Leo Flieg (5 November 1893 – 15 March 1939) was a German politician, and a founder member of the
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
, regarded by some as an "
Éminence grise
An ''éminence grise'' () or grey eminence is a powerful decision-maker or adviser who operates "behind the scenes", or in a non-public or unofficial capacity.
This phrase originally referred to François Leclerc du Tremblay, the right-hand man ...
" to the national leadership. He served as a member of the
Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
regional parliament ("Provinziallandtag") between 1924 and 1933. In 1938 he was arrested in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
where he had lived for some years. He was executed in 1939.
Life
Leopold Flieg was born into a Jewish working-class family in
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 ...
.
[ His mother and sister, along with a number of relatives, would be murdered in the ]Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
.[
On leaving school Flieg undertook a commercial apprenticeship at a bank, and he worked as a bank official till the outbreak of the ]war
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
. In 1908, aged fifteen, he joined the Young Socialists.[ Three years later, still aged only eighteen, he joined the Social Democratic Party (''"Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands"'' / SPD) itself.][ 1911 was also the year in which he became a member of the "Zentralverband der Handlungsgehilfen" (''loosely: "National Clerical Workers' Union"''). There are indications that he was already on the fringes of the social circle centred on the political pioneers, ]Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
and Karl Liebknecht
Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from ...
. During the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
Flieg was conscripted into the army, but he was wounded early on and spent the war years in 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 ...
where he was employed as a "soldier-clerk" in the "secret department" of the General Staff
A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...
.[
During the war years Flieg was involved actively with the anti-war ]Spartacus League
The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a Marxism, Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, ...
, and he was one of the founders of one of the Free Socialist Youth (''"Freie sozialistische Jugend"'') organisations of the time. In 1918, working as secretary for Leo Jogiches
Leon "Leo" Jogiches (Russian: Лев "Лео" Йогихес; 17 July 1867 – 10 March 1919), also commonly known by the party name Jan Tyszka, was a Polish Marxist revolutionary and politician, active in Poland, Lithuania, and Germany.
Jogiche ...
, a close friend of Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat party, ...
he increasingly became an "insider" with the leadership of what would soon become the German Communist Party. Flieg was always noted for his discretion and reticent demeanour, however. His manner was famously measured and he never raised his voice. During 1918 he began a lifelong friendship with Willi Münzenberg
Wilhelm "Willi" Münzenberg (14 August 1889, Erfurt, Germany – June 1940, Saint-Marcellin, France) was a German Communist political activist and publisher. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919–20 and est ...
, but the extent of his influence in extremist left-wing circles during the crucial final months of 1918 remains unclear.
The founding congress of the Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
took place in 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 ...
over three days between 30 December 1918 and 1 January 1919. The core of the founding membership consisted of those who had hitherto been Spartacus League
The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a Marxism, Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the "International Group" by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, ...
members: Leo Flieg was a party member and part of the leadership team from the outset. He worked closely with Willi Münzenberg
Wilhelm "Willi" Münzenberg (14 August 1889, Erfurt, Germany – June 1940, Saint-Marcellin, France) was a German Communist political activist and publisher. Münzenberg was the first head of the Young Communist International in 1919–20 and est ...
on the creation of the Young Communist International (''"Kommunistische Jugendinternationale"'' / KJI), serving as a member of its executive committee from its launch in 1919 till March 1922.[ During the immediate postwar years Flieg was lodging in ]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 ...
with the family of a girl friend. The father of the family, who worked at the giant Osram
Osram Licht AG is a German company that makes electric lights, headquartered in Munich and Premstätten (Austria). Osram positions itself as a high-tech photonics company that is increasingly focusing on sensor technology, visualization and tre ...
factory in Berlin, was heard to marvel at the abstemious ways of his daughter's seemingly unassuming friend: "I was amazed that Leo managed a whole egg for breakfast: half that amount would most certainly have been enough for him!" (''"Mich wundert es eigentlich, das Leo zum Frühstück ein ganzes Ei schafft, ein halbes würde ihm sicher auch genügen!"'').
From 1922, jointly with Käthe Pohl, Flieg served as secretary to the Organisation Office (''"Orgbüro"'') of the party politburo. He participated in every congress conducted by the Communist Party of Germany between 1920 and 1932. In 1924 he stood successfully for election to the Prussian
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...
regional parliament (''"Provinziallandtag"'') as a Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
member. Successively re-elected at subsequent elections, he retained his seat without a break till 1932.[ He was elected to the party Central Committee in 1927 and appears to have joined the politburo shortly afterwards. At the sixth world congress, in 1928, he joined the ]Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
International Control Commission.[
One source indicates that from 1928 Flieg made his home in the Comintern's so-called "]Hotel Lux
The former Hotel Lux in Moscow
Hotel Lux (Люксъ) was a hotel in Moscow during the Soviet Union, housing many leading exiled and visiting Communists. During the Nazi era, exiles from all over Europe went there, particularly from Germany. A n ...
" in Moscow,[ though the extent of his activities in Germany suggests that at this point much of his time was still spent in Berlin. Leo Flieg liked to operate behind the scenes, which can make it hard to pin down details of his work for the ]German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
Communist Party
A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...
. According to one source, records uncovered in Moscow during 1992/93 show that during the early 1930s, as a secretary of the party and commissioner of the Comintern Intelligence Service (''"Отдел международной связи, "'' / OMS), Leo Flieg was in charge of spending an annual subsidy from Moscow valued at 1.8 million marks
Marks may refer to:
Business
* Mark's, a Canadian retail chain
* Marks & Spencer, a British retail chain
* Collective trade marks, trademarks owned by an organisation for the benefit of its members
* Marks & Co, the inspiration for the novel '' ...
, co-ordinating false passports, radio operators and couriers. He himself headed up a counterfeiting operation with 170 "employees". This intelligence role was conducted in close collaboration with 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 ...
.
The Soviet Communist Party
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first)Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
became increasingly polarised during the later 1920s between those who were supportive of Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
and those who dared to be thought to speculate that perhaps Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 19 ...
's successor should have been Leon Trotsky
Lev Davidovich Bronstein. ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky; uk, link= no, Лев Давидович Троцький; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trotskij'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky''. (), was a Russian ...
. The Soviet party and the German Party were closely linked at various levels: party ruptures in Moscow found powerful echoes among the comrades in Berlin, with a major programme of expulsions during 1928 and the establishment by many of those expelled of an alternative party. Sources insist that through this period Leo Flieg carried out his party functions with skill, loyalty and meticulous care, without regard to whether the party leadership might be considered too far to the left or too far to the right. Then, in May 1932 Flieg was relieved by the German Party of his party responsibilities, seen as having become too close to Heinz Neumann
Heinz Neumann (6 July 1902 – 26 November 1937) was a German politician from the Communist Party (KPD) and a journalist. He was a member of the Communist International, editor in chief of the party newspaper ''Die Rote Fahne'' and a member of the ...
, a close political comrade and a personal friend. In 1930/31 Neumann had become critical of the party leader Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
, and thereby also of Stalin, both of whom, he said, were underestimating the dangers presented by the rise of the Nazi Party
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
. In April 1932 Neumann was stripped of his party functions and summoned to Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. Flieg was identified as a "member of the Neumann group" and his demotions, accompanied by the inevitable mutterings about Trotskyite sympathies, followed a few weeks later.[ His membership of the politburo was reduced to "candidate membership".
Despite his disgrace in Germany, Flieg still had influential friend in Moscow as a result of his years as linkman for the Berlin activities of the OMS. He knew Piatnitsky and Abramov-Mirov and other ]Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
leaders from long years of working together on "intelligence matters". By the end of 1932 he was working in Moscow for the Comintern executive committee. Sources are not entirely consistent over his postings over the next few years. In January 1933 the Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
took power in Germany and Communist Party activists were either arrested (or worse) or escaped abroad. Moscow and Paris both quickly became informal headquarter locations for the German Communist Party in exile. Flieg was sent to Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
and was able to renew his important hands-on political work as a "technical secretary to the politburo".[ By 1934 he was evidently rehabilitated by the Germany party, and there is mention of his having been sent by the politburo Central Committee not just to Paris, but also to Saarbrücken during the run-up to the 1935 referendum, and to Prague. In October 1935 the exiled German Communist Party held its first party conference since the Nazi take-over in Berlin. The Brussels Conference was also the last conference that the party would be able to hold for more than ten years. Flieg participated, identified pseudonymously as "Alfons", and presented the party's finance report. He was re-elected to the party Central Committee. After that he was probably based in Paris till 1937.][
During 1937 Leo Flieg was deprived of his German nationality and so became stateless.] At Easter that year he received an invitation from the Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
to a meeting in Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
. Those with contacts in the Soviet Union were by this time fully aware of the rising level of political arrests under way in what later came to be known in English language sources as 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 ...
. Flieg knew the risks inherent in returning to Moscow and friends urged him to stay in Paris. The Swedish banker Olof Aschberg
Olof Aschberg (July 22, 1877 – April 21, 1960) was a Swedish banker of Jewish descent who served as head of the Stockholm bank Nya Banken. From August 18, 1922 on he served as Director-General of Roscombank, which was later transformed into ...
urged him not to go, and promised support in seeking "emigrant status" from the French authorities. But Flieg felt constrained to accept the invitation. He had responsibilities for party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will often feature f ...
monies, and feared he might be accused of embezzlement by Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
chiefs in Moscow if he did not comply with their order.[
Flieg returned to Moscow in June 1937 and installed himself once more in the "]Hotel Lux
The former Hotel Lux in Moscow
Hotel Lux (Люксъ) was a hotel in Moscow during the Soviet Union, housing many leading exiled and visiting Communists. During the Nazi era, exiles from all over Europe went there, particularly from Germany. A n ...
". His meeting with Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
management took place, but he received only a reprimand. Early in 1938 the German representative among the Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
leadership, Philipp Dengel, lodged an application for Flieg to be permitted to leave the country again. Authorisation never came through. Instead, on 20 March 1938, Leo Flieg was arrested by the NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
and charge with "membership of a right-wing Trotskyite spying organisation".[
According to a television report of research undertaken by the ]Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
historian, Reinhard Müller, Leo Flieg was tortured for an entire year (''"Flieg wurde ein ganzes Jahr lang gefoltert ...."''). In the course that lengthy succession of torture sessions he was persuaded to incriminate himself and many others. In the written "confession" extracted from him he confirmed his membership of a Comintern
The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...
anti-Soviet conspiracy. On 14 March 1939 Leo Flieg was condemned to death by a military tribunal of the High Court and executed by shooting. He was posthumously rehabilitated in 1957.[
Personal paranoia at the top of the Soviet government which underpinned 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 ...
can be seen as a sufficient explanation for Flieg's conviction. He was only one of many hundred Comintern workers and collaborators who fell victim to it. Documents from 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 ...
that became available after 1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...
disclosed a hitherto unsuspected level of involvement by leading members of the German community of exiled communists in Moscow. In the words of one headline that appeared in 1990, "more than a thousand German communists fell victim to the Stalin Terror, with the approval of leading comrades in the Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
". Subsequent investigation of contemporary documents suggests to some that the involvement of the leading German communist comrades probably extended beyond mere approval.[ In 2002 work undertaken on more recently studied Soviet documents led one specialist historian to point the finger at ]Herbert Wehner
Herbert Richard Wehner (11 July 1906 – 19 January 1990) was a German politician. A former member of the Communist Party, he joined the Social Democrats (SPD) after World War II. He served as Federal Minister of Intra-German Relations from 1966 ...
(identified in Soviet records of the time under the party name "Kurt Funk"). Wehner returned from Soviet exile in 1946 and rose to become a leading figure in West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
's Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
. Under NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union.
...
interrogation in the Lubyanka Building
The Lubyanka ( rus, Лубянка, p=lʊˈbʲankə) is the popular name for the building which contains the headquarters of the FSB, and its affiliated prison, on Lubyanka Square in the Meshchansky District of Moscow, Russia. It is a large Ne ...
during 1937 Wehner found himself accused of joint responsibility for the arrest, in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, of the German party leader, Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
, back in 1933. The accusation might have been expected to have ended in Wehner's death, but it did not. Wehner chose to co-operate. He wrote for his interrogators a lengthy report entitled "Report of investigation into deeply ingrained Trotzkyite activity in the German anti-fascist movement" (''"Untersuchungsbericht zur trotzkistischen Wühlarbeit in der deutschen antifaschistischen Bewegung"''). The report included the names of all the communist German political exiles in Moscow who shortly afterwards fell under suspicion of being "Trotskyites" and / or members of "counter-revolutionary groups". Wehner's report on Flieg included the observation that he had been characterised by party leader Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
as a rogue (''" Er sei, so Wehner, vom Vorsitzenden Ernst Thälmann als Gauner bezeichnet worden"'').[ Soon after Wehner submitted his report hundreds of German communist party refugees were detained by the Soviet authorities. For Reinhard Müller this was part of a desperate "survival strategy", which for a terrified Herbert Wehner worked in its own terms, but for which hundreds of others paid the price.][ An alternative interpretation might be that the German political exiles caught up in the ]Stalin purges
Purges of the Communist Party in the Soviet Union (russian: "Чистка партийных рядов", ', "cleansing of the party ranks") were Soviet political events, especially during the 1920s, in which periodic reviews of members of the Co ...
would have been arrested anyway, and Wehner's active collusion merely facilitated the exercise.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Flieg, Leopold
Politicians from Berlin
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919
Communist Party of Germany politicians
20th-century German Jews
German Comintern people
Jewish socialists
Prussian politicians
Communists in the German Resistance
Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union
Great Purge victims from Germany
Jews executed by the Soviet Union
1893 births
1939 deaths