The Left Column (German: ''Kolonne Links'') was an

agitprop Agitprop (; from rus, агитпроп, r=agitpróp, portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in Soviet Russia where it referred to ...

theater troupe during the 1920s and 1930s. The troupe worked in support of the

Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...

(WIR). During the Nazi era, some of the group went into exile in the Soviet Union, where some of the members were arrested by the

Soviet secret police The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in the

Great Purge The Great Purge or the Great Terror (russian: Большой террор), also known as the Year of '37 (russian: 37-й год, translit=Tridtsat sedmoi god, label=none) and the Yezhovshchina ('period of Nikolay Yezhov, Yezhov'), was General ...

and in connection with the

Hitler Youth Conspiracy The Hitler Youth conspiracy was a case investigated by the Soviet secret police during the Great Purge in the late 1930s. It resulted in the arrest of numerous adolescent Germans, some in their twenties and beyond. They were accused of having bee ...

History

In its early years, the group consisted of nine people, none of whom had any theatrical training, a pianist and a driver. The

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

troupe was one of the most highly praised agitprop troupes in Germany,Ewan MacColl
"Theatre of Action"
Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved November 29, 2011 despite its lack of training. Hans Hauska joined the troupe in late summer 1930.Thomas Phelps

Justus Liebig University Giessen (October 27–28, 1997). Retrieved November 29, 2011 In 1931, the Left Column were rewarded with a tour in the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

for five weeks for having gained 16,000 new members for the WIR. On their return, they discovered that several of their performances in Germany were cancelled because a March 28, 1931 decree from the Reichspräsident to combat violence led to a local prohibition against agitprop theater assemblies. Six members then left Germany, embarking on a 4-month trip by boat and train across

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

back to Moscow. In 1933, under

Gustav von Wangenheim Gustav von Wangenheim (born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wangenheim; 18 February 1895 – 5 August 1975) was a German nobleman, actor, screenwriter and director. Life Wangenheim was born Ingo Clemens Gustav Adolf Freiherr von Wa ...

's leadership, they established the German Left Column Theater with members of "Troupe 31", another agitprop theater group. In 1935, troupe members

Helmut Damerius Helmut Damerius (16 December 1905 – 29 September 1985) was a German communist, theatre director, writer and the founding member of the Left Column, an agitprop theater group. As the Nazi Party gained in strength, he went into exile in Moscow, on ...

and Bruno Schmidtsdorf, were in Wangenheim's 1935 anti-Nazi film, ''Kämpfer''. Schmidtsdorf played the lead role,Hans Schafranek
"Kontingentierte 'Volksfeinde' und 'Agenturarbeit'"
Internationale wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung (January 2001). Retrieved November 26, 2011 Fritz Lemke, and Hauska wrote the music. Beginning in 1935, the NKVD began arresting members of the troupe in the Great Purge. All those arrested were members who had arrived in Moscow after 1932. Arrested members included Hans Hauska on November 20, 1937.Thomas Phelps (1997)

/ref> On February 5, 1938, Kurt Ahrendt, Karl Oefelein and Schmidtsdorf were arrested, charged with starting a branch of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth (german: Hitlerjugend , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth organisation of the Nazi Party in Germany. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. ...

, and were executed three weeks later. On March 17, 1938, Helmut Damerius, once a leader of the troupe, was arrested and sent to a

gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...

. His sentence ended in 1946, after which he was exiled to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

and forced to remain another eight years.Catherine Epstein
"The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century"
President and Fellows of Harvard College (2003), p. 57. . Retrieved November 30, 2011 Hauska, after four years in custody, and sentenced in a Nazi court on August 18, 1939 to one and a half years at hard labor in a

Zuchthaus The prisons in Germany are run solely by the federal states but governed by a federal law. The aim of prison confinement in Germany is twofold: emphasis is placed on enabling prisoners to lead a life of "social responsibility free of crime" upon rel ...

, was returned to the Nazis on December 5, 1940 under the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact , long_name = Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H27337, Moskau, Stalin und Ribbentrop im Kreml.jpg , image_width = 200 , caption = Stalin and Ribbentrop shaking ...

. Other arrested members were

Hans Klering Hans Klering (8 November 1906 – 30 October 1988) was a German actor, director, voice actor, graphic designer and author. He joined the Communist Party and went into exile in the Soviet Union in 1931, returning to Germany in 1945. In 1946, he beca ...

; Max Mielke, who arrived in Moscow in 1932, was arrested in 1938 and never heard from again; Albert Wolff; and Max (Samuel) Katzenellenbogen, a former member of the troupe in Berlin, who fled to Moscow after having been arrested by the Gestapo. He was arrested by the NKVD in 1937 and never heard from again. Damerius survived his imprisonment,Hans Schafranek, Natalia Musienko (2003)
"The Fictitious 'Hiter-Jugend' of the Moscow NKVD"
in: Barry McLoughlin, Kevin McDermott (Eds.), ''Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union.'' Palgrave MacMillan (2003), p. 220. Retrieved December 1, 2011 as did Klering, who returned to Germany in 1946 and became a co-founder of

DEFA DEFA (''Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft'') was the state-owned film studio of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) throughout the country's existence. Since 2019, DEFA's film heritage has been made accessible and licensable on the PRO ...

. Damerius was unable to leave the Soviet Union until 1956.

Notable members

Hans Hauska Hans may refer to: __NOTOC__ People * Hans (name), a masculine given name * Hans Raj Hans, Indian singer and politician ** Navraj Hans, Indian singer, actor, entrepreneur, cricket player and performer, son of Hans Raj Hans ** Yuvraj Hans, Punjabi ...

References

{{Reflist

External links

''Der Kampf'' (1936), U.S. release of Gustav von Wangenheim's film, ''Kämpfer''
Internet Movie Database. (Original Russian title: ''Bortsy'') German actors Great Purge

History

Notable members

See also

Further reading

References

External links