Karl Linke (General)

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Karl Linke (born January 10, 1900 in Görsdorf , Bohemia ; † May 16, 1961 in Zittau ) was an officer of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic and chief of the military reconnaissance of the National People's Army . Most recently he held the rank of colonel in the reserve .

First World War

After attending school for eight years, Linke was trained as a ribbon weaver from 1914 to 1918 and worked in this profession in a factory. In 1915 he joined the Socialist Workers' Youth . In the last months of the First World War he served as a soldier on the southern front, where he was taken prisoner in Italy at the end of the war.

Interwar period

He was released from this in 1919 and worked as a waste worker in Senftenberg until 1923 . Here he joined the USPD in 1920 , of which he remained a member until 1923. Then he returned to the meanwhile founded Czechoslovakia . From 1924 to 1929 he worked as a weaver and was at the same time a member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia until 1930 . He worked for the Arbeiter Illustrierte Zeitung and was an escape helper for the KPD . In 1930, Linke was arrested for illegal photography in the Witkowitz ironworks , but was able to emigrate to the Soviet Union . He joined the WKP (B) , of which he remained a member until 1951. Linke worked as a weaver in the Soviet Union until 1934. From 1935 to 1939 he was an employee at the Ministry of Light Industry and in 1939 came to Moscow as an employee at the Chamber of Commerce .

Second World War

After the attack by the German Wehrmacht on the Soviet Union, Linke volunteered for the Red Army , where, among other things, he was also the commissioner of a partisan division. In this role he took part in parachute missions behind the German lines in the Gomel area. As leader of a scouting party, he took part in the armed Slovak resistance struggle in 1944 and in the Slovak national uprising from August to October 1944 .

In 1946 he returned to the Czechoslovak Republic, where he worked as the master of the ribbon weaving mill in Hrádek nad Nisou until 1949 . From 1950 to 1951, thanks to his excellent knowledge of Russian, he acted as an interpreter for the Soviet representatives on the Control Council in Berlin . In 1951, Linke took GDR citizenship and joined the SED . He was then head of department and head of the secretariat of the chairman of the State Planning Commission until 1952 . On June 1, 1952, Linke joined the Barracked People's Police , where he was appointed major general on October 1, 1952 . From 1952 to 1955 Linke acted as head of the administration for general questions and clarification in the Ministry of the Interior. In 1956 he rose to head of Administration 19 (Enlightenment) in the Ministry of National Defense .

His career came to an end when he had employed a CIA agent as a housekeeper, who after her escape in July 1957 had left him copies of secret documents, a West German passport with his picture and 10,000 DM in capital for a “start in a better life” . Linke was relieved of his post on August 31, 1957 for breach of confidentiality obligations and, at the same time, retired from the rank of colonel of the reserve. He was also banned from Berlin.

Linke received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver on May 6, 1955 . He was also the bearer of other, including Soviet orders and decorations .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Der Spiegel 33/1992: Start in a better life
personal data
SURNAME Left, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently Colonel dR
DATE OF BIRTH January 10, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Görsdorf
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1961
Place of death Zittau