Johannes Warnke

Johannes Warnke , also: Hans Warnke (born August 15, 1896 in Hamburg ; † January 9, 1984 in Berlin ) was a German communist , resistance fighter against National Socialism and politician ( SED ) in the GDR .

Warnke came from a family of roofers in Hamburg. After elementary school, he trained as a roofer from 1911 to 1914. In 1912 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth and in 1914 the SPD . In 1918/19 he was a member of the workers 'and soldiers' council in Hamburg. In June 1919 he fled from General von Lettow-Vorbeck's troops to Güstrow , where he was chairman of the USPD and, in 1920, a member of the USPD's state board. In the same year he joined the KPD . From 1920 to 1924 and again from 1927 to 1930 he was a city councilor in Güstrow. 1923 after the suppression of the Kapp Putschthe KPD district leadership commissioned him to set up an illegal military apparatus. From 1924 to 1926 he had to go to prison for preparation for high treason . From 1924 to 1933 he was a member of the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Chairman of the Communist Party parliamentary group, since 1926, political leader of the Communist Party district leadership Mecklenburg. In the years 1933 to 1935 he served a prison term in the Dreibergen-Bützow prison for illegal work in the resistance against National Socialism , after which he was under police supervision. From 1939 to 1945 he was a prisoner in Sachsenhausen concentration camp .

In 1945 he was appointed Lord Mayor of Güstrow, was a member of the KPD state management for Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania from 1945 until the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD in April 1946 , first vice-president and head of the internal administration department of the state administration from July 1945 to December 1946 and from December 1946 to October 1949 State Minister of the Interior and thus responsible for the police. At the same time, he was a member of the SED state executive and its secretariat from 1946 to 1949 and a member of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament from 1946 to 1950 . He was considered the strong man in Wilhelm Höcker's cabinet .

Other functions were: 1946 to 1984 member of the party executive committee or the Central Committee of the SED , 1948/1949 member of the German People's Council , 1949 to 1963 member of the People's Chamber , October 1949 to 1952 State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR , from 1952 to 1974 member of the SED Rostock district management , 1952 to 1959 chairman of the Rostock district council, retired for health reasons and 1959 to 1966 director of the Rostock port authority.

His brother is Herbert Warnke .

literature

• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Warnke, Hans (Johannes) . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Herbert Mühlstädt : Hans Warnke - a communist. Hinstorff, Rostock 1972.
• Roman Guski, Johanna Jawinsky, Hannelore Rabe: Memorials for victims and persecuted of the Nazi regime at the New Cemetery in Rostock (published by the VVN-BdA Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania), Rostock 2011, p. 40f. ISBN 978-300-0350-375
• Michael Buddrus , Sigrid Fritzlar: State governments and ministers in Mecklenburg 1871–1952 . A biographical lexicon. 1st edition. Edition Temmen , Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8378-4044-5 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Johannes Warnke in the catalog of the German National Library
• Literature about Johannes Warnke in the state bibliography MV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Peter Hübner: Herbert Warnke at the top of the FDGB, p. 106, bulletin of the Institute for Social Movements, Issue 35 (2006)