RUDOLF HERRNSTADT.
Rudolf Herrnstadt, alias Ehrenberg (?), was a soviet agent who was recruited during or before his stay in Moscow in 1933.
Between 1934 and 1935 recruited Rudolf von Scheliha, German diplomat attached to the Legation in Warsaw, from whom he obtained for the USSR constant supply of intelligence material until 1939.
Sent for Ilse Stöbe in 1936 to join him in Warsaw as his housekeeper and to act as cut-out to Von Scheliha.
Between 1937 and/or 1938 paid one or more visits to London, where he was seen by Ilse Steinfeld (associate of
HARRY I in the UK 1933-1934, see Part II Ch. III) in the office of the Berliner Tageblatt.
He left Poland for Lithuania in August 1939 on the ven of the German invasion, leaving with Stöbe the responsibility for handling Von Scheliha's reports.
Attempted in January 1942, unsuccessfully, from Kuibyshev, to enter the UK, sponsored by the Czech Government in London, ostensibly in order to conduct propaganda from the UK against Germany on behalf of the Czechs. Remained in the USSR, concerned with the Von Scheliha line.
Personal particulars.
Nationality: Czech Jew.
Date of birth: 18-03-1903 in Gleiwitz, Upper-Silesia.
Documents: Czech Passport No. 22/41C, issued by Czech Legation in Kuibyshev on 19-12-1941, valid for one year only.
Relatives: Married to Valentina, nee Varlin, Latvian origin, born on 29-07-1917 in Riga.
Occupation: Journalist.
History.
Was between 1928 and 1930 an editor of the Berliner Tageblatt. Ilse Stöbe became his mistress during this period.
Was in 1931 Prague correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
Between 1931 and 1933 Warsaw correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
Represented the Berliner Tageblatt in Moscow in 1933.
During visits to the Berlin office between 1931 and 1934 of the Berliner Tageblatt, met Isle Steinfeld on several occasions.
Was sent back to Germany in 1933 or 1934 by the Soviet Authorities in accordance with the existing policy of expulsion of German correspondents. Returned to Warsaw as Berliner Tageblatt representative until 1935.
Was joined there by Ilse Stöbe in 1936.
From 1936 till September 1938 was Warsaw correspondent of the Parguer Presse.
Visited the UK in 1937 or in 1938.
From September 1938 till August 1939 was Warsaw correspondent of L'Europe Nouvelle.
Left Warsaw circa 25-08-1939 for Kaunas and, according to his own account, a few weeks later left for Riga, where he obtained the post of technical editor to Messrs. Walter & Rappe, publishers.
Herrnstadt stated that after the Soviet occupation of Latvia he as evacuated to Gorki on 25-06-1941 and from November 1941 until January 1942 he was living in Kuibyshev. Herrnstadt stated that he took 1600 Dollars when he left Warsaw in 1939.
In 1942 he was in the R.U. headquarters with controlling interest in the Stöbe/Von Scheliha link.
In 1947 he was in Berlin, as chief editor of the Berliner Verlag, issuing S.E.D. controlled publications.
Source: KV3/350.
Rudolf Herrnstadt (18 March 1903 - 28 August 1966) was a German journalist and communist politician - most notable for his anti-fascist activity as an exile from the Nazi German regime in the Soviet Union during the war and as a journalist in East Germany until his death, where he and Wilhelm Zaisser represented the anti-Ulbricht wing of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the 1950s.
Herrnstadt was born in the Upper Silesian city of Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland), where his father was employed as a lawyer. He began studying law in Heidelberg in 1922, but moved towards writing instead, becoming a journalist for the left-wing Berliner Tageblatt in 1929. He began working for the newspaper in 1925 as a typesetter. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929, fleeing the country in 1933, when the arrival of Adolf Hitler at the seat of power made Herrnstadt a target, both as an unrepentant communist activist and as a Jew.
Herrnstadt came to work for Soviet intelligence in the 1930s and spent most of the decade in Warsaw. With the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in 1939, Herrnstadt fled to the Soviet Union and came to reside in Moscow, where he applied and was accepted into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Despite criticism from some members of the German exile community for his "anti-revolutionary" views, Herrnstadt was among the members of the National Committee for a Free Germany. He returned to Germany as a member of the Sobottka Group, which laid the groundwork for the Soviet Military Administration in Germany in Mecklenburg.
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 Walter Ulbricht was summoned for a visit to Moscow with the new Soviet leadership, where he was criticized for his introduction of collective farms and a slower course towards socialist construction. Herrnstadt was among the domestic critics of Ulbricht's line of the SED as a leading politician with candidate member status in the SED's Politburo and chief editor of the Neues Deutschland; a key ally during this time was Wilhelm Zaisser, who criticized Ulbricht from his position as the country's Minister of State Security and a leading party ideologist. However, Herrnstadt's dissension against the course of the Ulbricht faction was also criticized by Soviet adviser Vladimir Semyonov, who answered Herrnstadt's attack by replying that "in two weeks you may no longer have a state."
Ulbricht-led East Germany had pursued a course of reform since March 1953. After the 1953 East German Uprising, which initially weakened Ulbricht's position in the SED and the Soviet Union, Zaisser issued a Politburo motion to replace Ulbricht with Herrnstadt as SED First Secretary. However, the situation reversed after Nikita Khrushchev consolidated power over the Soviet government in Moscow and purged Ulbricht's opponent Lavrentiy Beria. Herrnstadt was removed from his position in the SED's Politbüro the same year. He was also removed from the Neues Deutschland at around the same time at the Ulbricht's request, according to the autobiography of fellow communist Markus Wolf.
Herrnstadt died on 28 August 1966.
Source: Wikipedia.
Between 1934 and 1935 recruited Rudolf von Scheliha, German diplomat attached to the Legation in Warsaw, from whom he obtained for the USSR constant supply of intelligence material until 1939.
Sent for Ilse Stöbe in 1936 to join him in Warsaw as his housekeeper and to act as cut-out to Von Scheliha.
Between 1937 and/or 1938 paid one or more visits to London, where he was seen by Ilse Steinfeld (associate of
HARRY I in the UK 1933-1934, see Part II Ch. III) in the office of the Berliner Tageblatt.
He left Poland for Lithuania in August 1939 on the ven of the German invasion, leaving with Stöbe the responsibility for handling Von Scheliha's reports.
Attempted in January 1942, unsuccessfully, from Kuibyshev, to enter the UK, sponsored by the Czech Government in London, ostensibly in order to conduct propaganda from the UK against Germany on behalf of the Czechs. Remained in the USSR, concerned with the Von Scheliha line.
Personal particulars.
Nationality: Czech Jew.
Date of birth: 18-03-1903 in Gleiwitz, Upper-Silesia.
Documents: Czech Passport No. 22/41C, issued by Czech Legation in Kuibyshev on 19-12-1941, valid for one year only.
Relatives: Married to Valentina, nee Varlin, Latvian origin, born on 29-07-1917 in Riga.
Occupation: Journalist.
History.
Was between 1928 and 1930 an editor of the Berliner Tageblatt. Ilse Stöbe became his mistress during this period.
Was in 1931 Prague correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
Between 1931 and 1933 Warsaw correspondent of the Berliner Tageblatt.
Represented the Berliner Tageblatt in Moscow in 1933.
During visits to the Berlin office between 1931 and 1934 of the Berliner Tageblatt, met Isle Steinfeld on several occasions.
Was sent back to Germany in 1933 or 1934 by the Soviet Authorities in accordance with the existing policy of expulsion of German correspondents. Returned to Warsaw as Berliner Tageblatt representative until 1935.
Was joined there by Ilse Stöbe in 1936.
From 1936 till September 1938 was Warsaw correspondent of the Parguer Presse.
Visited the UK in 1937 or in 1938.
From September 1938 till August 1939 was Warsaw correspondent of L'Europe Nouvelle.
Left Warsaw circa 25-08-1939 for Kaunas and, according to his own account, a few weeks later left for Riga, where he obtained the post of technical editor to Messrs. Walter & Rappe, publishers.
Herrnstadt stated that after the Soviet occupation of Latvia he as evacuated to Gorki on 25-06-1941 and from November 1941 until January 1942 he was living in Kuibyshev. Herrnstadt stated that he took 1600 Dollars when he left Warsaw in 1939.
In 1942 he was in the R.U. headquarters with controlling interest in the Stöbe/Von Scheliha link.
In 1947 he was in Berlin, as chief editor of the Berliner Verlag, issuing S.E.D. controlled publications.
Source: KV3/350.
Rudolf Herrnstadt (18 March 1903 - 28 August 1966) was a German journalist and communist politician - most notable for his anti-fascist activity as an exile from the Nazi German regime in the Soviet Union during the war and as a journalist in East Germany until his death, where he and Wilhelm Zaisser represented the anti-Ulbricht wing of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the 1950s.
Herrnstadt was born in the Upper Silesian city of Gleiwitz (now Gliwice, Poland), where his father was employed as a lawyer. He began studying law in Heidelberg in 1922, but moved towards writing instead, becoming a journalist for the left-wing Berliner Tageblatt in 1929. He began working for the newspaper in 1925 as a typesetter. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1929, fleeing the country in 1933, when the arrival of Adolf Hitler at the seat of power made Herrnstadt a target, both as an unrepentant communist activist and as a Jew.
Herrnstadt came to work for Soviet intelligence in the 1930s and spent most of the decade in Warsaw. With the invasion of Poland by the Wehrmacht in 1939, Herrnstadt fled to the Soviet Union and came to reside in Moscow, where he applied and was accepted into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Despite criticism from some members of the German exile community for his "anti-revolutionary" views, Herrnstadt was among the members of the National Committee for a Free Germany. He returned to Germany as a member of the Sobottka Group, which laid the groundwork for the Soviet Military Administration in Germany in Mecklenburg.
After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953 Walter Ulbricht was summoned for a visit to Moscow with the new Soviet leadership, where he was criticized for his introduction of collective farms and a slower course towards socialist construction. Herrnstadt was among the domestic critics of Ulbricht's line of the SED as a leading politician with candidate member status in the SED's Politburo and chief editor of the Neues Deutschland; a key ally during this time was Wilhelm Zaisser, who criticized Ulbricht from his position as the country's Minister of State Security and a leading party ideologist. However, Herrnstadt's dissension against the course of the Ulbricht faction was also criticized by Soviet adviser Vladimir Semyonov, who answered Herrnstadt's attack by replying that "in two weeks you may no longer have a state."
Ulbricht-led East Germany had pursued a course of reform since March 1953. After the 1953 East German Uprising, which initially weakened Ulbricht's position in the SED and the Soviet Union, Zaisser issued a Politburo motion to replace Ulbricht with Herrnstadt as SED First Secretary. However, the situation reversed after Nikita Khrushchev consolidated power over the Soviet government in Moscow and purged Ulbricht's opponent Lavrentiy Beria. Herrnstadt was removed from his position in the SED's Politbüro the same year. He was also removed from the Neues Deutschland at around the same time at the Ulbricht's request, according to the autobiography of fellow communist Markus Wolf.
Herrnstadt died on 28 August 1966.
Source: Wikipedia.