Ernst Albert Altenkirch
Ernst Albert Altenkirch (born November 5, 1903 in Bahnitz , district of Jerichow II , Province of Saxony , Prussia ; † March 24, 1980 in East Berlin ) was a German SED functionary who, as a member of the Central Party Control Commission, played a decisive role in the internal cleansing of the party 1950s was involved.
Life
As the son of a worker, he completed an apprenticeship as a tool fitter in Brandenburg after attending primary school and was active in this profession from 1922 to 1930. Since 1919 he was a member of the German Metalworkers' Association . From 1923 to 1929 he was a member of the Communist Youth Association of Germany , from 1925 as political director. In 1924 he was arrested for illegal political work and sentenced to a fine. In 1929 he became a member of the KPD and attended the KPD party school Rosa Luxemburg in Fichtenau . From 1932 to 1934 he attended the International Lenin School in Moscow and then worked illegally in Berlin with Werner Eggerath and Otto Pallapies for the district committee of the Communist Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). From May to the end of November 1934, Altenkirch was head of the illegal unified association of metal workers in Berlin (EVMB). Altenkirch was arrested on January 13, 1935 for his involvement in the illegal reconstruction of Berlin's RGO structures, particularly in the metal industry. After a pre- trial detention in the Berlin police prison, the People's Court sentenced him in September 1935 to ten years in prison for “preparation for high treason ” , which he served in Luckau , in the Brandenburg prison and in Potsdam . In March 1945 he was taken to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , from where he had to go on the death march towards northern Germany. At the beginning of May 1945 Altenkirch was liberated by Red Army units .
After the war he went back to Brandenburg, became active again in the KPD and from March 1946, together with the Social Democrat Willi Weichenhahn, he was first chairman of the SED district committee in Brandenburg, then until 1949 first secretary of the SED district leadership in Brandenburg and a member of the SED of the city parliament of Brandenburg. From January 1949 to July 1974 Altenkirch was a member of the Central Party Control Commission of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED. In 1951 he was a member of the Saxony-Anhalt state commission for party reviews, and in 1952/53 he was responsible for reviewing emigrants from the West. After 1974 Altenkirch worked on a voluntary basis at the Central Commission for the Care of Old Honored Party Members at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED.
Altenkirch married the SED functionary Margot Feist (* 1923) in the 1950s . He last lived as a pensioner in Berlin. His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.
Awards and honors
- 1958 medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
- 1963 Order Banner of Labor
- 1968 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
- 1973 Karl Marx Order
- 1978 Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit
- In 1976 he became an honorary citizen of the city of Brandenburg an der Havel . In 1991 this honorary citizenship was revoked.
literature
- Oliver Kersten: The Friends of Nature movement in the Berlin-Brandenburg region 1908–1989 / 90. Continuities and breaks. At the same time dissertation from Freie Universität Berlin 2004. Naturfreunde-Verlag Freizeit und Wander, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-925311-31-4 , p. 311 f.
- Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The unified association of metal workers in Berlin". Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 , pp. 331 ff, 341, 354 ff, 359, 368, 523 ff.
- Annett Kschieschan, Stefan Heinz: Ernst Altenkirch (1903–1980). In: Stefan Heinz, Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 , pp. 53-56.
- Bernd-Rainer Barth : Altenkirch, Ernst Albert . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Individual evidence
- ^ New Germany , April 11, 1980
- ^ New Germany , October 9, 1978
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Altenkirch, Ernst Albert |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German SED functionary, member of the Central Party Control Commission |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 5th November 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bahnitz , District of Jerichow II , Province of Saxony , Prussia |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 24, 1980 |
| Place of death | East Berlin |