Richard Großkopf

Richard Grosskopf (* 1. May 1897 in Berlin , † 16th March 1977 ibid) one was German resistance fighter against the Nazis and later colonel and department head in the Main Intelligence Directorate (HVA), the Foreign Intelligence Service within the Ministry for State Security (Stasi) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR).

Life

KPD functionary

Großkopf learned the profession of cartographer after elementary school . In 1916 he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Until he was called up in 1917, he worked as a technical draftsman in the Aviation Research Institute in Berlin-Adlershof . In 1917 he switched to the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). He fought in the First World War until 1918 .

After the end of the war he worked as a lithographer in various Berlin companies. In 1919 he switched to the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In addition, he became a member of the Red Aid Germany (RHD), the International Workers Aid (IAH) and the League against Imperialism . From 1919 to 1923 he was also chairman of the Graphic Youth in Berlin.

From 1920 to 1933, Großkopf was a full-time employee and department head in the central committee of the KPD. He was a leading member of the anti-military apparatus , the KPD's illegal intelligence service, which existed until 1937, and was mainly involved in forging passports and documents. For this purpose he founded the cliché workshop Schulz & Großkopf in Berlin-Charlottenburg with others .

After the National Socialists came to power and communist activities were banned in March 1933, Großkopf was arrested on May 3, 1933 and sentenced by the People's Court on January 13, 1935 to nine years in prison for “preparation for high treason ”, which he spent in Luckau , in the Papenburg moor camp and spent in Buchenwald concentration camp from 1942 . Here he became a member of the illegal party leadership and was temporarily head of the international camp committee. After the liberation from National Socialism , he worked for a few weeks in the Buchenwald camp inspection center and was tasked with looking for active National Socialists.

MfS employees in the GDR

In July 1945, Großkopf settled in Weimar and headed the local care center for victims of fascism in the Office for Labor and Social Welfare of the State of Thuringia . At the same time he worked as a liaison man of the KPD district leadership Thuringia to the Central Committee of the KPD. In connection with internal party investigations into prison functionaries , Großkopf was briefly excluded from the KPD in February 1946, which was withdrawn in March 1946.

In May 1946, Großkopf went to the German People's Police and became head of the personnel department of the Criminal Police in the Police Presidium of Greater Berlin . In May 1949 he became head of the passport and registration department and was involved, among other things, with the evaluation of the “ 3 million card index ”, a Nazi index of citizens of Berlin, stolen from the British sector .

On November 1, 1951, Großkopf switched to the Foreign Policy Intelligence Service (APN), the forerunner of the Intelligence Headquarters (HVA). He became head of Department 2, responsible for documentation, rose that same year to deputy chief department head for operational technology and was promoted to colonel.

In 1953 the APN was integrated into the Ministry for State Security (MfS). Großkopf was confirmed in its functions. On January 29, 1959, he became head of Department L of the HVA (also Department 35 of the MfS), responsible for the "production of operational documents". On October 1st, 1961, Großkopf retired.

Honors

• 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit (VVO) in silver
• 1957 hero of work
• 1958 medal for fighters against fascism
• 1958 Medal for participation in the fighting from 1918 to 1923
• 1958 Medal of Merit of the NVA
• 1965 Ernst Moritz Arndt Medal
• 1967 VVO in gold
• 1967 battle request "For services to people and fatherland"
• 1977 bar of honor to the VVO

literature

• Jens Gieseke , Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Grosskopf, Richard . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Siegfried Grundmann: Richard Großkopf and the communist passport forger organization. In: International Scientific Correspondence on the History of the German Labor Movement, Issue 4 (2004), pp. 423–464

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Heinz Koch, Udo Wohlfeld: The German beech forest committee. The period from 1945 to 1958. Weimar 2010, ISBN 978-3-935275-14-9 , p. 176.
2. ^ New Germany , October 6, 1955, p. 3