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Karl Schirdewan: Aufstand Gegen Ulbricht GDR Bulletin Volume 22 Issue 1 Spring Article 16 1995 Karl Schirdewan: Aufstand gegen Ulbricht Morris Vos Western Illinois University Follow this and additional works at: https://newprairiepress.org/gdr This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Recommended Citation Vos, Morris (1995) "Karl Schirdewan: Aufstand gegen Ulbricht," GDR Bulletin: Vol. 22: Iss. 1. https://doi.org/10.4148/gdrb.v22i1.1170 This Review is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in GDR Bulletin by an authorized administrator of New Prairie Press. For more information, please contact cads@k- state.edu. Vos: Karl Schirdewan: Aufstand gegen Ulbricht BOOK REVIEWS 37 admits that the work is Berlin- and church-heavy in its organization and also in leadership positions within focus. In the fine tradition of participant-observation, the German Communist Party itself, Schirdewan was Riiddenklau captures the day-to-day problems and arrested by Gestapo agents in 1934. From that year interactions typical of various groups as they were until liberation by American tank troops during his perceived and played out at the time, not as they are death march in April 1945, Schirdewan was being rewritten with the help from the revelations and subjected to confinement and torture in prisons and reverberations that have ensued since unification. concentration camps. He became a member and a An extremely useful reference text for anyone secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist attempting to de- and re-construct the ebbs and flows of Unity Party and in 1953 a member of the Politbüro— her favorite movement, Störenfried nonetheless only in 1958 to be relieved of all duties in the Party. possesses a disturbing undertone for sympathetic The life of Karl Schirdewan is instructive in outsiders, especially for those of us who had hoped that itself. His is a consistent story of a communist in the "real revolutionaries" would eventually triumph continual opposition: sometimes in opposition to during the breath-taking weeks and months of 1989. legitimate government, sometimes in opposition to Rüddenklau discloses (but does not harp on) personality Hitler's aberration, sometimes in opposition to conflicts and disruptive tendencies towards persons supposed to be comrades. In this book Selbstdarstellung/Selbstprofilierung that rendered Schirdewan does not sketch the whole backdrop specific groups unfit for more effective collaborative from fascism to leftwing radicalism, but concentrates action, e.g. the Initiative für Frieden und on the period between 1953 and 1958, that is, from Menschenrechte. By telling the story of opposition like the year of Stalin's death and the reforms of the 20th it was, rather than as it might have been, he preserves a congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union very special place of GDR history ganz unten. to Schirdewan's dismissal from GDR Party leadership. JOYCE MARIE MUSHABEN Schirdewan considers himself to have been a Ohio State University loyal advocate of the revolutionary workers' movement, both early in his life and throughout his Schirdewan, Karl. Aufstand gegen Ulbricht. public career. As a consistent opponent of fascism, Berlin: Aufbau Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994. DM he contended illegally against Hitler and held that 14,90 ISBN 3-7466-8008-5 same anti-fascist position as GDR party functionary. Yet in 1958 at the 35th meeting of the Central On the cover of this diminutive AtV paperback a Committee of the SED he was slandered as picture of a cold Walter Ulbricht in topcoat and hat, revisionist. With Erich Honecker bringing charges all in brown tones, Ulbricht in a three-quarters on the basis of Ulbricht's rigid concept of a frontal view, eyes squinting off into the distance, monolithic leftwing conservatism, the meeting head back, lips tightly set as usual; and below him a degenerated into distortions of fact and defamations black-and-white inset of a warmer Karl Schirdewan, of character: "Eine politische Dekadenz breitete sich a smaller photo, full front view, bald head slightly aus. Es war wie eine Inquisition aus dem down, eyes wide open and facing the camera Mittelalter. Die politische Unkultur, wie sie wohl so directly, a kind of implicit challenge to the First niemals in der Parteigeschichte stattgefunden hatte, Secretary. History's loser standing up against the wucherte bis zum Exzeß." The lesson Karl apparent winner. That contrasting view of the Schirdewan draws from his personal history is that central characters is maintained throughout this rigid dogmatism can all too easily lead to memoir from beginning to end. But the reader unfortunate conclusions. Under Lenin, Schirdewan concludes: the truth of Schirdewan's position is argues, there existed a degree of rational discussion vindicated, this is how he took his stance in the such that party leaders could express contrary vicissitudes of history, and this is the first time we opinions and nonetheless be heard. Dissidents under can read about it directly and personally. Stalin, however, were delivered to the executioner; The author is Karl Schirdewan, born 1907 in Schirdewan depicts Ulbricht as following that East Prussia, soon an orphan, at age 16 a member of pernicious pattern (143-44). the German Communist Party, then secretary of the Schirdewan perceives the difference between Communist Youth Organization, regional director in himself and Ulbricht as one of style or method or more than one location, and in 1928 a member of its process, rather than of substance though, of course, Central Committee. Having worked illegally in their differences resulted in substantive antinomies Saxony and in northern Germany in the youth on matters of principle. Student and worker Published by New Prairie Press, 1995 1 GDR Bulletin, Vol. 22 [1995], Iss. 1, Art. 16 38 GDR BULLETIN responses to the post-Stalin "thaw" in the Soviet Hätte Christa Wolf mit ihrem Vorwort nicht Union, and official GDR reponses to the 20th einen bestimmten Erwartungshorizont gesetzt, congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union müßte an dieser Stelle nun eine Würdigung der provided a point of challenge to the left wing aufwendigen Recherchen der Herausgeber, dem represented by Ulbricht. Schirdewan attempted to hervorragend ausgewählten Bild- und bring an atmosphere of openness to political Dokumentenmaterial, und der gelungenen discussions of liberalizing movements. It is one Verbindung von Zeugen und Zeugnissen aus dem thing to do away with the Stalin personality cult, Leben und dem Werk Anna Seghers folgen. Schirdewan asserts, but that is only the first step. Sucht man im Buch nach Aufklärung der von Beyond that, with the goal of removing centralist Wolf postulierten Identitätsfacetten, so finden sich rigidity, he urged democratic political methods genügend Ansätze zu den Bereichen "Deutsche," within SED party leadership (103). But Ulbricht and "Kommunistin," Schriftstellerin," die schon die other hardliners preferred to suppress discussion and bisherige Seghersliteratur und -forschung to deny both the reality and the validity of student bestimmen. Sehr viel schwieriger wird es bei den and worker protests. Schirdewan found himself Begriffen "Jüdin," "Frau," und "Mutter," obwohl continually in the political minority: "Meine sich gerade der Bereich "Mutter" durch die Mitarbeit Vorschläge fanden aber immer wieder keine Ruth Radvanyis erschließen lassen sollte. Mehrheit im Politbüro. Man hielt sie für Die frühesten Aussagen Ruth oder Pierre versöhnlerisch, sie würden dem Feind Tür und Tor Radvanyis in dieser Biographie stammen aus dem für sein ideologisches Einwirken öffnen" (82). Jahr 1989, was die Authentizität dieser Aussagen Schirdewan's autobiography will not answer all außerdem etwas fragwürdig macht. Dieselben dienen the questions about these political dynamics. Its auch häufig nur der Verdeutlichung äußerer subtitle provides a focus: "Im Kampf um politische Umstände, wie z.B. der Emigrationszeit. Als Kurskorrektur, gegen stalinistische, dogmatische Erinnerungsbilder sind gerade solche Aussagen Politik." If we readers want to know something of sicher wertvoll, da gerade dadurch das what it means to have invested one's life in such a Unpersönliche historischer Zeitdarstellung struggle in Germany in the twentieth century, let us durchbrochen wird und sich als gelebte Zeit für den read this record again. Leser eröffnet. Solche Aussagen aber ohne weiteres Hinterfragen als Zeitdokumente zu werten ist problematisch, da sich oft eigene Erinnerung mit MORRIS VOS Western Illinois University fremdbestimmter Erinnerung vermengt: "Die Schönheit und die Kultur Mexikos, die Wagner, Frank, Ursula Emmerich, und Ruth Tiefsinnigkeit der Menschen prägten mein ganzes Radvanyi, Hg. Anna Seghers Eine Biographie in Leben. Meine Mutter schrieb später, Mexiko wäre Bildern. Berlin und Weimar: Aufbau Verlag, für uns wie eine Adoptivmutter gewesen" (Ruth 1994. 262 S. Radvanyi, 1992 [121]). Annäherungen an Anna Seghers als Mutter ergeben sich durch diese "Anna Seghers: Deutsche, Jüdin, Kommunistin, Aussagen nur in geringem Maße. Der Leser erfährt Schriftstellerin, Frau, Mutter. Jedem dieser Worte eigentlich nur, daß Pierre und Ruth Radvanyi trotz denke man nach" (7). Diese Worte aus dem Vorwort aller widrigen äußeren Umstände immer in die Christa Wolfs zu dieser Biographie klingen wie eine Schule geschickt wurden, oder daß sie in all den Beschwörungsformel. Dem Leser wird nahegelegt, Jahren der Emigration nie Hunger leiden mußten.
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