Max Steffen

Max Steffen (born November 24, 1909 in Bernau near Berlin ; † September 4, 1988 ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Neubrandenburg .

Life

Steffen, son of a working-class family, attended elementary school and learned to be a bricklayer . He later worked in this profession as well as a metal worker. In 1925 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany and in 1927 the Communist Party of Germany. He worked for the Red Youth Front in Berlin-Buch and in Bernau.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists in 1933, Steffen took part in the communist resistance. He was temporarily imprisoned in Oranienburg concentration camp , and after his release he was under police supervision. From 1934 to 1938 he worked as a construction worker in Bernau, from 1938 as a bricklayer in Zepernick , Schönow and Berlin . Steffen did military service and was taken prisoner by the Soviets . He attended an Antifa school and was a teacher and director of the Antifa regional school in Baku .

In 1948 Steffen returned to Germany. In 1948 he joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and in 1949 the Free German Trade Union Federation and the Society for German-Soviet Friendship . He worked as a teacher at the SED state party school in Brandenburg . From September 1949 he was an employee, from February 1950 deputy head and finally from June 1950 head of the party training department at the SED state committee in Brandenburg. From May 1951 he was also a member of the secretariat of the SED country leadership, where he was responsible for propaganda and agitation. 1952/1953 he studied at the party college "Karl Marx" .

From September 1953 to October 1960 he acted as the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Neubrandenburg and from 1953 to 1958 he was also a member of the Neubrandenburg district assembly . From 1954 to 1963 Steffen was a member of the People's Chamber and a member of the Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs. From 1958 to 1963 he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED . From 1961 to 1980 he worked as the first secretary of the SED company party organization at VEB Kraftwerk Lübbenau , later also as director for management and vocational training at VVB Kraftwerke.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver (1956) and Gold (1979)
• Medal of Merit of the GDR

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 2nd, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1979, ISBN 3-8012-0034-5 , p. 306.
• Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990 . Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla . KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 , p. 885.
• Friederike Sattler: Economic order in transition. Politics, organization and function of the KPD / SED in the state of Brandenburg during the establishment of the central planned economy in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945–52 . LIT Verlag, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6321-2 , p. 964.
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Steffen, Max . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Germany , October 7, 1956, p. 7.
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland , September 29, 1979, p. 4.