Paul Margrave

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Markgraf (born July 17, 1910 in Berlin ; † April 7, 1993 there ) was the communist police chief in Berlin and Berlin (East) from 1945 to 1949 .

Life

Markgraf, son of a commercial clerk and a saleswoman, learned the profession of baker from 1925 to 1928 after graduating from elementary school . On May 1, 1931, he joined the Reichswehr as a professional soldier and committed himself to a career as a sergeant in the infantry for twelve years . As a sergeant he moved in 1939 in the war , rose to sergeant on, was on October 1, 1941 Lieutenant appointed on February 1, 1942 Lieutenant and on December 1, 1942 Captain transported. On January 5, 1943, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross as the leader of Panzerjäger Department 40 in the 24th Panzer Division . In Stalingrad he got in the same year with the 6th Army in Soviet captivity .

Stalingrad became the turning point in his life. Sent by Walter Ulbricht to a four-month course at the Antifa school in Gorki, he met Wilhelm Zaisser , who later became Minister of State Security, as a teacher. He then attended the Antifa school in Krasnogorsk . He joined the National Committee for Free Germany , was a founding member of the Federation of German Officers and co-signer of the founding documents and the “Appeal to the German Generals and Officers! An Volk und Wehrmacht ! ”From September 12, 1943. He was then deployed from 1943 to 1945 as a front-line representative of the NKFD in the ranks of the Red Army.

On April 30, 1945, as a member of the Ulbricht group , Markgraf arrived in Berlin on a second plane with nine other prisoners of war, where he was appointed police chief in Berlin by the Soviet city ​​commandant General Bersarin before May 20 . Obviously, the appointment of Margrave, who was one of the group's ten “anti-fascist prisoners of war”, went back to Ulbricht's initiative . Margrave, who now held the rank of colonel without explanation , accompanied the announcement of his appointment with a self-portrait in the Berliner Zeitung on May 27, 1945, in which he used the term “ People's Police ”. Margrave, who was initially independent, became a member of the KPD in 1945 and of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in April 1946 . The Soviet occupying power had appointed him as police chief with the title of police colonel, who was also to be the commander of the protection police and had to wear a police uniform. After the personal union between the police chief and the police force was abolished on Margrave's initiative, he was initially no longer in uniform. At the inauguration of the Treptower Memorial on May 8, 1948, he appeared in the uniform of a chief inspector ( major general ).

On July 26, 1948, at the height of the Berlin blockade , Mayor Ferdinand Friedensburg suspended him from his post because of “continued unconstitutional illegal measures, failure to fulfill his legal duties and because of his continued refusal to carry out instructions from the magistrate ”. In the Soviet sector, Markgraf had dismissed all “non-communist” organized police employees and ensured that the police watched the occupation of the conference building of the city ​​council in Berlin-Mitte by rioters controlled by the SED. The result was the move of the city council to the British sector , which started the division of Berlin. It continued when Margrave refused to resign and continued to serve in the city's Soviet sector with Soviet approval, while his successor, Johannes Stumm, appointed by the magistrate, set up a police headquarters for the western sectors.

He made his last public appearance at the birthday congratulations of the Lord Mayor of East Berlin, Friedrich Ebert , on September 12, 1949. From then on he no longer appeared as police chief and was represented by his vice-presidents Richard Gyptner and Alfred Schönherr . When the new police chief, Chief Inspector Waldemar Schmidt , was appointed on February 2, 1950 by Mayor Friedrich Ebert, he was thanked and informed that he was relieved of the role of police chief by placing a higher order.

From October 1949 to October 1950 he took part in the first regimental commander course in Priwolsk near Saratov (USSR). In December 1950 he took over command of the Prenzlau VP readiness , but was already taken over by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in 1951 . He switched to the Ministry of Transport of the GDR , Main Department Motor Traffic / Transport, where he directed the employees militarily. He was Colonel of the Barracked People's Police (KVP) until 1956, of the National People's Army (NVA) until 1958 and then commander of the border police. Most recently he was the chief officer of the Berlin Guard Regiment Feliks Dzierzynski of the MfS.

On the occasion of his 60th birthday on July 30, 1970, as Colonel in Berlin, he was presented with the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold. Markgraf retired in 1971. He died at the age of 82 and was buried in the Friedrichsfelde municipal cemetery.

Awards

literature

  • 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. 512.
  • Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Margrave, Paul . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Stefan Winckler: A margrave as a willing executor of totalitarianism. The biography of the German professional soldier Paul H. Markgraf (SED) with special consideration of his tenure as Berlin Police President 1945–1948 / 49. In: Heiner Timmermann (Ed.): The GDR - Analyzes of an abandoned state . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, pp. 343-353.
  • Gerhard Keiderling: The "Margrave Case" . In: ders .: About Germany's unity. Ferdinand Friedensburg and the Cold War in Berlin 1945–1952 . Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2009, pp. 279–285.
  • "Free Germany" twice. From Stalingrad to Berlin . In: Der Spiegel . No. 5 , 1947, pp. 2 ( online ).
  • Margrave stay tough. To obey his masters . In: Der Spiegel . No. 12 , 1948, pp. 5 ( online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 13, 1948, p. 4.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Leonhard : The revolution dismisses its children , Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1987, ISBN 3 462 01802 7 , p. 303 u. 456.
  3. ↑ On the ten "anti-fascist prisoners of war" and Ulbricht's share in the allocation of posts see: Jochen Staadt: We are helping to create order . In: Journal of the SED State Research Association, SED State Research Association of the Free University of Berlin, No. 28/2010, pp. 90–117, here pp. 92–94
  4. ↑ Congratulations on the 75th birthday in: Neues Deutschland , July 17, 1985, p. 2.
  5. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , March 13, 1948, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , May 10, 1949, p. 6.
  7. ^ Albrecht Lampe (overall management): Berlin. Assertion of freedom and self-government 1946–1948. Published on behalf of the Berlin Senate . Heinz Spitzing, Berlin 1959 (= series of publications on contemporary history in Berlin, Volume 2), p. 572, there further references; also to the following
  8. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , September 13, 1949, p. 6.
  9. ^ Neue Zeit , February 3, 1950, p. 6.
  10. ↑ Remilitarization. Fare back . In: Der Spiegel . No. 30 , 1951 ( online ).
  11. ^ Neue Zeit , July 1, 1970, p. 6.
  12. ↑ Neues Deutschland , July 31, 1970, p. 2.
  13. ^ Obituary notice in: Berliner Zeitung , May 8, 1993, p. 8.
  14. ↑ Be careful when talking . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1949 ( online ).
personal data
SURNAME Margrave, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Margrave, Paul Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German police chief of Greater Berlin or Berlin (East)
DATE OF BIRTH July 17, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1993
Place of death Berlin