Ewald Munschke

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Ewald Munschke (born March 20, 1901 in Berlin ; † October 21, 1981 in East Berlin ) was a German interbrigadist , SED functionary and general ( KVP , NVA ).

Life

The son of a stonemason and a cook remained without professional training after completing 8 classes. At first he worked from 1915 to 1917 as a messenger for a life insurance company. He then performed aid and courier services in an infantry regiment on the Eastern Front until the end of the war. He then earned his wages as a train handler and coachman until 1919, before he worked as a railroad worker in Railway Regiment 4 until 1920. At the same time he joined the union in 1920. He then worked as a worker until 1931, including as a packer and construction worker. In 1923 he joined the KPD , from which he initially resigned in 1924. In 1930 Munschke became a member of the KPD again and from then on worked for the KPD's military-political apparatus. Munschke was unemployed between 1931 and 1933. After the National Socialists came to power, he emigrated to the Soviet Union in October 1933, where he stayed until 1936. Munschke studied there from 1934 to 1936 at a Comintern school in Moscow. In 1936 he went to Spain to join the International Brigades that fought in the Spanish Civil War. There Munschke was initially war commissioner in the Tschapajew battalion of the XIII. International Brigade . Later he headed a commissar or party school. In 1938 he fled first to France and later to Belgium. Until 1945 he was active in the anti-fascist resistance struggle in France, Belgium and the Netherlands. He was a member of Dutch resistance organizations and since 1944 he has worked in the Association of Free Germans in the Netherlands.

After the war ended, Munschke returned to his hometown of Berlin in 1945. He was registered again as a member of the KPD and was initially their party secretary in the Berlin police. In 1946, after the formation of the SED , he moved to its Berlin state management, where he was initially deputy head and later head of the important management department. In 1949 Munschke moved to the Central Committee of the SED , where he first became the main consultant and later again head of the important management department. When in 1952 experienced personnel was needed to set up the Barracked People's Police (KVP), Munschke was also chosen. As a commissioner of the interbrigades, he was able to fall back on military experience. Munschke began his service with the armed organs of the GDR on May 1, 1952. Without having previously had a military rank, he was appointed major general on October 1, 1952, at the same time he became deputy minister of the interior and head of the cadre administration at the Ministry of the Interior, to which the KVP was subordinate. When the NVA was founded, Munschke became deputy minister for national defense on March 1, 1956 and the first head of the administration cadre at the ministry for national defense of the GDR. He held this position until January 31, 1961. Until then, he was also a "cadre chief" on the college of the Ministry of National Defense, the closest leadership circle of the NVA. Subsequently, until his release on January 31, 1969, he headed the party control commission of the SED in the political headquarters of the NVA as chairman. From 1962 to 1971 he was also a candidate for the Central Party Control Commission of the SED.

tomb

His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Awards and honors

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Who was who in the GDR? A Biographical Lexicon, Links, 2000
personal data
SURNAME Munschke, Ewald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German general of the KVP and NVA, SED functionary
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 1981
Place of death Berlin