Georg Henke

Georg Henke (born April 9, 1908 in Berlin ; † December 8, 1986 there ) was a German communist , resistance fighter against National Socialism and diplomat of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Life

The export merchant joined the Central Employees 'Association in 1928 and became a teacher and at the same time head of the Economics Working Group of the Marxist Workers' School (MASCH). In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). From 1933 to 1935 he worked illegally in Germany for the KPD district leadership in Berlin and the illegal press service. Then Henke went into exile in Czechoslovakia . From 1935 to 1937 he was a student at the International Lenin School in Moscow and in March 1938 he went via France to Spain , where he received the XI. International Brigade . Later, after having immigrated to Sweden illegally, Henke worked as an instructor at the KPD's foreign leadership, which was located in Stockholm . There he wrote articles for the Comintern magazine "Die Welt", directed by Jakob Rosner , mostly under the pseudonym "Erna Schmitz", and made several illegal trips to the German Reich. In 1942 he was arrested by the Swedish police. After his release he worked in Uppsala in the Free German Cultural Association , later he worked in Stockholm for the magazine "Political Information".

After the war, Henke returned to Germany, to the Soviet occupation zone , in 1946 . From 1946 to 1950 he was editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper "Die Wirtschaft", from 1950 to 1951 trade councilor at the embassy in Moscow, then until 1955 deputy head of the GDR representation at the Council for Mutual Economic Aid , also in Moscow. On May 6, 1955, Henke was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver. From 1956 to 1958 he worked as the deputy chairman of the State Planning Commission (SPK) and from 1958 to 1964 was head of the main department for international economic relations at the SPK and in 1961 head of the SPK representation in Moscow. In 1964 he became head of the economic policy department in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was the GDR's ambassador to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from 1968 to 1972 .

His urn was on the Central Cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde in the graves plant for the victims and persecuted by the Nazi regime buried.

reception

In Peter Weiss ' novel The Aesthetics of Resistance occurs Georg Henke on as a minor character. Weiss interviewed Henke on October 20, 1972 and used the results of the interview for the second and third volumes of his novel.

literature

• Peter Weiss: The notebooks. Critical complete edition . Edited by Jürgen Schutte in collaboration with Wiebke Amthor and Jenny Willner. Berlin: The digital library, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89853-549-6 . Here: Appendix, p. 15251.
• Gottfried Hamacher. With the assistance of André Lohmar: Against Hitler - Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement: short biographies . Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Berlin. Volume 53. ISBN 3-320-02941-X ( PDF ).
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Henke, Georg . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Henke's grave at www.berlin.friedparks.de (accessed on November 28, 2017).