Kurt Herholz

Kurt Bruno Herholz (born September 25, 1905 in Danzig ; † July 18, 1983 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ), trade unionist and anti-fascist resistance fighter .

Kurt Bruno Herholz

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Life

Herholz was born into a social democratic working class family in Danzig-Schidlitz . His father Wilhelm Arthur August Herholz (* July 25, 1880; † December 17, 1935) went to Gelsenkirchen to look for work in December 1908 . In 1909 he brought his wife Agnes with their children Kurt, Alfred and Elsa to join them. After attending primary school, Herholz learned the trade of bricklayer . From 1919 he was unionized and a member of the Socialist Workers' Youth . He held various functions in the youth union. In 1924 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany and in 1926 the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). During this time, Herholz also acted as chairman of the German Building Trade Association in Gelsenkirchen. From January to July 1929 Herholz was a student at the International Lenin School in Moscow . After his return to Germany he was an editorial volunteer at the KPD newspaper Freiheit in Düsseldorf from August to December 1929 . In 1930 he was active as an instructor in the trade union department of the KPD district leadership in the Ruhr area . On November 9, 1931, he married Charlotte (1910-2000), the daughter of Gustav Sobottka . From 1931 he worked again for the communist daily press. From March 1931 to August 1932 he was editor at the Ruhrecho in Essen , in March / April 1932 editor of the Mannheimer Arbeiterzeitung and then until 1933 editor of the Niedersächsische Arbeiterzeitung in Hanover .

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Herholz continued to work illegally for the KPD. He was arrested in February 1933. After six weeks in prison in Hanover, he was taken to the Moringen concentration camp . On November 29, 1933, the Gestapo transferred him to the Oranienburg concentration camp and held him there until February 18, 1934. After his release, Herholz was unemployed until 1936, and from 1936 to 1945 he again worked as a bricklayer in Berlin . Here he was again active in the communist resistance together with his wife Charlotte.

After the end of the war , Herholz initially worked as an editor for the Schweriner Volkszeitung in June / July 1945 . From July 1945 to April 1946 he headed the economics department and was third secretary for culture and education at the KPD state leadership in Mecklenburg . From November 1945 he was also chairman of the FDGB -Landesverband Mecklenburg, and 1946/47 also a member of the FDGB-Bundesverband. Herholz was a member of the SED since the forced unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED.

From May 1946 to June 1949 Herholz was a research assistant and lecturer at the SED party college in Liebenwalde and Kleinmachnow . In connection with the Wolfgang Leonhard affair , he was reprimanded by the Central Party Control Commission for “ideological carelessness” and had to leave the party college in May 1949. From June 1949 to December 1950 he was the deputy head of cultural policy work in the zone administration of the machine rental stations . From 1951 to 1953 he was the main department head and member of the secretariat of the VdgB central board, where he headed the intelligence department. In 1953/54 he was the main advisor at the Ministry of Development. In 1954/55 he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Agricultural Economics at the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin . In 1955/56 he headed the department for internal German trade at the German internal and external trade in food (DIA food).

From 1956 to 1961 he was a research assistant at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the SED Central Committee (IML), where he worked from 1961 to 1967, from 1967 to 1972 head of the cadre working group at the IML, and from 1972 to 1976 again as a research assistant at the IML.

Herholz was a candidate from July 1958 (fifth party congress) to January 1963 (sixth party congress), then a member of the Central Revision Commission of the SED (ZRK) until his death .

Herholz was buried in the "Pergolenweg" grave complex at the Socialist Memorial at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin.

Awards

• Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit (1975)
• Order “ Banner of Labor ”, level I

literature

• Martin Broszat et al. (Ed.): SBZ manual: State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949 . 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-486-55262-7 , p. 928.
• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr . KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 306.
• Gerd-Rüdiger Stephan et al. (Ed.): The parties and organizations of the GDR. A manual . Dietz, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-320-01988-0 , p. 967.
• Hans-Joachim Fieber et al. (Ed.): Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon . Volume 3 [H-J]. Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89626-353-6 , p. 86.
• Berit Olschewski: "Friends" in enemy territory. Red Army and German post-war society in the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz 1945–1953 . BWV Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-830-51690-3 , p. 503.
• Andreas Herbst : Herholz, Kurt. In: Dieter Dowe , Karlheinz Kuba, Manfred Wilke (Hrsg.): FDGB-Lexikon. Function, structure, cadre and development of a mass organization of the SED (1945–1990). Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86872-240-6 .
• Hermann Weber : Back when my name was Wunderlich. From party student to critical socialist. The SED party college "Karl Marx" until 1949. Construction, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-351-02535-1 , pp. 259, 320–323, 254, 404.
• Michael F. Scholz : Peasant victims of Germany policy. The communist Kurt Vieweg in the jungle of the secret services . Structure paperback, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-7466-8030-1 , pp. 104, 150, 156, 159, 169.

Web links

• Short biography , Brandenburg Memorials Foundation (The political prisoners of the Oranienburg concentration camp)