Gerhard Eisler
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Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician,
editor Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, orga ...
and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent 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 ...
during the Weimar Republic.


Life and career


Early life

Eisler was born in Leipzig, the son of Marie Edith Fischer and
Rudolf Eisler Rudolf Eisler (7 January 1873 – 14 December 1926) was an Austrian philosopher. Biography Rudolf Eisler was born in Vienna to a family of wealthy Jewish merchants.Michael Haas, ''Forbidden Music: The Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis'' (New ...
, a professor of philosophy at Leipzig but of Austrian nationality. His father was Jewish and his mother was Lutheran. His brother was the leftist composer Hanns Eisler and his sister was Communist activist Ruth Fischer. In November 1918, Eisler returned from the front of World War I and joined the Austrian Communist Party under the influence of his older sister. In 1919, he married
Hede Massing Hede Tune Massing, née "Hedwig Tune" (also "Hede Eisler," "Hede Gumperz," and "Redhead") (6 January 1900 – 8 March 1981), was an Austrian actress in Vienna and Berlin, communist, and Soviet intelligence operative in Europe and the United State ...
(1900–1981). In 1920, he followed his sister to Berlin, where in January 1921 he became associate editor of the Die Rote Fahne. It was Germany's leading left-wing newspaper.


Comintern agent

He left Hede in 1923 for her sister Elli Tune. Elli left him with their baby daughter Natasha in 1933, when she could no longer cope with the demands 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 ...
made on him. In 1937, he met Hilde Vogel-Rothstein and they married in Queens, New York City in 1942. His first wife Hede and her third husband
Paul Massing Paul Wilhelm Massing (30 August 1902 – 30 April 1979) was a German sociologist. Life and career Born in Grumbach in the Rhine Province, he attended school in Cologne, and later studied economics and social sciences at Frankfurt University ...
both spied for the Soviet Union in the USA and they all kept in touch. Hede Massing later turned towards the FBI and testified against
Alger Hiss Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American government official accused in 1948 of having spied for the Soviet Union in the 1930s. Statutes of limitations had expired for espionage, but he was convicted of perjury in con ...
in his second trial. Massing saw Eisler on his return to the Soviet Union: "Gerhart… was involved in the Wittdorf affair, a political maneuver to dethrone Ernst Thälmann, who was supported by Stalin…. Gerhart was, after a time, in complete isolation in Moscow, forbidden to read German papers in order to get Germany out of his system, and then sent as Comintern representative to China where, according to many reports, he achieved great success through his ruthless policy. He stepped back into Stalin's favor." From 1929 to 1931, he was a liaison between the Communist International and the Communist Parties in China and then from 1933 to 1936 to the United States. '' Time'' reported in 1947 that he had made a trip to China in the late 1920s during which he earned the name "the executioner" for "purging the party of spies and dissidents". Eisler was charged in two trials in 1947 first with refusing to answer the
HUAC The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
, then of violating U.S. laws by misrepresenting his Communist Party affiliation on his immigration application. He was sentenced to one and three years in prison, but was soon released on bail. '' Newsweek'' described him in its 23 February 1948 issue as the "number one Red agent" (echoing ''Time'' magazine's "No. I U.S. Communist" from 1947).).


Escaping America

In 1948,
Lee Pressman Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906 – November 20, 1969) was a labor attorney and earlier a US government functionary, publicly alleged in 1948 to have been a spy for Soviet intelligence during the mid-1930s (as a member of the Ware Group), following hi ...
of New York and
Joseph Forer Joseph Forer (11 August 1910 – 20 June 1986) was a 20th-century American attorney who, with partner David Rein, supported Progressive causes, including discriminated communists and African-Americans. Forer was one of the founders of the Nation ...
of Washington, DC, represented Eisler along with Charles A. Doyle of the Gas, Coke and Chemical Workers Union; Irving Potash, vice president of the Fur and Leather Workers Union; Ferdinand C. Smith, secretary of the National Maritime Union; and John Williamson, labor secretary of the CPUSA). On 5 May 1948, Pressman and Forer received a preliminary injunction so their defendants might have hearings with examiners unconnected with the investigations and prosecutions by examiners of the
Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...
. When his last legal appeal failed, he jumped bail and secretly boarded the Polish liner MS ''Batory'' bound for London in early May 1949. He was discovered by the crew only after the ship was at sea. Once in England, he was dragged off the ship by his hands and feet; the authorities allowed him to leave for the German Democratic Republic.


Senior East German official

Eisler became an employee of the party executive of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and a member of the People's Chamber. In the course of the establishment of the SED rule, he informed his colleagues at the party executive committee meeting on October 4, 1949 that, as Marxists, they must know: “If we found a government, we will never give it up again, neither through elections nor through others Methods". Until 1953 he was responsible for the management of the press and radio in the GDR government. Because of sympathizing with the opponents of SED party leader Walter Ulbricht before and during the uprising on June 17, 1953, he was deposed, but rehabilitated in 1955. From 1956 to 1962 Eisler was deputy chairman and then until his death chairman of the State Committee for Broadcasting of the GDR, and from 1967 he was member of the Central Committee of the SED. There he was one of the most innovative leading figures in the GDR media apparatus: for example, he set up the DT 64 youth studio, which he also protected from attacks from the party, during his time.


Legacy

After his death during an official visit in Yerevan, Armenia, several schools and streets in the German Democratic Republic were named in his honor. His cremation urn was placed at the Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde in Berlin. Files from the UK National Archives released on 4 March 2008 included information about Gerhart Eisler. The MI5 summary states:
Eisler, who was supposed by many to be the covert leader and director of the Communist Party in America during and after the Second World War, became the centre of a diplomatic incident in 1949 when, having stowed away on a Polish ship out of New York, he was forcibly removed and arrested in Southampton. This file documents the Security Service's involvement in the case. The earliest traces of Eisler in the file (KV 2/2773, 1936–1949) date from 1936, when Comintern efforts to secure a false American passport in the name of Edwards were reported. In 1947 information obtained from Eisler's former wife, Hedwiga Messing, suggested that Eisler had used this cover name in New York in 1934.
An allegation from former Communist
Louis F. Budenz Louis Francis Budenz (pronounced "byew-DENZ"; July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the ''Buben group'' of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member ...
that Lillian Hellman hosted a dinner party for Eisler the night before he stowed away on the ''Batory'' was instrumental in labeling her an active Communist and in the subsequent dismissal of
John F. Melby John Fremont Melby (July 1, 1913 – December 18, 1992) was a United States diplomat, who served in the Soviet Union from 1943 to 1945 and in China from 1945 to 1948. He held other positions with the Department of State until 1953, when he was dism ...
from the U.S. State Department in 1953.


Works

* ''The Lesson of Germany: A Guide to Her History'' (1945) * ''Eisler Hits Back: A Reply to Rankin Men'' (1946) * ''Five Men on a Hunger Strike'' (1949) * "Foreign Ideas" in ''Fighting Words'' (1949) * ''Wir reden hier nicht von Napoleon: Wir reden von Ihnen!'' (1971) * ''Auf der Hauptstraße der Weltgeschichte'' (1981)


References


External links

* * State Department passport brief, A115–A116 * ''Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States,'' hearings of 6 February 1947, U.S. Congress, House of Representatives,
House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
, 80th Cong., 1st sess., 14–19.
"The Brain"
'' Time, Monday, 28 October 1946 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eisler, Gerhart 1897 births 1968 deaths Politicians from Leipzig People from the Kingdom of Saxony German people of Jewish descent Jewish socialists Communist Party of Austria politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Members of the Provisional Volkskammer Defectors to East Germany Austrian emigrants to East Germany