Wilhelm Enke
Wilhelm Enke (born February 1, 1912 in Creuzburg ; † February 20, 1980 in East Berlin ) was a German colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). From 1950 to 1954 he was head of Department VII, responsible “for safeguarding” the Ministry of the Interior and the People's Police and then until 1970 deputy head of the main personal protection department .
Life
Enke, the son of a worker, learned to be a painter after finishing elementary school . In 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Immediately after the takeover of the Nazis in January 1933, Enke was without trial in so-called protective custody and detained until early 1934th In the same year he was charged with "preparation for high treason " and arrested again. He was in Untermaßfeld prison until 1938 and then in Buchenwald , Majdanek and Auschwitz concentration camps until 1944 . In 1944 he was forcibly recruited into the Dirlewanger penal unit as a soldier in the German Wehrmacht and “for probation at the front” . At the first opportunity he defected to the Red Army in 1945 . As a Soviet prisoner of war , he attended an Antifa school and was released in 1948.
Enke returned to Thuringia and became an employee of the German People's Police (DVP). In 1949 he switched to the Thuringian Economic Protection Administration, which in February 1950 became the Thuringia State Administration of the MfS. In July 1950 he was in the rank of commander (lieutenant colonel) head of department VII, responsible for "safeguarding" the Ministry of the Interior and the People's Police, in East Berlin (successor to VP Oberrat Rudolf Smolka). Enke was replaced by Colonel Gustav Szinda in 1954 and moved as deputy head of the Personal Protection Department, where he was promoted to Colonel in 1960. From 1960 to 1965 Enke completed a distance learning course at the university of the Ministry for State Security in Potsdam-Eiche and became a qualified lawyer . In 1970 he retired.
Enke last lived in Berlin-Lichtenberg. He died unexpectedly at the age of 68 and was buried in the central cemetery in Berlin-Friedrichsfelde .
Awards and honors
- 1956 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, 1962 in silver and 1972 in gold
- 1958 medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
- Order of the Red Star of the USSR
- In 1984 the commercial vocational school in Eisenach was named "Wilhelm Enke".
- The training base of the main personal protection department in Kallinchen was given the name "Wilhelm Enke".
literature
- Jens Gieseke : Wilhelm Enke . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
- Jens Gieseke: Who was who in the Ministry for State Security (MfS manual) . BStU, Berlin 2012. (online)
- Jens Gieseke: The full-time employees of the State Security , Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-227-1 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Obituary of the SED district leadership Lichtenberg im Neues Deutschland , March 11, 1980, p. 8.
- ↑ Guided tour of the old town on the trail of uncomfortable monuments. September 5, 2013, accessed August 29, 2020 .
- ^ MfS-Handbuch, instructions area of the deputy general of the HA PS, p. 156.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Enke, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Colonel in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 1, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Creuzburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 20, 1980 |
| Place of death | East Berlin |