Karl Bathke

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Karl Bathke (born January 9, 1901 in Berlin ; † March 14, 1970 ibid) was a German politician ( USPD / KPD / SED ), journalist and editor-in-chief of the Leipziger Volkszeitung and the General German Intelligence Service (ADN).

Life

Bathke, the son of a metalworker and a maid , attended elementary school between 1907 and 1915 . During his school days he was already working as an errand boy from 1913. He completed an apprenticeship as a typesetter that began in 1915 . He then worked in Cologne and Berlin in this profession until 1933 . In 1919 he joined the Association of German Book Printers and became a member of the Free Socialist Youth , later of the Communist Youth Association (KJVD). In 1920 he joined the USPD in Cologne and joined the KPD with her left wing at the end of 1920. In 1920/21 he was a member of the KJVD management in Cologne. In 1921 Barthke attended evening university in Berlin. In 1921/22 he was a member of the KJVD Reichsleitung and in 1922/23 was first secretary of the KJVD Berlin-Kreuzberg as well as a member of the education committee of the KJVD headquarters. In 1923/24 Bathke worked as political director of the KPD printing company Dr. Selle Eisler in Berlin. From 1925 to 1927 he worked as a functionary for the KPD in Berlin-Kreuzberg and from 1927 to 1933 he was organizational manager and operational cell secretary of the KPD organ, Die Rote Fahne . Bathke was also a member of the Reich leadership of the RGO –Graphik branch.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , Bathke also supported the KPD in illegality. He organized illegal printing under the pseudonym Karl Blond . In May 1933 he emigrated to the Soviet Union via Prague . In 1933/34 Bathke was editor of the Deutsche Zentral-Zeitung in Moscow . In 1935/36 he stayed as an instructor for the KPD - under the code name Conrad - temporarily back in Germany, in Dresden and Hamburg . Bathke was also working undercover for the military intelligence service of the USSR (GRU). At the end of 1936 he fled to Prague again via Copenhagen . In Prague he worked as an instructor for the Central Committee of the KPD. In September / October 1937 Bathke attended a teacher training course at the International Lenin School in Moscow. At the end of 1937 he returned to Prague via Paris . In December 1938 he was arrested in Prague and expelled. Bathke emigrated to Great Britain , where he became seriously ill. He stayed first in Manchester and from May 1939 in London . In 1939/40 Bathke was the director of Inside Nazi Germany . In May 1940 he was interned as an " Enemy Alien " first on the Isle of Man , then in Canada , but later released to England for incapacity . From 1941 he lived under police supervision in Manchester and was a member of the KPD country leadership in Great Britain and from 1943 of the initiative committee of the Free German Movement (FDB). In 1942 he returned to London and became a member of the FDB board. In 1945/46 he was head of the immigration office for German refugees in London.

In October 1946 Bathke returned to Germany and became a member of the SED. Together with Josef Miller , he was responsible for re-migration matters in the Central Secretariat of the SED. From 1946 to 1950 Bathke was editor-in-chief of the news agency ADN and there head of the foreign editorial office. From 1950 to 1953 he was - as successor to Herbert Bergner - editor-in-chief of the Leipziger Volkszeitung . In 1952/1953 he was also a member of the SED district leadership in Leipzig . Bathke was disabled from 1953 to 1956. From 1956 to 1961 Bathke was a research assistant at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED and from 1957 temporarily head of the party archive, which he was involved in setting up. In 1962 Bathke retired for health reasons. From 1966 he was a member of the veterans' commission of the printing and paper industry union.

Bathke died at the age of 69. His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried, where his wife Martha is buried.

Awards

literature

  • Walter A. Schmidt: "So that Germany may live". A source work on the German anti-fascist resistance struggle 1933–1945 . Kongress-Verlag, Berlin 1959, p. 729 .
  • Werner Röder: The German socialist group in exile in Great Britain 1940-1945. A contribution to the history of the resistance against National Socialism . New life, Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973, p. 51, 207 f .
  • Hans-Joachim Fieber et al. (Ed.): Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon. Volume 1 (letters A and B). Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2004, p. 90.
  • Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Karl Bathke . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ urn burial . In: Neues Deutschland , April 25, 1970, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Bathke, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Karl Blond (pseudonym); Conrad (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, editor-in-chief of ADN and the Leipziger Volkszeitung
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 14, 1970
Place of death Berlin