Richard Quast
Richard Quast (born March 17, 1896 in Berlin ; † August 16, 1966 there ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ) and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He ran a workshop for passport, photo and document forgery.
Life
Quast, a lithographer by profession , joined the SPD in 1915 and switched to the KPD in 1919. He was a member of the Rote Hilfe, the workers' sports club "Fichte" and the association of lithographers. Until 1922 worked as a technician and registrar at Siemens . From 1922 he worked at the headquarters of the KPD and belonged to the passport forger organization under Richard Großkopf . Together with Walter Tygör , Quast - who had the code name "Abel" - built "probably the largest and most sophisticated passport forger workshop in Berlin that has ever existed". He became head of this workshop and worked for the Soviet secret service, among other things.
After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists, Quast lived in illegality. In 1934 he emigrated to the Saar region , then to France in 1935 , where he was interned. On May 14, 1941, he was transferred from the Le Vernet camp to Les Milles . He was released on October 18, 1941 and was able to travel to Mexico via Spain and Portugal . Here was active under the name of "Paul Hartmann" for the Bund "Free Germany" and the Heinrich Heine Club .
In 1947 he returned to Germany and became a member of the SED. He was a consultant and instructor in the traffic department at the Central Committee of the SED, a cover organization to support the West German communists and to infiltrate the FRG. He later worked at the Institute for Economic Research at the Central Committee of the SED.
He was married to Clare Quast .
Awards
- Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze (1955) and in silver (1966)
- Medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
- Medal of Merit of the GDR
literature
- David J. Dallin: The Soviet Espionage. Principles and practices . Verlag für Politik und Wirtschaft, Cologne 1956, pp. 116, 122 and 127.
- Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (Ed.): Who is who in the Soviet Zone? A biographical manual . Publishing house for international cultural exchange, Berlin-Zehlendorf 1958, p. 201.
- Wolfgang Kießling: Alemania Libre in Mexico . Vol. 1: A contribution to the history of the anti-fascist exile (1941-1946) . Academy, Berlin 1964, p. 317.
- 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. 674.
- Gottfried Hamacher et al. (Ed.): Against Hitler. Germans in the Resistance, in the armed forces of the anti-Hitler coalition and the "Free Germany" movement. Short biographies (series: Manuscripts / Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung , Volume 53) . 2., corr. Edition. Dietz, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-320-02941-X , p. 77.
- Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( online ).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Werner Keller: East minus West = zero. The building of Russia by the West . Droemer Knaur, Munich 1975, p. 261.
- ^ Wilhelm Mensing: SED help for comrades in the West. The work of the Traffic Department at the Central Committee of the SED as reflected in the tradition of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (1946–1976) . Berlin 2010.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Quast, Richard |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Abel (alias); Hartmann, Paul (code name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German communist functionary and resistance fighter, employee of the Central Committee of the SED |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 17, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 16, 1966 |
| Place of death | Berlin |