Max Zimmering
Encyclopedia
Life
Max Zimmering was born as a son of a clock maker in Pirna, SaxonySaxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
. From 1914, he lived with an uncle in Dresden since his father would be drafted into the military and his mother had to move to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
because of her sickness. He attended the Volksschule in Dresden from 1916 to 1921, the Wettiner Gymnasium from 1921 to 1924 and the Oberrealschule in the Johannstadt section of Dresden from 1925 to 1930 where he took his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
. From age 10 through 18 he was a member of the Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands
Zionist youth movement
A Zionist youth movement is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideological development, including a belief in Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel...
(KJVD) (Hiker's Group Blue-White and Boy Scout Group Kadimah). He would become a member of the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
in 1928 and joined the Young Communist League of Germany
Young Communist League of Germany
The Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925...
. Since this time he was also an active writer. At first he wrote poems, short prose works and comments for the worker's papers (Arbeitstimme in Dresden, Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung
Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung
Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung or AIZ was a weekly German illustrated magazine published between 1924 and 1938 in Berlin and later in Prague...
in Berlin, Die Rote Fahne
Die Rote Fahne
The German newspaper Die Rote Fahne was created on 9 November 1918 by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin, first as organ of the left wing revolutionary Spartakusbund. After the founding of the Communist Party of Germany on 1 January 1919 it became the central publication of the party,...
in Berlin, etc.).
He was an Agitprop
Agitprop
Agitprop is derived from agitation and propaganda, and describes stage plays, pamphlets, motion pictures and other art forms with an explicitly political message....
leader in the KJVD in the Altstadt and later Johannstadt sections of Dresden. In the same year he joined the Jüdischen Arbeiter- und Angestelltenjugend (JAAJ), Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition
Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition
The Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition was the communist union in Germany during the Weimar Republic. It went underground after the Nazi Party seized control of the government and continued operating until it was crushed by the Nazis in 1935.- Weimar era :The Communist International, and the...
and the International Red Aid
International Red Aid
International Red Aid was an international social service organization established by the Communist International...
.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Kommunistischen Jugendinternationale's founding, he became a member 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...
in November 1929. In the same year he joined the Bund proletarisch-revolutionärer Schriftsteller (Union of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers) whose member he would be until 1933.
In 1930, Max Zimmering received a Lyric Poetry Prize from the Union of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers' periodical's Linkskurve's competition for his poem Das Fließband (The Production Line). Because this poem and his work at the leftist periodicals like Oberprimaner, the relegation, which Zimmering contrary to others like his younger simultaneous moderate Jewish youth companion and friend Helmut Weiß at the König-Georg-Gymnasium threatened him shortly before the finals because there was not enough proof presented that he was in reality the author particularly under "M.Z." or "Mix" of published revolutionary poems.
After the Abitur, he began an apprenticeship as a window dresser at the company Tietz (probably from Hermann Tietz
Hermann Tietz
Hermann Tietz was a German merchant of Jewish origin. Tietz was born on April 29, 1837 in Birnbaum an der Warthe near Posen and died on May 3, 1907 in Berlin)...
). After two years he would dismissed because of labor union work. He found work at the company Wohlwert (Woolworth's
Woolworth GmbH
Deutsche Woolworth GmbH & Co. OHG is a Frankfurt, Germany based owner of the Woolworths chain of high street shops in Germany and Austria and a former subsidiary of the American F. W. Woolworth Company....
) in Dresden in 1932 but would be dismissed again only after half a year since he had mobilized the Zentralverband der Angestellten (Central union of Employees) in favor of the saleswomen. At this point jobless, he occupied himself intensively with writing. After the Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
of the Nazis, he worked illegally for the KPD from 1933. He emigrated to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in mid 1933. He journeyed again to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1934. There he worked in the illegal Communist Party of Palestine
Communist Party of Palestine
The Communist Party of Palestine was a communist party in Palestine 1922-1923. It was formed through a split in the Po‘alei Tziyon which lead to the formation of the Jewish Communist Party and another faction forming the Palestinian Communist Party). A major difference between the two parties was...
. He went to Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
in 1935 and there would be an employee of the "Deutsche Volkszeitung", the "Volksillustrierten", the "Internationalen Literatur/Deutsche Blätter" (Moscow), the Rote Fahne, Prague
Die Rote Fahne
The German newspaper Die Rote Fahne was created on 9 November 1918 by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin, first as organ of the left wing revolutionary Spartakusbund. After the founding of the Communist Party of Germany on 1 January 1919 it became the central publication of the party,...
and particular other Czech papers. After the takeover of the Munich Agreement
Munich Agreement
The Munich Pact was an agreement permitting the Nazi German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. The Sudetenland were areas along Czech borders, mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe without...
, he had to search for new asylum. So he went to England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and lived in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
and then London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
The British government decided to intern all male German emigrants in 1940. So Max Zimmering undertook a "Forced World Trip" which he later described in his self-titled book. They lead him from Camp Huyton near Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
over to New South Wales
New South Wales
New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...
and Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and play to England on the Isle of Mann. Thanks to the pains of P.E.N.
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
and progressive Parliamentary delegation, he would be discharged from the internship in November 1941.
After his return to London, he became an editor of the "Freien Deutschen Kultur", London, a monthly newspaper of the Freien Deutschen Kulturbundes in Great Britain which he belonged to as an executive member. Besides working on the anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
emigration periodicals "Internationale Literatur" and "Das Wort" (both in Moscow), "Deutsche Volkszeitung" and the "Rote Fahne" (both in Prague), "Freies Deutschland" (Mexico) and "Freie Tribüne" (London). Continuing, he participated in the work of the KPD emigration group, belonged to the London Center of PEN and the Deutschen internationalen P.E.N. (German international PEN) and was a member of the Freien Deutschen Bewegung in London.
In 1946, he could return to Dresden through the help of Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch
Egon Erwin Kisch was a Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. Known as the The raging reporter from Prague, Kisch was noted for his development of literary reportage and his opposition to Adolf Hitler's Nazi regime.- Biography :Kisch was born into a wealthy, German-speaking...
with a Czechoslovakian Repatriation
Repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...
transport.
Here he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
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), Free German Trade Union Federation
Free German Trade Union Federation
The Free German Trade Union Federation, in German Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund , was the trade union federation in East Germany. It was part of the National Front and had representatives in the Volkskammer....
and the Cultural Association of the DDR
Cultural Association of the DDR
The Cultural Association of the GDR was a federation of local clubs in the German Democratic Republic . It formed part of the Socialist Unity Party-led National Front, and sent representatives to the Volkskammer. The association had numerous writers as its member, including Willi Bredel, Fritz...
. He was a Saxon Land Chairman of the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime
Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime
The Society of People Persecuted by the Nazi Regime – Federation of Anti-Fascists is a political organization founded in 1947....
in 1949-1953, delegate in the Landtag of Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
in 1950 to 1952 and subsequently a delegate in the Bezirkstag of the Bezirk of Dresden. Zimmering was the first chair of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband in the Bezirk of Dresden from 1952 to 1956 and first Secretary of the Deutscher Schriftstellerverband in Berlin from 1956 to 1958. From 1958 to 1964, he worked as the director of the "Johannes R. Brechner" Institute for Literature in Leipzig.
Zimmering became a candidate for the central committee of the SED in 1963.
From 1964 until his death, he worked as a freelance writer in Dresden. He won the National Prize of East Germany
National Prize of East Germany
The National Prize of the German Democratic Republic was an award of the German Democratic Republic given out in three different classes for scientific, artistic, and other meritorious achievement...
in 1969.
Literature
- H. Riedel, Max Zimmering: Literatur der DDR. Einzeldarstellungen (Literature of East Germany. An Itemized List), Band 1, Berlin 1974
External links
- Literature by and on Max Zimmering in the catalog of the German National LibraryGerman National LibraryThe German National Library is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany...