Robert Bialek

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Robert Bialek, around 1955

Robert Franz Paul Bialek (born June 23, 1915 in Breslau , † probably in the spring of 1956 in Berlin ) was a German politician and resistance fighter against National Socialism . After 1945, among other things, he was involved in setting up the GDR security organs, and in 1953 he fled to the West and joined the SPD. The Ministry of State Security of the GDR drugged and abducted him on February 4, 1956 in East Germany, where he died under unclear circumstances not entirely.

Life

After graduating from middle school, Bialek completed a commercial apprenticeship. He joined the Socialist Workers' Youth in 1929 and in 1933 the KJVD and the KPD-O . After the party was banned, he was involved in illegal political work. In 1935 Bialek was arrested and sentenced to six years imprisonment as a resistance fighter against the Nazi dictatorship in Wroclaw. After serving his sentence, he remained in “ protective custody ” until he managed to escape in 1943. After that, Bialek stayed illegally in Wroclaw until the end of the war. In mid-May 1945 he became civil agent and advisor to the commandant's office in civil German affairs.

In July 1945 he came to Saxony as a displaced person and arrived in Dresden on July 20, 1945. He became district youth secretary of the KPD and Saxon state youth leader . In this function he came into contact with Erich Honecker , the chairman of the Central Youth Committee for the Soviet Occupation Zone , a forerunner of the Free German Youth (FDJ). Honecker and Bialek met for the first time in October 1945. Bialek was elected to the provisional leadership of the FDJ in April 1946. At the same time he became 1st chairman of the FDJ in Saxony. Through this function he was also a member of the Saxon state parliament until 1948 . In October 1946 Bialek was elected to the 1st parliament of the FDJ in its central council. In addition, he was secretary of the SED state leadership in Saxony in 1946 and 1947.

In autumn 1947 Bialek was delegated to the Karl Marx party college in Kleinmachnow for a six- month course. Here he met Wolfgang Leonhard and Hermann Weber . Afterwards, on July 13, 1948, he became General Inspector of the German People's Police, the first Polit-Kultur (PK) leader at the German Administration of the Interior (DVdI), the forerunner of the GDR Interior Ministry . His direct superiors were Kurt Fischer and Erich Mielke . Since it was not possible to find a sufficient number of anti-fascist and militarily well-trained cadres for the armed organs to be newly established , returnees from Soviet captivity and former members of Nazi organizations such as the Hitler Youth , NSV , Organization Todt and Bund Deutscher Mädel were hired . Bialek repeatedly criticized the methods of recruiting and the attitudes of many police officers in reports. He got along neither with Erich Mielke nor with Kurt Fischer. The repeated conflicts culminated in a conflict-ridden conversation with Walter Ulbricht . Bialek then submitted his resignation on October 15, 1948 and resigned from the post of Political Culture Commissioner. Presumably he was ahead of his release. He was sent to Grossenhain on probation . There he was first secretary of the SED district leadership on January 18, 1949. In Grossenhain he also met Inge Fritsche, whom he married on January 27, 1951. After further differences, Bialek became cultural director at VEB Lokomotiv- und Waggonbau in Bautzen . In 1952, Bialek's demotions led to a serious argument with Walter Ulbricht, which ended with his expulsion from the party as a party enemy and traitor .

After the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 , he fled to West Berlin , which he entered on August 27, 1953. His wife and daughter Dagmar, born on May 7, 1952, were already in Cologne to visit Inge Bialek's family. He became a member of the SPD , an employee of its east office and a BBC correspondent. As a result of his factual reports on the popular uprising and life in the GDR, which were broadcast regularly, Bialek was considered an enemy of the state in the GDR . The program was so popular in the former GDR and criticized the conditions in the GDR so well that Radio Moscow had Eugen Varga send an answer to the series "Elementary School of Marxism", where Bialek was interviewed by Stewart Thomson .

A trip to Great Britain at the invitation of the British Foreign Office was important for Bialek . He started the trip with his wife and was in England from January 9th to 30th, 1955. It was particularly important to him that he could meet his pen pal Erich Fried there personally. In addition, on behalf of the UK Foreign Office and in coordination with the BBC, the Central Office of Information organized an information tour through which Bialek and his wife were supposed to learn about the UK model of society, social institutions and businesses. The then BBC employee Fritz Beer (1911-2006) served as supervisor and interpreter for both . Much of what happened in Great Britain was later incorporated into Bialek's BBC programs. In this way the workers in the GDR could get a real picture of the living conditions of workers in Great Britain. After returning to West Berlin, Bialek no longer only worked for the BBC, but wrote numerous articles and contributions for the East Office of the SPD.

On February 4, 1956 at 9:40 p.m. at a bogus birthday party in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Stasi agents Herbert Hellwig and Paul Drzewiecki abducted him after being stunned by knockout drops and, with a very high probability, to the Stasi at 11 p.m. - Berlin-Hohenschönhausen prison delivered. The kidnapping and murder of the most high-ranking and popular refugee from the GDR at the time was widely publicized in the press and was often the main topic. With that his tracks are lost. Research by the historian Peter Erler in the Birthler authority suggests that Bialek was brought to Hohenschönhausen dead or died immediately afterwards. Other evidence suggests that Bialek, after he had long since been officially declared dead, only died in the Bautzen correctional facility in late autumn 1956 as a result of months of torture.

Posthumous

Efforts by the widow Inge Bialek to find out more about the circumstances of his death were unsuccessful. Hermann Axen claimed in 1991 that he was shot. Since Drzewiecki had died, only Hellwig could be charged after the fall of the Berlin Wall . Hellwig was sentenced to ten months imprisonment on July 30, 1997 by the Berlin Regional Court .

literature

  • Stewart Thomson: The Bialek Affair. Allan Wingate, London 1955.

Web links

Movies

  • Freya Klier : The Short Life of Robert Bialek. Documentary, 1997.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 118-119.
  2. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , p. 124.
  3. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 137-144.
  4. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , p. 145.
  5. ↑ Klaus Froh u. Rüdiger Wenzke, Die Generale und Admirale der NVA, 2007, p. 229
  6. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , p. 195.
  7. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 196-199.
  8. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , p. 210.
  9. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 238-240.
  10. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 250-257.
  11. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 260-265.
  12. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 265-283.
  13. ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : Stasi murder cleared up after 52 years . In: world . April 8, 2008 ( online [accessed June 24, 2010]).
  14. ↑ a b Stasi murder cleared up , Die Welt , April 8, 2008
  15. ↑ Klaus Taubert : Silent death in the yellow misery. In: one day . June 22, 2010. Retrieved June 24, 2010 .
  16. ↑ Michael Herms / Gerd Noack: The rise and fall of Robert Bialek. edition ost, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-932180-59-3 , pp. 317-318.
  17. ^ Review by Karl Wilhelm Fricke , FAZ May 12, 1998, No. 109 / Page 11 - online
  18. ↑ zeit.de August 8, 1997: Cautious anger (review)
personal data
SURNAME Bialek, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bialek, Robert Franz Paul (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdV and resistance fighters against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH after February 4, 1956
Place of death unsure: Berlin