Walter Hähnel
Walter Hähnel (born April 12, 1905 in Chemnitz , † October 9, 1979 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( KPD / SED ), resistance fighter against National Socialism and journalist .
Life
The son of a machinist completed an apprenticeship as a businessman after elementary school from 1919 to 1921 . From 1920 Hähnel was a member of communist youth organizations and in 1923 became a member of the KPD. In 1926/27 Hähnel was editor-in-chief of the KPD newspaper Junge Kämper in Chemnitz. From 1927 to 1931 Hähnel was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) in Berlin. In 1929 and 1930 Hähnel lived in Moscow and then in Prague as an instructor for the Communist Youth International (KJI). Hähnel was arrested there in 1931 and received three months' imprisonment in Leitmeritz for violating the press law . Then he was expelled.
In Germany he became Reich Youth Leader of the Combat League Against Fascism (KgdF) and was a member of the Reich leadership of the KgdF in 1931/32. In May 1935 he was appointed chairman of the KJVD and at the Brussels conference of the KPD in October 1935 he was elected a member of the KPD's central committee. In September 1938 , Hähnel emigrated to France , where he was elected a member of the KPD Central Committee in 1939 by the Bern Conference of the KPD . After the outbreak of war he was interned from 1939 to 1940. Hähnel fled from captivity, became a member of the illegal KPD leadership in Toulouse and worked in the Resistance . From 1941 to 1942 Hähnel was interned again in the Camp des Milles and Le Vernet camps. In 1943 he left for Paris and again became a member of the KPD leadership. From 1943 to 1945 Hähnel was editor of the communist newspapers Voice of the People and People and Fatherland and in 1945 party secretary of the KPD in France. In 1943 he was one of the founding members of the Committee Free Germany for the West (CALPO).
In July 1945 Hähnel returned to Germany and became a senior staff member of the Central Committee of the KPD in Berlin and was involved in the creation of the SED . He was then a member of the former zone management, and later an employee of the SED-KPD working group in the western department of the Central Secretariat of the SED. In 1949 he became the main advisor to the SED's Western Commission, and from April 1951 head of the Western Cadre Sector in the Cadre Department of the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED . From 1952 to 1960 Hähnel was deputy head of the Cadre Register Department, then the Department of Labor Office of the Central Committee of the SED. In April 1970 he left the full-time apparatus.
His urn was in the grave conditioning Pergolenweg the memorial of the socialists at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde buried.
Awards
- May 6, 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver and 1970 in gold
- 1958 medal for fighters against fascism
- 1961 Artur Becker Medal
- 1960 and 1965 Order Banners of Labor
- 1975 Karl Marx Order
literature
- Bernd-Rainer Barth : Walter Hähnel . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- 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 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Walter Hähnel in the catalog of the German National Library
- Ulrike Lückermann: Experienced stories with Inge Glesel. (mp3 audio, 10.8 MB, 23:45 minutes) In: WDR-5 broadcast “Experienced stories”. July 10, 2011 (Inge Glesel is Hahnel's daughter).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Article on the 80th birthday in Junge Welt from April 12, 1985.
- ^ Neues Deutschland , May 7, 1970, p. 2.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hahnel, Walter |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German politician (KPD, SED) |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 12, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Chemnitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 9, 1979 |
| Place of death | Berlin |