Paul Rumbles

Paul Max Rumpelt (born October 5, 1909 in Riesa ; † January 10, 1961 ) was from 1952 to 1958 head of Department XIV of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) responsible for the penal system , and from 1960 until his death head of Department XVI (Securing prisons).

Life

The son of a locksmith graduated from elementary school in 1924 and learned to be an electrician at the Central German steelworks by 1928 . Between 1928 and 1930 he worked as a worker. There followed five years without a permanent job. In 1928 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Germany and in 1933 the KPD . Rumpelt was arrested by the Gestapo for illegally possessing weapons and sentenced to three months in prison. He then spent 13 months in the Riesa and Hohnstein concentration camps . After his release in 1935, he worked as a fitter in the Central German steelworks in Riesa until the end of the war , without ever being drafted into the Wehrmacht .

In 1945 Rumpelt joined the KPD again. On behalf of the party, he accepted a post with the Saxon police in Grossenhain . There he was first district manager before he was appointed head of the Riesa police station . By 1949 he made it to the head of the People's Police District Offices in Dippoldiswalde and Marienberg . From October 1949 to October 1950 Rumpelt attended a course in the USSR . On December 1, 1950, he was hired by the MfS in Berlin . There he initially took over the management of Department IV (counter-espionage) from Werner Kukelski , before he was appointed head of Department XIV (pre-trial detention / prison system) in 1952. As such, he was responsible for the MfS prisons. At the beginning of his activity, Rumpelt received a reprimand because he "as head of department XIV grossly violated his duty of supervision", which resulted in "intolerable conditions in the penal institution". Nevertheless, Rumpelt was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1953 and transferred to the MfS management office in 1956. On March 1, 1960, he took over the management of the newly established Department XVI (Securing Prisons). As a result of a serious car accident, he suffered from health problems. Rumpelt died of cardiovascular disease on January 10, 1961 and was buried in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery. Kurt Zimmermann took over his post as Head of Department XVI .

literature

• Johannes Beleites: Department XIV: Prison . In: Siegfried Suckut / Ehrhart Neubert / Walter Süß / Jens Gieseke et al. (Eds.): Anatomy of the State Security - History, Structure and Methods , Berlin 1995, PDF .
• Hanna Labrenz-Weiß: Main Department II: Counter- espionage . In: Siegfried Suckut / Ehrhart Neubert / Walter Süß / Jens Gieseke et al. (Eds.): Anatomy of the State Security - History, Structure and Methods , Berlin 1995, PDF .
• Jens Gieseke: Paul Rumpelt . In: BStU : Who was who in the Ministry for State Security? (PDF, 537 kB), MfS-Handbuch V / 4, Berlin 1998, p. 61.
• Jens Gieseke:  Rumbles, Paul . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Roger Engelmann , Bernd Florath , Helge Heidemeyer, Daniela Münkel , Arno Polzin, Walter Süß : The MfS Lexicon. 3rd updated edition, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-86153-900-1 , p. 282, online version .

Web links

• MfS lexicon: Paul Rumpelt