Hermann Matern

Hermann Matern (June 17, 1893 in Burg – January 24, 1971 in Berlin) was a German communist politician (KPD) and high ranking functionary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and statesman in the German Democratic Republic.

Life and early career

Early political activities

Matern was the son of a social democratic worker and himself worked as a tanner. He joined the Socialist Youth Workers and later the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1911. He later resigned from the SPD when the party accepted war loans. During the first World War he served as a soldier in France.

In 1918, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and was a participant in the November Revolution and a member of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council Here he was elected commander of the guard regiment in Magdeburg. From 1919 to 1926 he worked as a tanner in Burg, became a member of the KPD and became KPD chairman in Burg, works council chairman, honorary city council and from 1926 to 1928 KPD trade union secretary. He was a member of the Gau Board and the Reich Tariff Commission of the German Leather Workers' Association. From 1928 to 1929 he attended the International Lenin School in Moscow and was then political leader of the KPD in Magdeburg for Magdeburg-Anhalt until 1931 and then until 1933 political leader of the East Prussia district. In the years 1932 and 1933 he was a member of the Prussian state parliament.[1]

Arrest and exile

After the rise of the Nazi regime, Matern was arrested in 1933. In September 1934 he managed to escape from the Stettin-Altdamm prison. He emigrated to Czechoslovakia, then via Switzerland to France. It was here in 1935 that he met his future wife Jenny, who followed him from then on and also became a politician. In the Lutetia district (1935 to 1936) he was involved in the attempt to create a popular front against the Nazi regime. His escape took him via Belgium to the Netherlands, Norway and finally Sweden. In the spring of 1941 he moved to Moscow. He became a member of the National Committee for Free Germany. Later he was a teacher at the Central Anti-fascist School in Krasnogorsk.[2]

Return to Germany

On May 1, 1945 he returned to Germany with Anton Ackermann's group. He was one of the signatories of the programmatic appeal of the Central Committee of the KPD of June 11, 1945. Until 1946 he was the first secretary of the district leadership of Saxony of the KPD. After the unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet zone of occupation from 1946 to 1948 together with Karl Litke chairman of the regional association of Greater Berlin of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From 1946 to 1950 he was a member of the central secretariat of the party executive, from October 21, 1948 chairman of the Central Party Control Commission (ZPKK) and from 1950 member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED . In the Politburo, he was responsible for controlling the “Traffic Department” of the Central Committee, which was responsible for the secret connections to the KPD in West Germany, which was illegal from 1955, and later to the DKP, and for the financing of these parties. As one of the leading politicians he participated in the Marxist–Leninist orientation of the SED.

From 1949 he was a member of the Provisional People's Chamber, from 1950 to 1954 as vice-president, then as the first deputy of the president and from 1957 to 1960 as chairman of the standing committee for the local representations. He was a member of the National Defense Council of the GDR .[3]

Matern had been a member of the International Federation Resistance of Fighters General Council from 1963 .

Matern was convinced of the SED's claim to leadership. At the 7th All-German Workers' Conference in Leipzig in 1958, he said:

“To have state power in your hands is of great importance. [...] We never think of giving up workers' and peasants' power again. We will not allow anyone to run for election who wants to rebuild capitalism. [...] That is why there is no opposition based on bourgeois ideas. "

- Hermann Matern

Matern's urn was buried in the memorial of the socialists in the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin-Lichtenberg.[4]

Awards and honours

The German Post Office of the GDR issued a special stamp on the occasion of his 80th birthday on June 13, 1973.[5]

Many streets, schools and factories bore the name of Matern in the GDR.

The 8th Fighter Squadron of the Air Force of the National People's Army (LSK / LV) in Marxwalde had had his name since 1972, as did the technical school of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR in Heyrothsberge .

A plaque on the enclosure of Wackerbarth Castle still commemorates the meeting of Soviet politicians and military officials (Anastas Mikoyan and Iwan Konev) with German politicians (Hermann Matern, Kurt Fischer and Rudolf Friedrichs) in May 1945.

Publications
  • Berlin and Germany. Talking about problems of the time. Berlin, 1947.
  • 1947 the year of the greatest decisions. Our tasks in the new year. Speech at the SED functionaries' conference on January 5, 1947. Berlin 1947.
  • The way. Peace, freedom, prosperity. Berlin 1948.
  • The role of Ernst Thalmann in the creation of the revolutionary mass party of the working class. Presentation a. d. Propagandist Conference d. Propaganda Department at the Central Committee of the SED on July 14th and 15th, 1951 in Berlin. Berlin 1951.
  • Broad development of criticism and self-criticism. Contribution to the discussion at the 2nd party conference of the SED, Berlin, 9. – 12. July 1952. Berlin 1952.
  • (Ed.): White book on the General War Treaty. Leipzig 1952.
  • On the implementation of the decision of the Central Committee of the SED “Lessons from the trial against the Slansky conspiracy center ”. 13th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED, 13.-14. May 1953. Berlin 1953.
  • The unwavering unity and unity of the party - source of its power and victories! Report of the Central Party Control Commission at the IVth Party Congress of the SED from March 30 to April 6, 1954. Berlin 1954.
  • Germany in the period of the global economic crisis 1929–1933. The struggle of the Communist Party of Germany for the unity of action of the working class against the danger of fascism and war. Berlin 1956.
  • Germany in the period of relative stabilization of capitalism 1924–1929. The struggle of the German proletariat under the leadership of the KPD against the resurgence of German imperialism. Berlin 1956.
  • Erich Weinert : The National Committee Free Germany 1943–1945. Report on its activities and its impact. With a foreword by Hermann Matern. Rütten & Loening, Berlin 1957.
  • From the life and struggle of the German labor movement. Dietz, Berlin 1958.
  • The party congress of the SPD and the policy of the SED to establish unity of action for the German working class in the fight against nuclear armament and for the formation of a confederation of the two German states. Berlin 1958.
  • In the struggle for peace, democracy and socialism. Selected speeches and writings. Berlin 1963.

References
  1. "Matern, Hermann | Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Retrieved 2020-12-11.
  2. Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst : German Communists. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008,.
  3. Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010,.
  4. German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , Austrian National Library Record # 118578812 // General Regulatory Control (GND) - 2012-2016.
  5. "Important personalities, Hermann Matern - GDR postage stamp".
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