Hans Male

Male was born into the family of the communist worker Adolf Malman , who died in February 1945 in the Buchenwald concentration camp . Hans Male studied at a public school and joined the children's organization of young pioneers. I was familiar with Ernst Thalmann , since his daughter Irma Telman was in the same pioneer organization. In 1926, Hans Male joined the Communist Youth League of Germany , after graduating from a commercial school at the age of 17, he headed the Hamburg pioneer organization. In 1931, Hans Male became a member of the leadership of the German pioneer organization and was involved in the publication of the newspaper Trommel (“Drum”). In 1932-1935, Male was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of Germany.

In 1932, Hans Male joined the KKE and was appointed first secretary in the leadership of the German pioneer organization. Since October 1932, Hans Male has represented Germany at the International Children's Bureau of the Comintern in Moscow.

After the National Socialists came to power in Germany, Hans Male was ordered to return to Germany to work illegally in the Komsomol. He worked in Berlin, Saxony and the Ruhr area . In 1935, he fled through Paris to Prague , from there to direct youth work in West Germany. Some time later, he was arrested in Amsterdam for his activities and was imprisoned. In 1936 he fled through Czechoslovakia to the USSR.

In Moscow, Hans Male worked in the Executive Committee of the Communist International of Youth, in 1938-1941, he simultaneously worked in the youth editorial office of Moscow Radio. In 1941, Male represented the German anti-fascist youth in the Anti-Fascist Committee of Soviet Youth .

After the German attack on the Soviet Union, Male was evacuated to Kuibyshev at the end of October 1941, where on the instructions of the Comintern he was engaged in the re-education of German prisoners of war, together with Walter Ulbricht and other German communists, he visited the prisoner of war camp in Karaganda .

Male’s work in Karaganda was praised, and at a meeting of the Comintern in Ufa, he was instructed to lead the youth radio Sturmadler , focusing on the Hitler Youth and young soldiers. In the spring of 1943, Male worked actively with prisoners of war for the establishment of the Free Germany National Committee. On June 12–13, 1943, he took part in the founding conference of the Free Germany committee in Krasnogorsk and headed its youth commission. In August of the same year, received a new appointment as technical director of Radio Free Germany . In the course of his work in November 1943 he took part in the hostilities near Kiev .

As chairman of the youth commission of the Central Committee of the KKE, Hans Male continued to deal with youth issues and the preparation of working materials for working with youth in post-war Germany. According to Wolfgang Leonhard , at first it was planned that it was Hans Male who would head the German youth organization, and not Erich Honecker . In 1944, Male attended the KKE party school No. 12 in Moscow. In February-August 1944, Hans Male was a member of the working commission on the development of the post-war KKE program.

In 1937, Male was deprived of German citizenship and later even sentenced to death in absentia for his anti-fascist activities by decision of the Imperial Military Court .

Hans Male was among the nine members of the Ulbricht group , who flew from Moscow to Germany on April 30. First, Male worked in the Berlin districts of Tiergarten and Moabit . At the direction of Ulbricht, Male came into contact with the surgeon Ferdinand Sauerbruch , who after some negotiations became the first head of the health department in the Berlin magistrate. Andreas Hermes , later the first chairman of the CDU in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany , entered the Berlin government and headed the food department thanks to the efforts of Hans Male. On May 11, Hans Male left the Ulbricht group to organize broadcasting in the city on the instructions of General Berzarin .

Broadcasting with a full-fledged program began a few days later, the station was temporarily called Radio Berlin, and Hans Male served as editor-in-chief. Despite the fears of some leaders of the KKE, politicians from other parties began to appear in Male’s radio programs soon. Hans Male also was engaged in the restoration of other radio stations in 1945-1946.

From June 1945 to September 1947, Male was a member of the Central Committee of the KKE and the SED Board, from August 1945 to May 1947 he was also a member of the Council of the Presidium of the Cultural Union . In 1946, Male headed the department of broadcasting and cultural education of the central department of public education. In August 1946, Male was appointed director of broadcasting in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany, which some historians assess as demotion. In the fall of 1946, Male had a conflict with Walter Ulbricht due to the fact that Male lived in the western part of Berlin, which again negatively affected the attitude of the SED leadership to him. In September 1947, Hans Male was removed from the Central Committee, where he was replaced by Heinz Kessler .

Gradually, the gap between Male and the party leadership began to widen. Male continued to live in West Berlin , at the "class enemy", contrary to the recommendations of the SED leadership was engaged in the development of television. July 14, 1951 he was removed from the post of head of broadcasting and charged with espionage. Nevertheless, until May 1953, Male continued to manage the central laboratory in Adlershof , which was involved in the development of television, and then was sent “for correction” to Schwerin , where he first worked in a cooperative store, then joined the board of cooperative societies in Schwerin and published the journal Genossenschaftler ("Cooperator").

After Stalin's death and denunciation of the personality cult in May 1956, Hans Male was appointed editor-in-chief of the SED Press Office Schweriner Volkszeitung (Schwerin National Newspaper) and was a member of the SED District Management. His final rehabilitation took place on February 24, 1959, when Male was appointed editor-in-chief of the newspaper Die Wahrheit (Pravda), an SED body in West Berlin. Male also became a member of the district administration of the SED in Berlin and in 1961 was awarded the Order of Merit for the Fatherland.

In 1962, Male joined the SED in West Berlin and was appointed honorary chairman of the German-Soviet Friendship Society in West Berlin. In 1974, he prepared an autobiography for publication, but it has not been published to date.

In 1995, Hans Male headed the PDS electoral list in the elections to the Bundestag and municipal authorities in the Steglitz district of Berlin.

• Wolfgang Leonhard: Die Revolution entläßt ihre Kinder . Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 1990. ISBN 3-462-01463-3 .
• Wolfgang Leonhard: Spurensuche . Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Köln 1992. ISBN 3-462-02170-2 .
• Wolfgang Leonhard: "Meine Geschichte der DDR." Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag Hamburg 2011 ISBN 978-3-499-62242-7
• Katharina Riege: Einem Traum verpflichtet. Hans Mahle - eine Biographie . Hamburg 2003. ISBN 3-89965-038-7 .
• Claus-Dieter Krohn, Axel Schildt: Zwischen den Stühlen? . Wallstein Verlag, 2002, ISBN 9783767214118 . auf google books

• Biography (German)
• Biography (German)