Janka, Walter

Walter Janka was born into a large family of toolmaker Adalbert Janka. In 1920-1928 he studied at a public school, in 1928-1932 he mastered the profession of a printing worker. In 1930, Walter Janka worked as the organizational and political leader of the German Communist Youth League branch in Chemnitz. After the death of his brother Albert, Walter was also arrested and was under investigation in Chemnitz and Freiburg on charges of preparing for high treason. He served his sentence in prison in Bautzen and the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . In 1935 he was expelled to Czechoslovakia .

In 1936, Janka went to Spain and participated in the battles of the Civil War as part of the Telman battalion. In 1937 he received the rank of captain and soon became the youngest major in the Karl Marx division in the Spanish People’s Army. At the Battle of Ebro, he was seriously wounded. In Spain, he met Erich Milke , the future Minister of State Security of the GDR.

After the victory, Franco Janka fled to France , in 1939-1941 he was kept in the Vernet internment camp. Having fled again, through Casablanca he left for Mexico in November 1941, where he founded the Free Germany movement together with Paul Merker and Alexander Abush . In Mexico, Walter Janka led the publishing house El libro libre , founded in 1942, in which Anna Zegers worked. In 1946, Walter Janka led the leadership of the KKE in Mexico.

At the end of World War II in April 1947, Walter Janka returned to Germany. In the same year he married a translator and longtime companion Charlotte Scholz. The couple had two children, Andre and Yvonne.

For some time, Walter Janka worked on the board of the new SED, in July 1948 he joined the board of the DEFA film studio and on October 6 was appointed managing director, but in 1949 he resigned.

In February 1950, Walter Janka took the position of Deputy Managing Director of the publishing house Aufbau-Verlag , in 1953 he headed the publishing house. Janka planned a film adaptation of Thomas Mann ’s novel " Buddenbrooks " in collaboration with Western film studios. He also wanted to make a film starring Charlie Chaplin on DEFA and on this issue met with the actor on May 18, 1954 in Vevey .

On December 6, 1956, Walter Janka was arrested on charges of a counter-revolutionary conspiracy and placed in a pre-trial detention center in Berlin's Hohenschönhausen . After spending more than six months in custody, on July 26, 1957, Walter Janka was sentenced by the Supreme Court of the GDR to five years in prison in solitary confinement in a strict regime for direct participation in the activities of the counter-revolutionary group and incitement to boycott. Under the counter-revolutionary group was meant the “Circle of Like-Minded People”, an informal group, also known as the Harich group . Wolfgang Harich , an employee of the publishing house Aufbau-Verlag , already sentenced in March 1957 to ten years in prison, appeared in the trial of Janka as the main witness for the prosecution and significantly aggravated the situation of the defendant. Once friends, Yanka and Harikh from this moment remained enemies for life. In addition to Walter Yankee, Gustav Just , Richard Wolf, Heinz Zöger were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment during demonstration trials.

Janka was serving his sentence in a prison in Berlin Lichtenberg , and since 1958 - in a prison in Bautzen , where he became seriously ill. On December 23, 1960, in response to numerous protests from the international community, Walter Janka was prematurely released from prison. Once at large, Walter Janka could not find a job for some time, then, thanks to the help of Anna Zegers, he got into a dubbing studio and later worked as a playwright at the DEFA film studio. Since the 1950s, he lived in Kleinmakhnov near Berlin. Janka worked on scripts for feature films, actively participated in the production of the film " Goya, or the Hard Way of Knowledge " (1971).

In 1972, Walter Janke returned to the status of being persecuted by the Nazi regime, he again joined the SED . The film, according to his autobiographical script about the events of the Civil War in Spain, “A Trip to Granada”, was never shot. In 1973, Walter Janka resigned from the DEFA film studio. In the 1980s, Janka wrote articles, traveled to Germany several times with reports on experiences during the Spanish Civil War. In 1989 he was awarded the Order of Merit to the Fatherland in gold.

After political changes in the GDR in October 1989, Rowohlt Verlag published Walter Yankee's memoirs on the time of his conclusion, “Difficulties with the Truth” (“The Problem of Truth”, Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit ), which became very popular in the GDR. The 1956 verdict of the Supreme Court of the GDR against the Yankees was declared insolvent and canceled. The publication also sparked a heated debate between Janka and Harikh.

December 16, 1989 Walter Janka was invited to the Presidium of the Extraordinary Congress of the SED / PDS . In 1990, Janka was elected to the council of elders under the rule of the PDS, but soon became disillusioned withdrew from his composition. He was buried at the Forest Cemetery in Kleinmakhnov.

• Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit. Essay, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1989, ISBN 3-499-12731-8
• Spuren eines Lebens , Berlin: Rowohlt 1991
• ... bis zur Verhaftung. Erinnerungen eines deutschen Verlegers. Berlin, Weimar: Aufbau-Verlag 1993

• Michael Rohrwasser: Wer ist Walter Janka? Eine biographische Notiz. In: Schwierigkeiten mit der Wahrheit. Berlin: Aufbau-Verlag, 1990, S. 115-124, ISBN 3-351-01763-4 .
• Ingke Brodersen (Hrsg.): Der Prozeß gegen Walter Janka und andere. Rowohlt, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1990

• Biography (German)
• Biography (German)