Kurt Halker

Kurt Hälker (aliases: Robert Vidal , Hugo Erb ; born May 2, 1922 in Duisburg , † February 4, 2010 in Berlin ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism . He passed on information he received as a marine radio operator to the Resistance . Later he was, among other things, Deputy Secretary General of the Peace Council of the GDR .

Life

After graduating from school, he completed a craft training as an upholsterer. Shortly afterwards he received the draft notice.

As a member of the German Navy , he was stationed in France from 1941 and was employed in a communications department on Guernsey and then on the staff of the Navy in Paris . Through mate Hans Heisel , he got in touch with emigrated German resistance fighters like Thea Saefkow and thus connection to the Resistance , through which he was able to pass on important military information to the Allies . Together with Arthur Eberhard and Hans Heisel, Hälker formed an "anti-fascist Wehrmacht group" in early 1943. In autumn 1943 he was one of the founding members of the Comité "Allemagne libre" pour l'Ouest (CALPO).

In the run-up to the popular uprising in Paris in August 1944, they withdrew from the navy and integrated themselves into the military part of the Resistance, Hälker was given the name Robert Vidal . He was one of the insurgents who defended the building of the central committee of the FKP against attacks by German troops. After the final liberation of Paris, he took this as an opportunity to become a member of the FKP. Between September 1944 and January 1945 he was the CALPO's front line officer in the French army on the fronts in Lorraine and Alsace . From March 1945 he was trained by the US armed forces and the OSS in France to work as a parachute agent in the areas of Germany still occupied by the Wehrmacht . At the end of the war it was no longer used.

In 1945 he returned to Duisburg and became a member of the KPD . After moving to the SBZ in 1947, Hälker began studying in Leipzig and became a member of the SED . From 1950 he carried out various full-time and honorary functions in the peace movement and in anti-fascist organizations, among other things he was Deputy Secretary General of the Peace Council of the GDR from 1972.

Hälker lived in Berlin-Karlshorst , was occasionally a witness to the history of the anti-fascist resistance and was active in the DRAFD association.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (1979) and Gold (1987)
• Order of the Star of Friendship of Nations in Silver (1982)

Fonts

• Shortly before the end in St. Germaine or a risky final. Memories of parachute training in 1945. In: Hans Schafranek / Johannes Tuchel (ed.): War in the ether. Resistance and espionage in World War II. Picus Verlag, Vienna 2004 (see also: Shortly before the end in St. Germain / On behalf of CALPO in spring 1945 in a US Army training camp. )
• This is how I experienced May 8, 1945 . Hälker's reminder on the DRAFD website.

literature

• Dora Schaul : Resistance. Memories of German anti-fascists . Dietz, Berlin 1973 / Röderberg, Frankfurt 1975 DNB
• Karlheinz Pech : On the side of the Resistance. The “Free Germany” movement for the West in France (1943–1945) . 2., revised. u. exp. Edition. Military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-327-00282-7 .
• Liberateur , special edition of Le Monde , Paris 2004
• Gottfried Hamacher et al. (Ed.): Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. Short biographies (series: Manuscripts / Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, vol. 53) (PDF; 894 kB). Dietz, Berlin 2005, p. 94.

Movies

• Kurt Hälker and Hans Heisel - German resistance fighters in the Résistance. Documentary by Bodo Kaiser (Germany 2003, 55 min).
• France's foreign patriots - Germans in the Resistance. Director: Wolfgang Schoen, Frank Gutermuth (Germany 2006, 53 min). ( France's foreign patriots - Germans in the Resistance in the Internet Movie Database )

Web links

• Karlen Vesper: The armed forces deserter
• Jean-Paul Pierot: Resistant sous l'uniforme de la Kriegsmarine , in: L'Humanité , July 28, 1994 (French).
• Farewell to a Wehrmacht deserter
• Kurt Hälker in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Congratulations on your 60th birthday . In: Neues Deutschland , May 2, 1982.
2. ↑ Luitwin Bies: The IEDW was founded 35 years ago. Falsification of history is counteracted on the side of the Association of Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. V. (DRAFD).