Hans Kahle

Kahle was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, the son of a senior official. He attended high school and the imperial military academy in Lichterfelde. He fought as a cadet, later as a lieutenant in World War I and became a prisoner of war in 1918 in France, from which he was discharged in 1920.

After the war, he began a commercial apprenticeship and attended the London School of Economics. From 1921 to 1926, he was a clerk in Mexico, and returned to Germany in 1927. He became a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1928. During 1930–1933, he served as editor, publishing director and later chairman of the independent radio-federal employees and the military apparatus of the Communist Party.

In 1933, he was forced to emigrate to Switzerland, and later he was sent to France. There he worked as a journalist, as an editor of " tribunal ", and organized for the International Red Aid in Spain relief efforts for the Victims of the Asturian miners' uprising. In 1936 he worked in Paris in the organizing committee of the International Brigades in Spain, until he went to Spain in October itself. He fought until 1938 in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans in the International Brigades. Initially, he was commander of the battalion "Edgar André", from November 1936 Commander of the XI International Brigade (Thälmann) (He was the model for Hemingway's General Hans in For Whom the Bell Tolls).[1] In 1937, he became commander of the 17th Division, and in the Battle of the Ebro in 1938 he commanded the 45th Division of the Spanish Republican Army.[2]

During 1938 and 1939, he was interned as an enemy alien in France, and during 1940 and 1941 in the UK and Canada. After his release in 1941, he worked as a military correspondent for the press. He was a founding member of the Free Germany Movement in the UK and a member of the Communist Party line in the UK. The British Security Service, MI5 believed him to be a high level Soviet Agent.[1]

In February 1946, he returned to Germany and became head of the newly established People's Police in Mecklenburg[1] and state chairman of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in Mecklenburg. He died at age 48 in 1947 in Ludwigslust.