Karl Otto Hamann (4 March 1903 in

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; or ; ) is a city in Lower Saxony, in north-central Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of t ...

– 16 June 1973 in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

) was a German politician. Between 1948 and 1952 he was chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of (East) Germany (LDPD) and also the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

's Minister for Trade and Supply. In December 1952 he was arrested, stripped of his positions and imprisoned. Following his release, in May 1957 he was able to flee to

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

, but he never again engaged in public politics.

Life

Early years

From 1922 till 1927 Hamann studied Agricultural Sciences at Hohenheim,

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. Subsequently he became the head of Employment Offices in

Schwerte Schwerte (; Westphalian: ''Schweierte'') is a town in the district of Unna, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Schwerte is situated in the Ruhr valley, at the south-east border of the Ruhr Area. South of Schwerte begins the mountain ...

Hörde Hörde is a ''Stadtbezirk'' ("City District") and also a ''Stadtteil'' ('' Quarter'') in the south of the city of Dortmund, in Germany. Hörde is situated at 51°29' North, 7°30' West, and is at an elevation of 112 metres above mean sea level. ...

and

Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...

, and, in 1931, of a relocation co-operative in

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

. In 1933 he was awarded a doctorate from the

University of Bonn The University of Bonn, officially the Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (), is a public research university in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the () on 18 October 1818 by Frederick Willi ...

for a dissertation entitled "The Labour Market in the Westphalian Agriculture Sector". From 1935, following a series of company directorships, he lived as an independent farmer near

Römhild Römhild () is a town in the Hildburghausen (district), district of Hildburghausen, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated 14 km west of Hildburghausen, and 21 km southeast of Meiningen. On 31 December 2012, it merged with the former muni ...

East Germany

After the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

his Thuringian home found itself in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

of Germany which was in the process of mutating into the

, politically separated both from

and from those parts of the

former country A historical sovereign state is a Sovereign state, state that once existed, but has since been dissolved due to conflict, war, rebellion, annexation, or uprising. This page lists sovereign states, country, countries, nations, or empires that ceased ...

which, following the border changes agreed by the Potsdam Conference now found themselves in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. Back in 1933 Hamann had been a supporter of the SPD (moderate socialist party) but now, in 1946, he joined the Liberal Democratic Party of (East) Germany, becoming the party's regional Chairman for

. In 1948 Karl Hamann became the party's national chairman in East Germany, confirmed in office, together with

Hermann Kastner Hermann Kastner (1886–1957) was a German politician and served as the deputy prime minister of East Germany between 1949 and 1950. He cofounded Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD). He defected and obtained political asylum from West Germ ...

, in 1949. Soon after this Kastner was replaced and Hamann's co-chairman became

Hans Loch Hans Loch (2 November 1898 in Cologne – 13 July 1960 in Berlin) was Chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany and Finance Minister of the German Democratic Republic. Life After his secondary education Loch was drafted for military ...

. The LDPD was not an independent political party because the Nation Building project under which the new country was being constructed envisaged a one party state, albeit one that at least initially felt able to present itself as a multi-party state. The LDPD was one of a number of minor parties included in the so-called National Front grouping, permitted to operate under the control of the country's ruling SED (party), an arrangement not without certain inherent tensions. In addition to his other roles, between 1946 and 1950 Hamann sat as a member of the Thüringer Landtag (regional assembly). From 1949 he also sat as a member of the national Volkskammer (''Peoples' Chamber'') and served as East Germany's Minister for Trade and Supplies. Hamann's ministerial responsibilities for trade and supply proved impossible to accomplish in a state that was becoming increasingly isolated, especially after reforms which left East and West Germany with different currencies. The Single list election process introduced for the 1949 assembly election and repeated for the 1950 General Election, as well as the "Construction of Socialism" (''"Aufbau des Sozialismus"'') proclamation at the SED party conference in July 1952 encountered no public opposition from Hamann, however. Like others in the LDPD he placed all his hopes in a rapid reunification of the country which would reverse the anti-democratic and illiberal measures being implemented by the

East German government The German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: ''Deutsche Demokratische Republik'' (''DDR''), commonly known in English as East Germany) was created as a socialist republic on 7 October 1949 and began to institute a government based on the governme ...

under

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; ; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...

. In 1952 Hamann was arrested, because he had "systematically sabotaged the people's welfare" (''"planmäßige Versorgung der Bevölkerung sabotiert"''). He was relieved of his responsibilities and expelled from the LDPD. More than two years of "investigatory detention" at the Hohenschönhausen Jail followed.

Karl Wilhelm Fricke Karl Wilhelm Fricke (born 3 September 1929) is a German political journalist and author. He has produced several of the standard works on resistance and state repression in the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). In 1955, he became one of ...

br>aus MfS-Perspektive''
(PDF; 132 kB) In July 1954 he was sentenced, in a secret trial, to ten years in prison, but he was pardoned in October 1956 and let out. In May 1957 he fled to the German Federal Republic (West Germany).

West Germany

Dr. Hamann died in

a couple of months after his seventieth birthday. His grave is in the Central Cemetery at Bad Godesberg (Bonn).

Posthumous rehabilitation and celebration

In May 1990 the successor organisation to the LDPD, the short-lived

Association of Free Democrats The Association of Free Democrats () was a liberal electoral coalition, later party, formed in East Germany on 12 February 1990. It originally consisted of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party (East Germany) and the German Fo ...

, formally rehabilitated Karl Hamann. Legal rehabilitation by the Berlin regional court followed in August 1991. The Karl Hamann Foundation for Political Education in Brandenburg was named in his honour.

Publication

* ''Die Aufgaben für Einheit und Frieden.'' (''"The Tasks for Unity and freedom"'') speech, Dresden 1951.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamann, Karl 1903 births 1973 deaths People from Hildesheim Politicians from the Province of Hanover Liberal Democratic Party of Germany politicians Government ministers of East Germany Members of the Provisional Volkskammer Members of the 1st Volkskammer Members of the Landtag of Thuringia