Hans Jendretzky was a German communist politician. He was a prominent politician of the Socialist Unity Party

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 (SED) in the German Democratic Republic

German Democratic Republic

The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...

 (East Germany).

He became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...

 in 1919 and of the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

 (KPD) in 1920. In the 1920s, he was one of the most prominents members of the KPD, and was head of the Roter Frontkämpferbund in Berlin. He was a member of the Parliament of Prussia from 1928 to 1932.

After WWII, he became active in communist politics in the Soviet Occupation Zone, and was president of the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund 1946-1948, First Secretary (head) of the East Berlin SED district from 1948 to 1953. He was a candidate to the politburo

Politburo

Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...

 from 1950, deputy minister of the Interior from 1957 to 1960, a member of the SED central committee 1957-1989, member of the Volkskammer

Volkskammer

The People's Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic . From its founding in 1949 until the first free elections on 18 March 1990, all members of the Volkskammer were elected on a slate controlled by the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , called the National Front...

 1950-1954 and 1958-1989.

Hans Jendretzky famously denounced the Liberty Bell

Liberty Bell (Berlin)

The Liberty Bell in Berlin, Germany, is a bell that was given as a gift from Americans to the city of Berlin in 1950 as a symbol of the fight for freedom and against communism in Europe, and was inspired by the American Liberty Bell...

in West Berlin, a gift from Americans as a sign of the fight against communism in Europe, as the "death bell", warning: "The rope of the death bell will become the gallows rope for those who ring it."

Literature

• Hermann Weber/Andreas Herbst: Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945, Berlin: Karl Dietz Verlag 2004, S. 344-345 ISBN 3-320-02044-7

External links