Jump to content

Walter Bartel: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Translated from German
 
Category
 
(37 intermediate revisions by 24 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|German university professor and historian}}
⚫
[[File:Fotothek df pk 0000275 020 Hildegard Brand, Olga Körner, Anja Korn, Hilde Kahn, Lehrer Barthels.jpg|thumb|Portrait, February 1947]]
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}
⚫
'''Walter Bartel''' (* 15 September [[1904]] in [[Fürstenberg/Havel]]; † 16 January [[1992]] in [[Berlin]]) was a German [[communist]] [[resistance fighter]], [[historian]] and [[university professor]].
⚫
[[File:Fotothek df pk 0000275 020 Hildegard Brand, Olga Körner, Anja Korn, Hilde Kahn, Lehrer Barthels.jpg|thumb|Bartel in 1947]]
⚫
'''Walter Bartel''' (15 September 1904 – 16 January 1992) was a German [[Communism|communist]] [[resistance fighter]], historian and university professor.


== Life ==
== Life ==
Born in [[Fürstenberg/Havel]] in the [[Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz]], Bartel grew up in a working-class family. Wilhelm Bartel, his father, worked in [[forestry]].<ref name=BiographischeDatenbankenWB>{{cite web |url=http://bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=4031|work=Biographische Angaben aus dem Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten|author=[[Andreas Herbst]] (compiler) |title=Bartels, Wolfgang * 11 July 1890; † 24.10.1971|publisher= Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken |language= German| accessdate= 8 June 2015}}</ref>
⚫
Bartel grew up in a working class family and trained to be a [[merchant]] after attending [[Volksschule]] and [[Realschule]]. He joined the [[Young Communist League of Germany]] (KJVD) in 1920 (the same year it was created) and joined the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) in 1923. In 1927 he led the German delegation to the International Youth Congress in [[Moscow]]. In 1929 he began to study [[Marxism-Leninism]] at the Moscow [[International Lenin School]] and achieved the degree of ''[[Aspirantur]]'' there. He returned to Germany in 1932. Here he participated in political resistance to the rising power of [[Fascism]]. On account of this illegal activity, he was charged with "Preparation for Treason" and sentanced to 27 months in a ''[[Prisons in Germany#Previous types of prisons|Zuchthaus]]'', which he served from 1933 to 1935 at [[Brandenburg-Görden Prison]]. After his release, he emigrated to [[Czechoslovakia]], but there he was expelled from the KDP for alleged treason. In March 1939, the German occupying force arrested him and transported him to [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]. At Buchenwald, Bartel was employed by the Carpentry labourers and the department of labour statistics.<ref name="Stein292f">Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): ''Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937 - 1945'', Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Göttingen 1999, pp. 292f</ref> Along with [[Ernst Busse]] and [[Harry Kuhn]], he soon became part of the illegal party leadership at Buchenwald and, from 1943, he was the chairman of the [[Buchenwald Resistance|International Camp Committee]], which worked to co-ordinate resistance and escape attempts in the camp. When the approaching American troops enabled the liberation of the camp, he was recognised by the American camp commandants too as the equvalent of a rightful leader of the former camp.<ref>[[Emil Carlebach]], [[Willy Schmidt]], Ulrich Schneider: ''Buchenwald ein Konzentrationslager. Berichte - Bilder - Dokumente'', Bonn 2000, p. 145</ref>


Walter Bartel trained to be a [[merchant]] after attending [[Volksschule]] and [[Realschule]]. He joined the [[Young Communist League of Germany]] (KJVD) in 1920 (the same year it was created) and joined the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) in 1923. In 1927 he led the German delegation to the International Youth Congress in Moscow. In 1929 he began to study [[Marxism-Leninism]] at the Moscow [[International Lenin School]] and achieved the degree of ''[[Aspirantur]]'' there.
⚫
After 1945 he was rehabilitated by the KDP (after several review procedures) and became a founding member of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED). After a short stint as Head of Department for [[Education in East Germany|Popular Education]] for the [[Magistrat of Berlin]], he became the personal advisor of [[Wilhelm Pieck]] for party activities. In 1953 he was investigated by the party again. After this he moved to academic work. He received a doctorate and became professor of Twentieth Century History at [[Leipzig University]]. From 1957 to 1962 he was Director of the [[Institut für Zeitgeschichte|Deutsches Institut für Zeitgeschichte]] (DIZ). After that he took up a lectureship in Twentieth Century History at [[Humboldt Univerity]] in Berlin. In 1965 he became [[prorector]] for student affairs and in 1967 he received a chair. From the 1970s he was deeply involved in the affairs of Buchenwald survivors and was Chairman of the Buchenwald Committee and a board member of the Committee of Anti-Fascist Resistance. From 1970 he was Deputy Chairman of the [[International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists|Internationalen Komitee Buchenwald-Dora und Kommandos]].

He returned to Germany in 1932. Here he participated in political resistance to the rising power of Nazism. On account of this illegal activity, he was charged with "Preparation for Treason" and sentenced to 27 months in a ''[[Prisons in Germany#Previous types of prisons|Zuchthaus]]'', which he served from 1933 to 1935 at [[Brandenburg-Görden Prison]]. After his release, he emigrated to [[Czechoslovakia]], but there he was expelled from the KPD for alleged treason.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}}

[[File:Walter Bartel Buchenwald Arolsen Archives DocID5482920.jpg|thumb|Registration card of Walter Bartel as a prisoner at Buchenwald Nazi Concentration Camp]]
⚫
In March 1939, the German occupying force arrested him and transported him to [[Buchenwald concentration camp]]. At Buchenwald, Bartel was employed by the Carpentry labourers and the department of labour statistics.<ref name="Stein292f">Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): ''Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945'', Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Göttingen 1999, pp. 292f</ref> Along with [[Ernst Busse]] and [[Harry Kuhn]], he soon became part of the illegal party leadership at Buchenwald and, from 1943, he was the chairman of the [[Buchenwald Resistance|International Camp Committee]], which worked to co-ordinate resistance and escape attempts in the camp. When the approaching American troops enabled the liberation of the camp, he was recognised by the American camp commandants too as the equivalent of a rightful leader of the former camp.<ref>[[Emil Carlebach]], [[Willy Schmidt]], Ulrich Schneider: ''Buchenwald ein Konzentrationslager. Berichte – Bilder – Dokumente'', Bonn 2000, p. 145</ref>

⚫
After 1945 he was rehabilitated by the KDP (after several review procedures) and became a founding member of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED). After a short stint as Head of Department for [[Education in East Germany|Popular Education]] for the [[Magistrat of Berlin]], he became the personal advisor of [[Wilhelm Pieck]] for party activities. In 1953 he was investigated by the party again. After this he moved to academic work. He received a doctorate and became professor of Twentieth Century History at [[Leipzig University]]. From 1957 to 1962 he was Director of the [[Institut für Zeitgeschichte|Deutsches Institut für Zeitgeschichte]] (DIZ). After that he took up a lectureship in Twentieth Century History at [[Humboldt University]] in Berlin. In 1965 he became [[prorector]] for student affairs and in 1967 he received a chair. From the 1970s he was deeply involved in the affairs of Buchenwald survivors and was Chairman of the Buchenwald Committee and a board member of the Committee of Anti-Fascist Resistance. From 1970 he was Deputy Chairman of the [[International Federation of Resistance Fighters – Association of Anti-Fascists|Internationalen Komitee Buchenwald-Dora und Kommandos]].


As a historian he produced works on the anti-Fascist resistance of the left wing of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SDP]], a standard work on the history of Buchenwald and on the Chairman of the KDP, [[Ernst Thälmann]].
As a historian he produced works on the anti-Fascist resistance of the left wing of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SDP]], a standard work on the history of Buchenwald and on the Chairman of the KDP, [[Ernst Thälmann]].


Walter Bartel and a small group of like-minded individuals sought to establish historical seminars and institutes in the DDR which conformed to the SED's regulations. The "Guild" of DDR Historians was not initially in the Marxist tradition. According to [[Lothar Mertens]], Walter Bartel (like [[Horst Bartel]], [[Karl Bittel]], [[Rudolf Lindau]] und [[Albert Schreiner]]) lacked the necessary skill and rigour to sufficiently distance his academic output from the category of "mere" party propaganda.<ref>Lothar Mertens: ''Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei? Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft'', V & R unipress, Göttingen 2006, p. 125, ISBN 3-89971-307-9.</ref>
Walter Bartel and a small group of like-minded individuals sought to establish historical seminars and institutes in the DDR which conformed to the SED's regulations. The "Guild" of DDR Historians was not initially in the Marxist tradition. According to [[Lothar Mertens]], Walter Bartel (like [[Horst Bartel]], [[Karl Bittel]], [[Rudolf Lindau (politician)|Rudolf Lindau]] und [[Albert Schreiner]]) lacked the necessary skill and rigour to sufficiently distance his academic output from the category of "mere" party propaganda.<ref>Lothar Mertens: ''Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei? Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft'', V & R unipress, Göttingen 2006, p. 125, {{ISBN|3-89971-307-9}}.</ref>


== Honours ==
== Honours ==
Line 20: Line 29:


== References ==
== References ==
{{reflist}}
<references />


== Bibliography ==
== Bibliography ==
* [[Lutz Niethammer]]: ''Der „gesäuberte Antifaschismus“. Die SED und die kommunistischen [[Kapo (concentration camp)|Kapos]] von Buchenwald''. Berlin 1994
* Lutz Niethammer: ''Der "gesäuberte Antifaschismus". Die SED und die kommunistischen [[Kapo (concentration camp)|Kapos]] von Buchenwald''. Berlin 1994
* Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): ''Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945''. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6.
* Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): ''Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945''. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, {{ISBN|978-3-89244-222-6}}.
* Philipp Neumannn: ''"… eine Sprachregelung zu finden". Zur Kanonisierung des kommunistischen Buchenwald-Gedächtnisses in der Dokumentation Mahnung und Verpflichtung'', in: [[Fritz Bauer Institut]], Katharina Stengel (Ed.): ''Opfer als Akteure, Interventionen ehemaliger NS-Verfolgter in der Nachkriegszeit'', Frankfurt (Main) 2008, pp. 151 - 173
* Philipp Neumannn: "… eine Sprachregelung zu finden". Zur Kanonisierung des kommunistischen Buchenwald-Gedächtnisses in der Dokumentation Mahnung und Verpflichtung, in: [[Fritz Bauer Institut]], Katharina Stengel (Ed.): ''Opfer als Akteure, Interventionen ehemaliger NS-Verfolgter in der Nachkriegszeit'', Frankfurt (Main) 2008, pp.&nbsp;151–173.
* {{WWW-DDR|125|Bartel, Walter|Karin Hartewig, Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk}}


== External links ==
== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
{{commonscat}}
* {{DNB-Portal|104686286}}
* {{DNB-Portal|104686286}}
{{LBMV PPN|342086820}}
* {{LBMV PPN|342086820}}
* [http://www.buchenwald.de/fotoarchive/buchenwald/image.php?smode=textsuche&f_textsuche=Bartel&page=1&inventarnr=4837 Photo of Walter Bartel]
* [http://www.buchenwald.de/fotoarchive/buchenwald/image.php?smode=textsuche&f_textsuche=Bartel&page=1&inventarnr=4837 Photo of Walter Bartel]


{{Authority control}}
{{Normdaten|TYP=p|GND=104686286|LCCN=n/84/35404|VIAF=310661452}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartel, Walter}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartel, Walter}}
[[Category:Buchenwald concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:Alumni of the International Lenin School]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Oberhavel]]
[[Category:People from Mecklenburg-Strelitz]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians]]
[[Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany members]]
[[Category:Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members]]
[[Category:Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members]]
[[Category:German historians]]
[[Category:20th-century German historians]]
[[Category:Humboldt University of Berlin faculty]]
[[Category:German Marxist historians]]
[[Category:Leipzig University faculty]]
[[Category:International Lenin School alumni]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Star of People's Friendship]]
[[Category:Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin]]
[[Category:East German people]]
[[Category:Academic staff of Leipzig University]]
[[Category:Buchenwald concentration camp survivors]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Karl Marx]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Karl Marx]]
[[Category:1904 births]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold]]
[[Category:1992 deaths]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Star of Peoples' Friendship]]

{{Persondata
|NAME=Bartel, Walter
|SHORT DESCRIPTION=German historian
|DATE OF BIRTH=15 September 1904
|PLACE OF BIRTH=[[Fürstenberg/Havel]]
|DATE OF DEATH=16 January 1992
|PLACE OF DEATH=[[Berlin]]
}}

Latest revision as of 21:39, 30 September 2024

Bartel in 1947

Walter Bartel (15 September 1904 – 16 January 1992) was a German communist resistance fighter, historian and university professor.

Life

[edit]

Born in Fürstenberg/Havel in the Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Bartel grew up in a working-class family. Wilhelm Bartel, his father, worked in forestry.[1]

Walter Bartel trained to be a merchant after attending Volksschule and Realschule. He joined the Young Communist League of Germany (KJVD) in 1920 (the same year it was created) and joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1923. In 1927 he led the German delegation to the International Youth Congress in Moscow. In 1929 he began to study Marxism-Leninism at the Moscow International Lenin School and achieved the degree of Aspirantur there.

He returned to Germany in 1932. Here he participated in political resistance to the rising power of Nazism. On account of this illegal activity, he was charged with "Preparation for Treason" and sentenced to 27 months in a Zuchthaus, which he served from 1933 to 1935 at Brandenburg-Görden Prison. After his release, he emigrated to Czechoslovakia, but there he was expelled from the KPD for alleged treason.[citation needed]

Registration card of Walter Bartel as a prisoner at Buchenwald Nazi Concentration Camp

In March 1939, the German occupying force arrested him and transported him to Buchenwald concentration camp. At Buchenwald, Bartel was employed by the Carpentry labourers and the department of labour statistics.[2] Along with Ernst Busse and Harry Kuhn, he soon became part of the illegal party leadership at Buchenwald and, from 1943, he was the chairman of the International Camp Committee, which worked to co-ordinate resistance and escape attempts in the camp. When the approaching American troops enabled the liberation of the camp, he was recognised by the American camp commandants too as the equivalent of a rightful leader of the former camp.[3]

After 1945 he was rehabilitated by the KDP (after several review procedures) and became a founding member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). After a short stint as Head of Department for Popular Education for the Magistrat of Berlin, he became the personal advisor of Wilhelm Pieck for party activities. In 1953 he was investigated by the party again. After this he moved to academic work. He received a doctorate and became professor of Twentieth Century History at Leipzig University. From 1957 to 1962 he was Director of the Deutsches Institut für Zeitgeschichte (DIZ). After that he took up a lectureship in Twentieth Century History at Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1965 he became prorector for student affairs and in 1967 he received a chair. From the 1970s he was deeply involved in the affairs of Buchenwald survivors and was Chairman of the Buchenwald Committee and a board member of the Committee of Anti-Fascist Resistance. From 1970 he was Deputy Chairman of the Internationalen Komitee Buchenwald-Dora und Kommandos.

As a historian he produced works on the anti-Fascist resistance of the left wing of the SDP, a standard work on the history of Buchenwald and on the Chairman of the KDP, Ernst Thälmann.

Walter Bartel and a small group of like-minded individuals sought to establish historical seminars and institutes in the DDR which conformed to the SED's regulations. The "Guild" of DDR Historians was not initially in the Marxist tradition. According to Lothar Mertens, Walter Bartel (like Horst Bartel, Karl Bittel, Rudolf Lindau und Albert Schreiner) lacked the necessary skill and rigour to sufficiently distance his academic output from the category of "mere" party propaganda.[4]

Honours

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Andreas Herbst (compiler). "Bartels, Wolfgang * 11 July 1890; † 24.10.1971". Biographische Angaben aus dem Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten (in German). Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  2. ^ Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945, Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Göttingen 1999, pp. 292f
  3. ^ Emil Carlebach, Willy Schmidt, Ulrich Schneider: Buchenwald ein Konzentrationslager. Berichte – Bilder – Dokumente, Bonn 2000, p. 145
  4. ^ Lothar Mertens: Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei? Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft, V & R unipress, Göttingen 2006, p. 125, ISBN 3-89971-307-9.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Lutz Niethammer: Der "gesäuberte Antifaschismus". Die SED und die kommunistischen Kapos von Buchenwald. Berlin 1994
  • Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945. Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 978-3-89244-222-6.
  • Philipp Neumannn: "… eine Sprachregelung zu finden". Zur Kanonisierung des kommunistischen Buchenwald-Gedächtnisses in der Dokumentation Mahnung und Verpflichtung, in: Fritz Bauer Institut, Katharina Stengel (Ed.): Opfer als Akteure, Interventionen ehemaliger NS-Verfolgter in der Nachkriegszeit, Frankfurt (Main) 2008, pp. 151–173.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Walter Bartel.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Walter_Bartel&oldid=1248681224"