Karl Dröll

Karl Dröll (born March 10, 1897 in Frankfurt am Main , † February 7, 1969 in Bernau near Berlin ) was a German politician of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), who in 1943 in Soviet exile as a victim of the Stalin purges ten years after Tomsk in Siberia was banished . In 1955, he was allowed into the German Democratic Republic leave (DDR) and later was editor at the news agency General German intelligence service (ADN).

Life

Dröll, the son of a master baker , worked as a druggist after graduating from elementary school . He was drafted in 1914 and fought in World War I until 1918 . After being wounded, he was employed by the demobilization authority in Berlin in 1918/19 . In 1919 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and worked as an office assistant at the Magistrate of Greater Berlin . After the acquisition office was converted into a municipal company, he worked there as a clerk. In 1925 Dröll joined the Red Front Fighters Union (RFB) and in 1926 became a member of the KPD. He volunteered first in the Neukölln district and later in the Mitte district for the KPD and was elected to the KPD district leadership Berlin-Brandenburg . From 1929 to 1933 he was a city councilor for constituency 1 Berlin-Mitte. In 1930, the Berlin-Mitte district assembly elected him unpaid city ​​councilor . The President of the Province of Brandenburg, however, refused him confirmation for political reasons and he was unable to exercise his office. In 1931 Dröll lost his job at the Berlin acquisition company and then worked as an employee of the sales company for Russian oil products AG (DEROP) , most recently as deputy branch manager.

After the takeover of the Nazis , he was arrested on April 1, 1933 and three months in prison Plötzensee detained. In September 1933 he emigrated to the Netherlands with his wife Herta Dröll, née Neumann (* February 9, 1896 - November 15, 1979), and his son Hermann (* October 11, 1921, † 1942) to the Netherlands , where he worked for the Soviet Trading company Exportchleb worked. In 1935 the Exportchleb downsized its operations and dismissed Dröll. However, Dröll and his family were given permission to emigrate to the Soviet Union. There he worked in the club of foreign workers , as a translator for the Communist International (Comintern) and as an editor for the German national broadcaster . In November 1942 Dröll was expelled from the KPD because of "lack of vigilance" and "because he did not oppose the criminal spread of pro-fascist rumors by Hedeler , even tolerating them and not informing the party leadership". Dröll was exiled with his family to Tomsk in Siberia. He worked there as a stoker , his wife as a worker. Their son died of tuberculosis in Tomsk in 1942 .

After more than ten years, Dröll was allowed to travel to the GDR with his wife in 1955. In 1956, the Central Party Control Commission of the SED decided to recognize his KPD membership since 1926, which was tantamount to rehabilitation . Dröll first became an editor at the ADN news agency and later head of the Hermann Duncker archive at the Fritz Heckert trade union college in Bernau near Berlin .

literature

• Christine Fischer-Defoy (Ed.): Put in front of the door. Berlin city councilors and members of the magistrate persecuted during National Socialism from 1933 to 1945 . Active Museum Association, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-018931-9 , pp. 176f.
• Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographical Handbook 1918 to 1945 . 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kathrin Chod, Herbert Schwenk, Hainer Weisspflug: District councilors and their terms of office . In: Hans-Jürgen Mende , Kurt Wernicke (ed.): Berliner Bezirkslexikon, Mitte . Luisenstadt educational association . Haude and Spener / Edition Luisenstadt, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-89542-111-1 ( luise-berlin.de - as of October 7, 2009).