendt, Erich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Handbook of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, 2nd electoral period . Kongress-Verlag, Berlin 1957

Web links

• Literature by and about Erich Wendt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Erich Wendt archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin