Hanna_Wolf

Hanna Wolf

Hanna Wolf

East German historian and politician (1908–1999))

Hanna Wolf (née Haschka; 4 February 1908 – 22 June 1999) was an East German historian and socialist politician. She left Germany in 1932 for the Soviet Union where she became a Soviet citizen. She returned to East Germany in 1947 and held various posts, including rector of Parteihochschule Karl Marx (Party Academy Karl Marx). She was a long-term member of the central committee of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Quick Facts Born, Died ...

Early life and education

She was born in Goniądz, Poland, on 4 February 1908.[1] Her father was a rabbi and teacher, and her mother was also a teacher.[1][2] In 1922 she became a member of the Polish branch of the Young Communist League of Germany.[2] She studied philosophy and history at the University of Berlin.[1]

Career and exile

Following her graduation she worked as a teacher.[2] She left the Jewish community in 1927.[1] She joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1930.[2] She emigrated to the Soviet Union in April 1932 after the Nazi Party had started to gain power.[2] She became a Soviet citizen in 1934 and started to become involved in scientific research.[2] Between 1942 and 1947 she was a teacher at the Central School for German War Prisoners in Krasnogorsk, Moscow Oblast.[2]

Wolf moved back to East Germany in 1947 and held several posts. She first worked at the Central Administration for Public Education[1] before she became a citizen of East Germany in 1950.[1] In September of that year she was appointed rector of the Party Academy Karl Marx run by the SED and remained in office until June 1983.[1] She did, however, not publish any research work.[3] She became a candidate member of the SED's central committee in 1954.[1] She was made its full member in 1958 which she held until 1989.[1] She was also promoted to professorship in 1958.[2] From 1983 to 1989 she acted as a consultant at the central committee of the SED.[1] She was one of the most influential Stalinist members of the SED.[4]

Wolf joined the Party of Democratic Socialism, successor of the SED, but she was expelled from the party on 10 February 1990.[1]

Personal life and death

Wolf married three times.[1] She died in Berlin on 22 June 1999.[1]

Awards

Wolf was the recipient of the following: Soviet medal of Fatherland (1946), Banner of Labor (1959), Clara Zetkin Medal (1964), Order of Karl Marx (1965; 1978), Patriotic Order of Merit (Gold; 1968), Soviet Order of the Fatherland (1970) and Lenin Commemorative Medal (1970).[1][2]

References

  1. [1]
    "Wolf, Hanna" (in German). Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung. October 2009. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Wolf, Hanna". Biographische Handbücher der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933 (in German). K. G. Saur. 1980.
  3. [3]
    Stefan Berger (2003). "Former GDR Historians in the Reunified Germany: An Alternative Historical Culture and its Attempts to Come to Terms with the GDR Past". Journal of Contemporary History. 38 (1): 70. doi:10.1177/0022009403038001964. S2CID 154720242.
  4. [4]
    Dietrich Orlow (2006). "The GDR's Failed Search for a National Identity, 1945-1989". German Studies Review. 29 (3): 550. JSTOR 27668125.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Hanna_Wolf, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.