Hermann Matern | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Chairman of the Central Party Control Commission | |
| In office 21 October 1948 – 1971 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Erich Mückenberger |
| Chairman of the Committee of Berlin SED | |
| In office 1946–1948 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 17 June 1893 Bremen, German Empire |
| Died | 24 January 1971 (aged 77) East Berlin, German Democratic Republic |
| Citizenship | East German |
| Political party | Communist Party of Germany Socialist Unity Party |
| Alma mater | International Lenin School |
| Occupation | Politician |
Hermann Matern (17 June 1893 in Burg bei Magdeburg – 24 January 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.
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]
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]
On 1 May 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 11 June 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 21 October 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. "
Matern's urn was buried in the memorial of the socialists in the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin-Lichtenberg.[4]
The German Post Office of the GDR issued a special stamp on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 13 June 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 Ivan Konev) with German politicians (Hermann Matern, Kurt Fischer and Rudolf Friedrichs) in May 1945.
