Walter Bartel (15 September 1904 – 16 January 1992) was a German
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
resistance fighter
A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...
, historian and university professor.
Life
Born in
Fürstenberg/Havel
Fürstenberg () is a town in the Oberhavel district, Brandenburg, Germany.
Until 1919, Fürstenberg was part of the former Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz
Geography
Fürstenberg is situated on the River Havel, south of Neustrelitz, and ...
, Bartel grew up in a working-class family. Wilhelm Bartel, his father, worked in
forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. Th ...
.
Walter Bartel trained to be a
merchant
A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as indust ...
after attending
Volksschule and
Realschule. He joined the
Young Communist League of Germany
The Young Communist League of Germany (, abbreviated KJVD) was a political youth organization in Germany.
History
The KJVD was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth () of the Communist Party of Germany, A prior youth wing had been forme ...
(KJVD) in 1920 (the same year it was created) and joined 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 ...
(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
Aspirant is a rank in the Royal Canadian Navy, Estonian Defence Forces, French military, Brazilian military, Portuguese military, Swiss military, Italian Air Force, Argentinian Armed Forces, Romanian Navy, Polish Policja and Państwowa Stra ...
'' 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 sentenced to 27 months 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 ...
'', which he served from 1933 to 1935 at
Brandenburg-Görden Prison. After his release, he emigrated to
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
, 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
Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...
. At Buchenwald, Bartel was employed by the Carpentry labourers and the department of labour statistics.
[Harry Stein, Gedenkstätte Buchenwald (Ed.): ''Konzentrationslager Buchenwald 1937–1945'', Begleitband zur ständigen historischen Ausstellung, Göttingen 1999, pp. 292f] 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.
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
Ljubljana Town Hall ( sl, Ljubljanska mestna hiša, also known as or simply or ) is the town hall in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, is the seat of the City Municipality of Ljubljana. It is located at Town Square in the city centre close to L ...
, 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
Horst Bartel (16 January 1928 – 22 June 1984) was a German historian and university professor. He was involved in most of the core historiography projects undertaken in the German Democratic Republic (1949–1989). His work on the nineteenth-ce ...
,
Karl Bittel
Karl Bittel (22 June 1892 – 18 April 1969) was a German left-wing historian and journalist.
Life
Karl Bittel was born in Darmstadt. His father was a bank worker. He attended school at Freiburg in the south-west of Germany, across the Rhine ...
,
Rudolf Lindau und
Albert Schreiner Albert Schreiner (7 August 1892 in Aglasterhausen – 4 August 1979 in Berlin) was a German political activist and Marxist historian.
Life
The son of an SPD functionary, he became an SPD member in 1910, where he belonged to the party's left wing. ...
) lacked the necessary skill and rigour to sufficiently distance his academic output from the category of "mere" party propaganda.
[Lothar Mertens: ''Priester der Klio oder Hofchronisten der Partei? Kollektivbiographische Analysen zur DDR-Historikerschaft'', V & R unipress, Göttingen 2006, p. 125, .]
Honours
* 1964
Patriotic Order of Merit, Silver
* 1964
Johannes R. Becher
Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writin ...
-Medal
* 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit, Gold
* 1974
Order of Karl Marx
* 1979 Medal of the Soviet Committee of War Veterans
* 1984
Star of People's Friendship
References
Bibliography
* 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, .
* Philipp Neumannn: "… eine Sprachregelung zu finden". Zur Kanonisierung des kommunistischen Buchenwald-Gedächtnisses in der Dokumentation Mahnung und Verpflichtung, in:
Fritz Bauer Institut
Fritz Bauer (16 July 1903 – 1 July 1968) was a German Jewish judge and prosecutor. He was instrumental in the post-war capture of former Holocaust planner Adolf Eichmann and played an essential role in beginning the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials ...
, Katharina Stengel (Ed.): ''Opfer als Akteure, Interventionen ehemaliger NS-Verfolgter in der Nachkriegszeit'', Frankfurt (Main) 2008, pp. 151–173.
External links
*
Photo of Walter Bartel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bartel, Walter
Buchenwald concentration camp survivors
International Lenin School alumni
Communist Party of Germany politicians
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime members
Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin
Academic staff of Leipzig University
East German people
1904 births
1992 deaths
20th-century German historians
German Marxist historians
People from Oberhavel