Otto Schwab (officer)
Otto Schwab (born December 15, 1903 in Pechöfen , Bohemia , † December 28, 1972 ) was a German resistance fighter against fascism and later a People's Police and NVA officer of the GDR . During the war he did active work within the NKFD , especially in prisoner-of-war camps with officers and generals of the Hitler Army.
Life
After elementary school, Schwab learned the trade of a book printer . In 1919 he joined the social democratic youth organization of the ČSR and in 1921 switched to the newly founded Communist Youth Association. In 1928 he became a member of the KPTsch . In 1930 he went to Germany because of political persecution and worked for the Red Aid in Berlin. From 1932 to 1935 he studied in Moscow , stayed in the Soviet Union and then worked as a foreign language teacher in Kharkov and Moscow. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, he became a member of the Red Army . In 1944 he became a member of the KPD and a teacher at the Central Antifa School in the Talizy POW camp.
In 1949 he returned to Germany and joined the SED and the German People's Police (DVP). He was initially a political officer in the main training administration , political deputy at the political school of the DVP in Torgau, then already as a colonel in the political administration of the barracked people's police (KVP). As such, Schwab was involved in the "Bamler case". On September 1, 1953, in the Political Administration of the KVP, he chaired the discussion with Major General Rudolf Bamler on his behavior on June 17, 1953. After the conversation, Schwab stated that although the general was formally committed to the goals of the SED, in crisis situations " but cannot jump over his shadow. ”He saw Bamler merely as a“ decoration socialist ”. From 1954 to 1957 he was political advisor to Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus in building the military history department at the College of the Barracked People's Police in Dresden, which later became Friedrich Engels' Military Academy . After Paulus death, Schwab was head of the Propaganda Department of the Political Headquarters of the National People's Army (NVA). 1959/60 he was the deputy commander of the military academy "Friedrich Engels" in Dresden for political work and from 1961 to 1963 the first director of the army museum in Potsdam . In 1963 he retired from active service in the NVA and lived in Berlin.
Awards and honors
- Medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
- 1956 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
- 1963 Order Banner of Labor
- 1968 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold
- In 1980 the 3rd Rocket Brigade (3rd RBr) in Tautenhain was given the honorary name "Otto Schwab".
literature
- Andreas Herbst (eds.), Winfried Ranke, Jürgen Winkler: This is how the GDR worked. Volume 3: Lexicon of functionaries (= rororo manual. Vol. 6350). Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1994, ISBN 3-499-16350-0 , p. 311.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Short biography of the VVN-BdA Köpenick
- ↑ Hans Ehlert , Armin Wagner: Comrade General! The military elite of the GDR in biographical sketches , Ch Links Verlag, Berlin, 2003, p. 48 and 59
- ↑ http://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1983_2_5_foitzik.pdf p. 25
- ^ Obituary notice of the SED district leadership in Köpenick in Neues Deutschland from January 6, 1973
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schwab, Otto |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German military, officer of the People's Police and the NVA |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 15, 1903 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pechöfen , Bohemia |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 28, 1972 |