Franz Schkopik

Franz Schkopik (born January 5, 1900 in Salgótarján , Hungary ; † October 18, 1980 ) was a political functionary ( KPTSch / SED ) in the First Czechoslovak Republic and the German Democratic Republic . He was the head of district administrations of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR.

Life

Schkopik, son of a glass blower and a farm worker , attended elementary school in Graz (Austria). In 1914 he also began an apprenticeship as a glassblower. He worked in this profession until 1922, only interrupted by his time (1918/19) as a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army and the Hungarian Red Army .

In 1920 Schkopik fled to Czechoslovakia . There he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KPTsch) in 1921. From 1922 to 1938 he was mostly unemployed or doing unskilled work. From 1925 to 1938 he was a member of the KPTsch district leadership, from 1931 to 1938 also political leader of the KPTsch in the Teplitz district .

In 1939 he emigrated to the Soviet Union , where he initially worked as a metal cutter in Chelyabinsk . In 1943 he attended the Comintern political school in Ufa . In 1943/44 he was a political instructor in the Red Army , then in 1945/46 he was an instructor for anti-fascist work in various POW camps .

In 1946 he went to Germany in the Soviet Zone and became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From 1947 to 1949 he was a clerk in the personnel department of the SED state executive committee for Saxony-Anhalt . Schkopik joined the German People's Police (VP) and in the spring of 1949 became a member of a "screening commission" which, under the leadership of Martin Weikert , head of personnel at the VP state authority in Saxony-Anhalt, was looking for suitable cadres for the establishment of an East German secret service apparatus. In the same year he was employed by the administration for the protection of the economy of Saxony-Anhalt, from February 1950 he worked for the state administration of Saxony-Anhalt of the Ministry for State Security (MfS), where he was head of the personnel department. Schkopik was from August 1952 to December 1953 with the rank of inspector (colonel) head of the newly formed district administration Magdeburg of the state security. When military ranks were introduced in the MfS in 1953, he was reassessed to lieutenant colonel. He kept this rank until his departure. From December 1953 to 1958 he acted as head of the district administration Neubrandenburg (successor to Richard Horn ) and was there also a member of the office of the SED district leadership. From June 1958 to September 1962 he headed the State Secrets Department (SVS) at the MfS in Berlin. In 1962 he was released from active service with the MfS and retired.

Schkopik last lived in Berlin-Lichtenberg and died at the age of 80.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (1957) and Gold (1970)
• Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit

literature

• 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. 296.
• Gabriele Baumgartner: Schkopik, Franz. In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla . KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 777.
• Heike van Hoorn : New home in socialism. The resettlement and integration of Sudeten German Antifa resettlers in the Soviet Zone / GDR . Klartext, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-89861-241-4 , p. 343.
• Gottfried Hamacher et al. (Ed.): Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. Short biographies. (= Manuscripts / Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Volume 53). 2., corr. Edition. Dietz, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-320-02941-X , p. 182.
• Jens Gieseke :  Schkopik, Franz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel , Arno Polzin, Walter Süß : The MfS Lexicon. 3rd updated edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-900-1 , p. 285, online version .

Web links

• MfS lexicon: Franz Schkopik

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Planning and founding of the Magdeburg district administration of the MfS ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .  
2. ^ Jörg Rudolph, Frank Drauschke, Alexander Sachse: Sentenced to death by shooting. Victims of Stalinism from Saxony-Anhalt, 1950–1953 ( Memento of the original from May 8, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The  archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . State representative for the records of the State Security Service of the former GDR in Saxony-Anhalt, Magdeburg 2006, p. 58.
3. ^ Roland Wiedmann: The service units of the MfS 1950–1989. An organizational overview (MfS manual) . BStU, Berlin 2012, p. 176.
4. ^ Obituary in Neues Deutschland , October 22, 1980, p. 2.