Walter Steffens (officer)

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Walter Karl Heinrich Steffens (born March 4, 1903 in Harburg / Elbe , † December 9, 1968 in Stralsund ) was a German resistance fighter against National Socialism and later an officer in the GDR's People's Navy .

Life

Walter Steffens was born into a working class family in the Prussian city of Harburg (now part of Hamburg ). He did not get to know his biological father, Daniel Steffens. His mother Maria, née Hecht, daughter of a cement worker, soon married for the second time. He grew up under the care of stepfather Julius Hamburger, a former sailor. After attending elementary school, he completed an apprenticeship as a baker . After his apprenticeship, he worked as a journeyman in various large bakeries in Hamburg for a few weeks. From the end of 1920 he drove on various lines as a coal trimmer and stoker. In January 1930 he became unemployed. In the same month he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In 1932 he became department head of the forbidden " Red Navy " section of the paramilitary Red Front Fighter League of the KPD in Hamburg. An arrest by the Secret State Police (Gestapo) and imprisonment in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp in May 1933 was followed by an acquittal on September 26, 1933 for lack of evidence.

When another arrest threatened, he was living illegally in Hamburg. In February 1934 he emigrated to Prague , where he lived under the names Schulz and Marhenke. From April 1938 Steffens fought on the side of the Spanish Republic in the XI. International Brigade . Here he led a group of grenade launchers as a sergeant. After demobilization, he fled to France in February 1939 . From February 1939 to April 1943 he was interned in the French internment camps of St. Cyprien , Camp de Gurs , Le Vernet and in El Djelfa . In El Djelfa, Steffens volunteered in the British North Africa Army in April 1943 and soon after became a corporal.

In 1943 he received approval for his application to enter Moscow . From November 1943 he was on his way to the Soviet Union with another 31 interbrigadists (among them Erhard König , Anton Switalla , Karl Wegmann and Hans-Hugo Winkelmann ). They arrived in Moscow on March 3, 1944 via Algiers, Alexandria, Haifa, Baghdad, Tehran and Krasnovodorsk. Here he became a member of the National Committee Free Germany (NKFD). He reported for use in special forces and took part in the fighting against Wehrmacht units in the forests of Belarus and in the Caucasus .

On April 2, 1946, Walter Steffens returned to Germany , to the Soviet zone of occupation . In Berlin he was commissioned by the Central Committee of the KPD to work in the People's Police in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . First he was deployed as a railway guard in the railway protection office of the Reich Railway Directorate Schwerin. On April 27, 1946, the then chief of the Mecklenburg police force, Hans Kahle , sent him the party's order to set up the water police in Mecklenburg . In March 1948 he was appointed head of personnel at the state authority of the People's Police in Schwerin . He held this position until May 1949. His request to return to operational service was granted and so from June 1949 to January 6, 1950 he was again head of the water police in Mecklenburg. At the same time he was promoted to VP inspector. After the dissolution of the water police, he briefly headed the border police north (see) from January 7, 1950 , which had emerged from the water police.

On March 1, 1950, he was commissioned to build a maritime police-school on the site of the former air base Parow near Stralsund. From 1 August 1950 to 30 November 1952, he was head of Seepolizeischule Parow, while from 12 October 1950 Location elder of Parow. From July 6, 1951, he was also the site elder in the area of ​​Stralsund and north of Parow. On July 1, 1952, he was awarded the rank of sea ​​captain .

From December 1, 1952 to 1955 he was director of the Parow sub-leader and team school and from 1955 to 1956 he was director of the Stralsund-Schwedenschanze naval officer training school. After the founding of the NVA , he was only able to do his job for a short time. He headed the naval officers' school for another year and then from 1957 the rescue and rescue service of the GDR naval forces on Dänholm . He had been sick since November 1958 and had to retire in 1960. Steffens then worked in honorary positions and was also a member of the Stralsund city council from 1957.

Awards and honors

The Parow fleet school received its name when it was founded on December 1, 1970. A grove of honor was set up for Walter Steffens.

literature

  • For a socialist fatherland - life pictures of German communists and activists from the very beginning , Military Publishing House of the GDR, 1981

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steffens, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steffens, Walter Karl Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter against National Socialism, officer of the NVA
DATE OF BIRTH March 4, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Harburg / Elbe
DATE OF DEATH December 9, 1968
Place of death Stralsund