Leonhard Helmschrott (born 5 June 1921 ( Unterthürheim); died 28 October 2011 (

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 ...

) was a German journalist and politician. He was a founding member of the National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD / '' Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland''). Between 1948 and 1989 he was the chief editor of the Bauernecho (''Farmer's Echo''). KAS-Bauern Echo-Bild-11535-1

Life

Early life, military service

Helmschrott was born the son of a small farmer in a small hamlet on the western edge of

Bavaria Bavaria, officially the Free State of Bavaria, is a States of Germany, state in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the list of German states by area, largest German state by land area, comprising approximately 1/5 of the total l ...

, not too far from

Augsburg Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...

. He left school in 1935 and worked on the family farm. In February 1941 he was drafted into the army. He was sent to the eastern front where in September 1942, having already reached the rank of corporal, he was taken

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

. He promptly agreed to cooperate with his

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

captors and was very soon agitating with fly-leaflets (to be dropped from light planes flying over German lines) and loud speakers in trenches on the Soviet-German frontline. However, he was soon taken away from the fighting, and helping with the Anti-fascist programme at the Krasnogorsk prison camp (Prison camp 27). Between February and July 1943 Helsmschrott was sent to the Antifascist school at Krasnogorsk, and it was here that he participated in the conference that founded the Soviet-based National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD / '' Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland''). Helmschrott was elected a founder member. In the ensuring months and years he also produced the newspaper and contributed to the NKFD's "Free Germany" radio station.

Arrival in 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 ...

Helschrott left the prison camp at the end of November 1945, and on 8 December 1945, along with other prisoners of war including Luitpold Steidle and Matthäus Klein, was flown on a flight organised by the

NKFD The National Committee for a Free Germany (, or NKFD) was an anti-fascist political and military organisation formed in the Soviet Union during World War II, composed mostly of German defectors from the ranks of German prisoners of war and also ...

from

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

to be greeted by

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 ...

, head of the nation building team that had itself arrived in Berlin from

at the end of April 1945.Luitpold Steidle: ''Entscheidung an der Wolga'', Union Verlag Berlin, page 400. Before the end of 1945 Helsmchrott had joined the Communist party (KPD). This, following the forced merger in what was becoming the Germany Democratic Republic (East Germany) of the KPD and the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

left him, in 1946, a member of the new country's ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

Newspaper editor, Karl Marx Party Academy

He became editor of the KPD newspaper "Volkszeitung" (''"Peoples' Newspaper"'') which was later renamed "LandesZeitung" (''"Country Newspaper"''), now a paper of the new SED (party), in

Mecklenburg Mecklenburg (; ) is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The largest cities of the region are Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Wismar and Güstrow. ...

. In 1947 and 1948 he worked as a freelance journalist. In 1948 Helsmchrott was sent to the Karl Marx Party Academy.

Political career

While he was still studying at the Academy Helmschrott was mandated by the SED (party) to participation in the establishment of the

Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (Cyprus) (DCY) ** Democratic Par ...

(DBD / ''Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands''), a response to concern that the SED was failing attract popular support in the countryside. He immediately became a member of the new party's executive committee and, importantly, editor in chief of the party newspaper, Bauernecho (''Farmer's Echo''). He retained this editorship till 1989, and during the intervening 41 years was responsible for more than 6,000 editions of the newspaper which appeared three times per week. In 1949 Helsmchrott was elected to the national Volkskammer (''"Peoples' parliament"'') for the DBD (party), and from 1963 till 1986 he was chairman of the party's 52 member group. From 1958 he belonged to the parliamentary national defence committee of which, in 1986, he became deputy chairman. He generated headlines in

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 ...

in 1963 with a declaration that a right to

Conscientious objection A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...

against

military service Military service is service by an individual or group in an army or other militia, air forces, and naval forces, whether as a chosen job (volunteer military, volunteer) or as a result of an involuntary draft (conscription). Few nations, such ...

was unthinkable in the German Democratic Republic. Between 1971 and 1976 he was deputy chairman of the East German Interparliamentary Group. After completing a correspondence course with the Karl Marx University at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, in 1962 Helmschrott received a Diploma in Journalism. Between 1986 and 1990 he was a member of the

State Council of East Germany The State Council of the German Democratic Republic ( German: ''Staatsrat der DDR'') was the standing organ of the People's Chamber and functioned as the collective head of state of the German Democratic Republic, most commonly referred to as Ea ...

Fall of the Berlin Wall

The

Berlin Wall fell The fall of the Berlin Wall (, ) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, marked the beginning of the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain, as East Berlin transit restrictions were overwhelmed and discarded. ...

on 9 November 1989, and on 15 November 1989, reacting to events more quickly than many party colleagues, Helmschrott had at his own request been replaced both at the "Bauern Echo" and from his political positions as Presidium member and in the party secretariat. That left the presidency of the DBD (Democratic Farmers' Party), and he resigned from this in January 1990. In June 1990 the DBD merged with the CDU (Christian Democratic Union) which would itself merge with its West German counterpart in October of the same year. For the first time since his return from Moscow in 1945 Leonhard Helmschrott was not a member of any political party.

Awards

* 1970

Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...

(gold) * 1975

Star of People's Friendship The Star of Peoples' Friendship (), Star of Nations' Friendship, was an order awarded by the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Established 20 August 1959, it was given to individuals of exceptional merit who had contributed to the "understandi ...

* 1981

(clasp)

Publication

* ''Sag nicht, ich kann nichts tun. Erinnerungen.'' edition ost, Berlin 2011.

References