Richard Wenzel (resistance fighter)

Richard Max Peter Wenzel (born November 22, 1904 in Berlin ; † October 13, 1980 there ) was a resistance fighter against National Socialism and a German politician ( KPD / SED ). He was Deputy Minister of the Interior of the GDR .

Life

Wenzel came from a working class family. His mother worked as a seamstress , his adoptive father as a waiter . After attending primary school in 1918, Wenzel initially worked as a messenger. He then trained as a script painter from 1919 to 1922. In 1922/23 he worked in various companies. In 1923 he worked briefly as a postal worker. From 1924 to 1929 he was again employed as a script painter. In 1920 Wenzel joined the Friends of Nature , in 1922 the Communist Youth Association of Germany . In 1927 he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). From 1932 he worked in the defense apparatus of the KPD.

After the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists , he worked as an advertising painter. He was active in the communist resistance and was a member of the resistance group around Saefkow in the 1940s . In December 1943 Wenzel was drafted into the Wehrmacht . On October 8, 1944, he was arrested in East Prussia for “preparing to commit high treason ” and was imprisoned in Berlin-Moabit until April 1945 .

In 1945/46 he was managing director of the KPD and SED district leadership in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg . From November 1946 he headed the department for denazification of the German Central Administration of the Interior (DVdI) in the Soviet Zone . In March 1948 he replaced Hans Mickinn as head of the personnel department at DVdI with the rank of inspector . After the dissolution of the DVdI in October 1949, Wenzel took over the management of the personnel department of the newly created headquarters of the German People's Police and was appointed Chief Inspector of the German People's Police . From 1946 to 1952 he was a member of the central party leadership of the People's Police. In 1952/53 Wenzel completed a distance learning course at the party college. From January 1954 to 1958 he was head of the main administration cadre of the Ministry of the Interior. On July 15, 1957, he was reassessed major general . From May 1958 to 1966 he was Deputy Minister of the Interior of the GDR. As such, he was responsible for the areas of finance management, meteorological-hydrological service, surveying and mapping management and the state archive administration. In 1966 he retired.

From 1958 to 1976 he was also a member of the Central Revision Commission of the SED.

tomb

His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze (1955), in silver (1960) and in gold (1970)
• Gold medal for the Patriotic Order of Merit
• Labor Banner (1964)
• Karl Marx Order (1974)

literature

• Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (Ed.): SBZ biography . Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, Berlin 1964, p. 376.
• Walter Habel (Ed.): Who is who? The German who's who . Volume II. Arani, Berlin-Grunewald 1965, p. 366.
• Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Eds.): Biographical Handbook of German-Speaking Emigration after 1933, Volume I Politics, Economy, Public Life , KG Saur, Munich, New York, London and Paris 1980 Google Books - digitized (excerpts) , ISBN 3-598-10087-6 , p. 814.
• Martin Broszat et al. (Ed.): SBZ manual: State administrations, parties, social organizations and their executives in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany 1945–1949 . 2nd Edition. Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-486-55262-7 , p. 1054.
• 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 , pp. 999-1000.
• Stephan Fingerle: Weapons in workers' hands? The recruiting of the NVA officer corps and their predecessors . Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-86153-243-3 , p. 57.
• Berthold Lothar et al. (Ed.): Resistance in Berlin against the Nazi regime 1933 to 1945. A biographical lexicon . Volume 8 [T to Z]. Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89626-358-7 , p. 179.
• Bernd-Rainer Barth , Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Wenzel, Richard Max Peter . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ How the People's Police are composed. From chief inspector of the People's Police Wenceslaus . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 1, 1950, p. 2.
2. ↑ Minutes No. 4/54 of the meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED on January 15, 1954.
3. ↑ breakdown structure of MdI in Protocol. 18/58 of the meeting of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the SED from 22 April 1958.