Gertrud Bobek
Gertrud Bobek (born November 15, 1898 in Bingen ; † June 25, 2000 in Bautzen ) was a German resistance fighter during National Socialism and a high-ranking member of the SED in the GDR , state secretary and deputy GDR minister for popular education from 1954 to 1958. The During the GDR era, the city of Bautzen granted her honorary citizenship, which has now expired .
Life
Gertrud Bobek was born as Gertrud Denner as the daughter of the qualified lecturer for electrical engineering Otto Denner and his wife Helene in Bingen in 1898. She studied in Munich and did her doctorate at the Philosophical Faculty of Berlin University .
From the SPD to the KPD
Even during her studies she was involved in the left-wing free student movement. At twenty-one she became a member of the SPD , but in 1928 she left the party. At the age of twenty-eight she married the German-Jewish physical chemist Dr. Felix Bobek , who was employed in a test laboratory of the Berlin electrical company Osram. She became the mother of two daughters. Together with her husband, she joined the KPD in Berlin in 1932. Even after the Reichstag fire and the increased persecution of opponents of the regime that followed, both spouses continued to be politically active. Felix Bobek was arrested in 1935 for illegal anti-fascist activities. Thereupon Gertrud Bobek fled with her daughters and emigrated with them to the Soviet Union . Her husband was executed on January 22, 1938 in Plötzensee for " treason ".
Exile in the Soviet Union
From May 1936 to September 1944 she worked as a research assistant at the Moscow International Agricultural Institute and the Geographical Institute of the Academy of Sciences. She raised her two daughters in state children's homes. During these years she developed from an anti-fascist to a staunch communist with a Marxist-Leninist character. She was able to escape the Stalinist terror through arrests and murder among German emigrants. In October 1941, the Moscow Institute was evacuated to Alma-Ata in Kazakhstan . Gertrud Bobek stayed there until she was requested by the Political Committee in autumn 1944. Near Moscow she was trained for future work in the Soviet-occupied area of Germany, in part by prominent political emigrants such as Hermann Matern , Oelssner or Winzer. She was one of the few women in this unit who was supposed to set up a functioning civil administration in the Soviet-occupied areas as quickly as possible.
Time as a functionary
Three weeks after the end of the war, on May 28, 1945, Gertrud Bobek returned to Germany with the last group of trained special representatives. She was sent to Bautzen as a commissioner and tried to find suitable communist and anti-fascist cadres for the administration of the city and district. Since the KPD in Bautzen had largely been crushed, this was a difficult undertaking. She participated in the dismissal of Nazi teachers and was able to prevent the execution of all former NSDAP members in Bautzen, which an officer of the Red Army wanted to enforce without authorization. Initially employed in Bautzen as a professional city councilor, she then achieved a political career in the GDR. As State Secretary she was responsible for teacher training as well as for kindergartens, youth welfare and home education . From 1954 to 1958 she was Deputy GDR Minister for Popular Education. Subsequently, she was entrusted as director with the management of the pedagogical school for kindergarten teachers in Leipzig. From 1965 she withdrew from public life and wrote her memoirs until 1985. In 1983 she was awarded the Karl Marx Order . In 1968 she received the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold, in 1973 the clasp of honor and in 1978 the order of the Star of Friendship of Nations in gold. She died in Bautzen in June 2000.
Fonts
- Gertrud Bobek: memories of my life . Taucha: Tauchaer Verlag (1998), ISBN 3910074936
literature
- Siegfried Grundmann: Felix Bobek - chemist in the KPD's secret apparatus (1932-1935). Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2004.
- Siegfried Grundmann: The secret apparatus of the KPD in the sights of the Gestapo. Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2008.
Web links
- Literature by and about Gertrud Bobek in the catalog of the German National Library
- Review of her book by Prof. Dr. Dietrich Grille (Erlangen)
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bobek, Gertrud |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Denner, Gertrud (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German resistance fighter and politician (SED) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 15, 1898 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 25, 2000 |
| Place of death | Bautzen |