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Jürgen Kuczynski and the Search for a (Non-Existent) Western Spy Ring in the East German Communist Party in 1953

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2010

MATTHEW STIBBE
MATTHEW STIBBE*
Affiliation:
Professor of Modern European History, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield S1 1WB, UK; [email protected].
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Abstract

Jürgen Kuczynski, the East German Marxist intellectual and economic historian, is best known for his numerous publications on labour history. Far less has been written about his role as a leading figure in the German Communist Party in Britain between 1936 and 1944, and his work for the US Strategic Bombing Survey in 1944–5, activities which later came back to haunt him when he was the subject of a major inquiry launched by the Central Party Control Commission in 1953. Using newly available documents in London and Berlin, this article examines the investigation into Kuczynski as a case study for the inter-relationship between party purges, spy scares and the manipulation of individual biographies during one of the most volatile periods of the cold war.

Jürgen kuczynski et la recherche d'un réseau (inexistant) d'espions occidentaux dans le parti communiste de l'allemagne de l'est en 1953

Jürgen Kuczynski, intellectuel marxiste de nationalité est-allemande et historien économiste, est connu surtout pour ses nombreuses publications sur l'histoire du travail. L'attention s'est beaucoup moins portée sur le rôle important qu'il a joué pour le parti communiste allemand en Grande Bretagne de 1936 à 1944 et le travail qu'il a fait pour le US Strategic Bombing Survey en 1944–5, activités qu'il en est venu à regretter plus tard quand il est devenu le sujet d'une grande enquête instituée par la Commission Centrale de Contrôle du Parti en 1953. L'article, basé sur des documents récemment mises à la disposition des historiens à Berlin et à Londres, prend l'enquête Kuczynski comme cas d'étude pour la relation entre purges du parti, rumeurs d'espions, et la manipulation des biographies individuelles pendant une des périodes les plus fébriles de la Guerre Froide.

Jürgen kuczynski und die suche nach einem (nicht existierenden) westlichen spionagering in der ostdeutschen kommunistischen partei, 1953

Jürgen Kuczynski, ein Gelehrter und Wirtschaftshistoriker der DDR, ist in erster Linie für seine zahlreichen Veröffentlichungen über Arbeitsgeschichte bekannt. Viel weniger erforscht worden sind sowohl seine Rolle als einer der Führer der Deutschen Kommunistischen Partei in Grossbritannien zwischen 1936 und 1944 als seine Tätigkeit für das US Strategic Bombing Survey, welche Handlungen sich für ihn als äusserst nachteilig zeigten, als er 1953 zu Gegenstand einer wichtigen Untersuchung von der Zentralen Parteikontrollkommission wurde. Dieser auf einigen erst vor kurzem zugänglich gewordenen Quellen in Berlin und London beruhende Beitrag bearbeitet die Kuczynski Beschuldigung als Beispielfall für die Wechselwirkung Parteisäuberungen, Spionagekrisen und der Manipulation individueller Lebensläufe während eines der meist angespannten Momente des Kalten Kriegs.

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Articles
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Contemporary European History , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , February 2011 , pp. 61 - 79
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 Koenen to Matern, 13 Jan. 1953, in Stiftung Archiv der Parteien und Massenorganisationen der DDR im Bundesarchiv Berlin (henceforth referred to as SAPMO-BArch), DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 239–41.

2 MI5 to MI6, 23 Jan. 1953, in The National Archives, Kew, London, KV 2 /1880.

3 Kuczynski, Jürgen, Ein linientreuer Dissident. Memoiren 1945–1989 (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1992), 47Google Scholar.

4 Still the best account can be found in Hodos, George H., Show Trials: Stalinist Purges in Eastern Europe, 1948–1954 (New York: Praeger, 1987), 73–88Google Scholar. See also Kaplan, Karel, Report on the Murder of the General Secretary, trans. Kovanda, Karel (London: I.B. Tauris, 1990)Google Scholar. The six ‘Londoners’ were Vladimír Clementis, Ludvík Frejka, Vavro Hajdů, Evžen Löbl, Otto Šling and André Simone; apart from Hajdů and Löbl they were all executed.

5 Hodos, Show Trials, 75; Baberowski, Jörg, Der rote Terror: Die Geschichte des Stalinismus (Munich: Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, 2003), 252Google Scholar.

6 On Paul Merker and the Free Germany Movement in Mexico City, see Pohle, Fritz, Das mexikanische Exil: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der politisch-kulturellen Emigration aus Deutschland (1937–1946) (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1986), especially 201–370CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Herf, Jeffrey, Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), 40–68Google Scholar. On the accusations later made against Merker and his fellow Mexican exile Leo Zuckermann in the wake of the Slánský trial, see ‘Lehren aus dem Slansky-Prozeß – endgültige Fassung’, 19 Dec. 1952, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/124, Bl. 1–26. Also published in Neues Deutschland, 4 Jan. 1953.

7 See also Kießling, Wolfgang, Paul Merker in den Fängen der Sicherheitsogane Stalins und Ulbrichts (Berlin: Gesellschaftswissenschaftliches Forum, 1995)Google Scholar.

8 Kuczynski to Ulbricht and Matern, 21 Nov. 1952, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 206–7.

9 Koenen to Matern, 13 Jan. 1953 (see above, n. 1), Bl. 241 (‘Erst stützt sich Jürgen K. auf Frejka und später Merker auf Jürgen Kuczynski!’). Koenen had already called attention to Kuczynki's links to Merker at the Central Committee meeting held to confirm the expulsion of Merker (and a handful of others) from the party on 24 Aug. 1950 – see Keßler, Mario, Exilerfahrung in Wissenschaft und Politik: Remigrierte Historiker in der frühen DDR (Cologne: Böhlau Verlag, 2001), 127Google Scholar.

10 ‘Plan zur Durchführung der Überprüfung von Genossen, die in kapitalistischen Ländern in Emigration waren’, 1 March 1953, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/445, Bl. 179–81.

11 Mählert, Ulrich, ‘“Die Partei hat immer Recht!” Parteisäuberungen als Kaderpolitik in der SED (1948–1953)’, in Weber, Hermann and Mählert, Ulrich, eds., Terror: Stalinistische Parteisäuberungen 1936–1953 (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 1998), 351–457, here 440–1Google Scholar; Otto, Wilfriede, ‘Antizionismus – überstülptes Feindbild und antisemitische Bildung’, in Keßler, Mario, ed., Arbeiterbewegung und Antisemitismus. Entwicklungslinien im 20. Jahrhundert (Bonn: Pahl-Rugenstein, 1993), 95–119, here 104Google Scholar.

12 ‘Genossen, die für das Office of Strategic Services tätig waren’, undated note in the ZPKK files [March 1953?] concerning the decision to investigate Kuczynski, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 1.

13 Hodos, Show Trials, 83–4. See also Potts, Archie, Zilliacus. A Life for Peace and Socialism (London: Merlin Press, 2002), 155–6Google Scholar; and Kaplan, Report on the Murder of the General Secretary, 182–6 and 224–5.

14 Epstein, Catherine, The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and their Century (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), 151Google Scholar. See also Grieder, Peter, The East German Leadership, 1946–73: Conflict and Crisis (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1999), 47, n. 254Google Scholar; and Otto, Wilfriede, ‘“Genossen, ich verstehe nicht . . . .”. Die Geschichte von Hans Schrecker und die Jagd nach einer “Slansky-Verschwörerband” in der DDR’, Horch und Guck, 5/9 (1993), 25–30, here 29Google Scholar.

15 Indeed, another British intelligence report, dated 24 Jan. 1953, even suggested, wrongly, that Kuczynski might already have been arrested; and on 28 Feb. 1953 Emmy Damerius-Koenen, the wife of Wilhelm Koenen, also wrote to Matern describing Kuczynski as a ‘class-hostile element’ who ‘does not belong in our party’. See Report on Purges in East Berlin, 24 Jan. 1953, in The National Archives, KV 2 /1880; and Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries, 151.

16 See Hodos, Show Trials, 113–28; Hermann Weber, ‘Schauprozeß-Vorbereitungen in der DDR’, in Weber and Mählert, Terror, 459–85; Herf, Divided Memory, 106–61; and Grieder, The East German Leadership, 25–36. Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries, 130–57, is a partial exception here, as is Otto, ‘Antizionismus’, 103–4 and 116.

17 Keßler, Mario, Die SED und die Juden – zwischen Repression und Toleranz. Politische Entwicklungen bis 1967 (Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1995), 91Google Scholar.

18 For the latest research on Stalinist party purges in East Germany and in the Soviet bloc more generally, see the various essays in McDermott, Kevin and Stibbe, Matthew, eds., Stalinist Terror in Eastern Europe: Elite Purges and Mass Repression (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2010)Google Scholar.

19 Schüren, Ulrich, Der Volksentschied zur Fürstenenteignung 1926 (Düsseldorf: Droste Verlag, 1978), 70–5Google Scholar.

20 On the anti-fascist FDB (Freie Deutsche Bewegung) in Britain, in which several London-based German communists, but not Jürgen Kuczynski, briefly worked alongside left-leaning Social Democrats such as Viktor Schiff, Karl Rawitzki and Adele Schreiber-Krieger, see Glees, Anthony, Exile Politics during the Second World War: The German Social Democrats in Britain (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), 216–21Google Scholar; and Hager, Kurt, Erinnerungen (Leipzig: Faber & Faber, 1994), 87–91Google Scholar. The FDB should not be confused with the similarly named, but ideologically quite distinct Free Germany Movement (Bewegung Freies Deutschland) in Mexico, mentioned elsewhere in this article.

21 On the Kuczynski family as a whole, and in particular their roles in wartime London, see Williams, R. C., Klaus Fuchs, Atom Spy (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Glees, Anthony, The Secrets of the Service: British Intelligence and Communist Subversion, 1939–1951 (London: Jonathan Cape, 1987), 345 and passimGoogle Scholar. Also McElvoy, Anne, The Saddled Cow: East Germany's Life and Legacy (London: Faber & Faber, 1992), 28–47Google Scholar.

22 Werner, Ruth, Sonya's Report, trans. Simpson, Renate (London: Chatto & Windus, 1991 [1977]), 250Google ScholarPubMed.

23 The two best accounts of Kuczynki's life and career can be found in Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 91–145; and Fair-Schulz, Axel, Loyal Subversion: East Germany and its Bildungsbürgerlich Marxist Intellectuals (Berlin: trafo, 2009)Google Scholar.

24 Kuczynski, Ein linientreuer Dissident, passim.

25 See, e.g., Feldner, Heiko, ‘History in the Academy: Objectivity and Partisanship in the Marxist Historiography of the German Democratic Republic’, in Major, Patrick and Osmond, Jonathan, eds., The Workers’ and Peasants’ State: Communism and Society in East Germany under Ulbricht, 1945–71 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2002), 262–77Google Scholar; and Haun, Horst, Kommunist und “Revisionist”: Die SED-Kampagne gegen Jürgen Kuczynski (1956–1959) (Dresden: Sächsisches Druck- und Verlagshaus, 1999)Google Scholar. Also Kuczynski's own account of his run-in with Hager in 1957–8, Frost nach dem Tauwetter: Mein Historikerstreit (Berlin: Elefantan Press, 1993).

26 Kuczynski, Jürgen, Memoiren: Die Erziehung des J.K. zum Kommunisten und Wissenschaftler, 3rd edn (East Berlin and Weimar: Aufbau Verlag, 1981 [1975]), 375–6 and 393–8Google Scholar.

27 Glees, Exile Politics, 221; Hager, Erinnerungen, 90–1.

28 Herf, Divided Memory, 53. Copies of the relevant editions of Freies Deutschland can also be found in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/131, Bl. 236–45.

29 On wartime disagreements among London-based Social Democrats on Germany's future, see Tombs, Isabelle, ‘Socialists debate their history from the First World War to the Third Reich: German Exiles and the British Labour Party’, in Berger, Stefan, Lambert, Peter and Schumann, Peter, eds., Historikerdialoge: Geschichte, Mythos und Gedächtnis im deutsch-britischen kulturellen Austausch 1750–2000 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003), 361–81Google Scholar. Also Glees, Exile Politics, especially 107–23.

30 ‘Mr. Kuczynski comments on Mr. Brailsford’, Left News, April 1944. Copy in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/113, Bl. 188–9.

31 Kuczynski, Memoiren, 396–7. Merker's influence can also be seen in some of Kuczynski's later publications on German history, especially those written for pedagogical purposes, such as his Die Geschichte unseres Vaterlandes von 1900 bis zur Gegenwart: Für unsere Jugend (East Berlin: Dietz Verlag, 1953). The latter again cast the German people as a peaceful progressive force. For a further discussion, see Fulbrook, Mary, German National Identity After the Holocaust (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1999), 108–9Google Scholar. Even so, the personal relationship between Kuczynski and Merker soured considerably after 1945 and never recovered – see Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 117.

32 For a more detailed account, see Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 113–18. A similar debate also raged within the Czechoslovak exile group in London, with Ludvík Frejka leading the opposition to the dominant anti-German line – see ibid., 116.

33 Extracts from this article are cited in Koenen's letter to Matern on 13 Jan. 1953 (see above, n. 1) under the heading ‘Kritische Bemerkungen zu dem Artikel “Rekonstruktion des europäischen Kontinents” von 1944’.

34 Kuczynski, Memoiren, 401.

35 Ibid., 398. Although Kuczynski did not mention it, Stalin had also in effect denounced the Ehrenburg line through a Pravda article written by Georgy Aleksandrov, the Soviet propaganda chief and Central Committee member for ideological questions, on 14 April 1945, which attacked Ehrenburg's extreme anti-German views as an ‘oversimplification’ and instead made deliberate reference to German resistance to Nazism. As Ulbricht and Pieck returned to Berlin from Moscow at the end of May 1945, they were doubtless aware of this important shift in Soviet thinking on Germany's future. For further details, see Pohle, Das mexikanische Exil, 368–9; and Beevor, Antony, Berlin: The Downfall 1945 (London: Viking, 2002), 197–8Google Scholar.

36 Hodos, Show Trials, 126–7; Grieder, The East German Leadership, especially 25–36 and 84; Otto, ‘“Genossen, ich verstehe nicht . . .”’, 29; idem., ‘Antizionismus’, 100–1; Kießling, Paul Merker, 18–21.

37 On Kuczynski's friendship with the Eislers, which dated back to the time when Gerhart was responsible for propaganda within the KPD Auslandsleitung in Paris in the late 1930s, see Kuczynski, Memoiren, 290–1.

38 Weber, ‘Schauprozeß-Vorbereitungen in der DDR’, 479; Keßler, Die SED und die Juden, 93; Otto, ‘Antizionismus’, 100.

39 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski am 20.7.1953’, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 180–205.

40 Grieder, The East German Leadership, 35; Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries, 11–12.

41 Keßler, Die SED und die Juden, 87–9.

42 Intriguingly, Kuczynski was told by his interrogators that Ulbricht had approved the Politburo's decision to investigate him, but not who had instigated this decision. See ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 194.

43 Potts, Zilliacus, 105. Zilliacus's own background was in fact part Swedo–Finnish, part British and part American.

44 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 182.

45 Ibid., Bl. 183–4.

46 Ibid., Bl. 185.

47 Ibid., Bl. 187.

48 Ibid., Bl. 185 and 188. In fact, within the FDB Kahn had put forward a five-point programme in Feb. 1944 which he hoped would prevent the organisation from breaking up into pro-Teheran (largely communist) and anti-Teheran (largely social democrat) factions. There were different versions of this programme, but at least one draft seemed to demand the borders of 1937 and to oppose ‘annexation of German territory’. It is probably this document that the interrogators were referring to, but there is no evidence that Kuczynski had anything to do with it or knew anything about it, apart from the uncorroborated denunciation from Heinz Schmidt (see below, n. 64). For further details, see Glees, Exile Politics, 220. Also the unsigned ‘Erklärung zu den 5 Punkten und der Politik von Teheran’ (probably written by Koenen, Heinz Schmidt or Hager in 1944), in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/113, Bl. 393–5.

49 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 189.

50 See ‘Genossen, die für das Office of Strategic Services tätig waren’ (see above, n. 12), and ‘Bericht über die Beziehungen von Mitgliedern der SED und KPD zum OSS (Office of Strategic Service)’, no date (but probably March 1953), in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 24–9. This particular aspect of Kuczynski's run-in with the ZPKK is also mentioned in an interesting article by Keil, Lars-Broder, ‘“Irgendetwas ist schief”: Jürgen Kuczynski, Kurt Hager und der US-Geheimdienst 1944/5’, Deutschland Archiv, 40/6 (2007), 1034–41Google Scholar. Keil does not cover the interrogation in detail, however, and nor does he place it in its overall context.

51 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 194. See also Kuczynski, Jürgen, The Condition of the Workers in Great Britain, Germany and the Soviet Union, 1932–1938 (London: Gollancz, 1939)Google Scholar.

52 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 195.

53 Ibid., Bl. 197.

54 Ibid., Bl. 196.

55 Ibid., Bl. 197–200.

56 Ibid., Bl. 194 and 198.

57 Ibid., Bl. 190.

58 Ibid., Bl. 205.

59 Ibid.

60 Ibid., Bl. 191.

61 Otto, ‘“Genossen, ich verstehe nicht . . .”’, 25; idem., ‘Antizionismus’, 103 and 114; ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Kurt Hager am 23.7.1953’, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 111–25, here Bl. 125.

62 Otto, ‘“Genossen, ich verstehe nicht . . .”’, 30; Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries, 142–3.

63 See Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Jan Wielgohs, Dieter Hoffmann and Andreas Herbst, eds., Wer war wer in der DDR? Ein Lexikon ostdeutscher Biographien, 4th edn, vol. 2 (Berlin: Ch. Links, 2006), 887. Also Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 115, n. 106.

64 ‘Aussprache mit dem Genossen Heinz Schmidt über seine Emigrationszeit, vor allem OSS’, 8 Aug. 1953, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 349–50. In an earlier letter to the ZPKK in Oct. 1950 Schmidt had also accused Kuczynski of having adopted a ‘special position’ within the London group, deliberately placing himself above his colleagues and refusing to account for his actions or his contacts with various British communists and other leftists. It was this letter too which led to the claim that Kuczynski was voted out of the leadership in 1944 because of his opposition to the Teheran decisions. See Schmidt to the ZPKK, 18 Oct. 1950, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/113, Bl. 206–16, and Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 114–15.

65 Heinz Schmidt, ‘Erinnerungen über das Exil in Großbritannien, London, 1938–1945’, typewritten manuscript, Nov. 1979, 43, in SAPMO-BArch, SgY 30 1909/1. On the SED's refusal to publish Merker's work, see also Herf, Divided Memory, 58; and Grieder, The East German Leadership, 31.

66 Schmidt, ‘Erinnerungen über das Exil in Großbritannien’, 38–9.

67 Schmidt to Matern, 4 Dec. 1952, in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/124. In the same letter, Schmidt denounced Gerhart Eisler and Alexander Abusch for having enjoyed ‘very friendly relations’ with André Simone in Paris in 1939 and 1940.

68 For further details, see SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/1/116, Bl. 22.

69 Wilhelm Koenen, ‘Bericht über Erlebnisse in englischer Emigration’, 26 May 1956, in SAPMO-BArch, SgY 30/0493, Bl. 107–12, here especially Bl. 111–2.

70 Henschke (‘Castro’) also survived his interrogation by the ZPKK on 30 March 1953 and went on to have a successful career as a newspaper and television journalist in the GDR, dying there in Dec. 1988. See the relevant documents in SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123, Bl. 155–74. Also Werner, Sonya's Report, 260–5; and Müller-Enbergs, Wer war wer in der DDR?, vol. 1, 400–1.

71 This in particular is the view of Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 129. In an interview with Keßler in 1996, Kuczynski argued that he could not even be categorised as a western émigré by the party as he had gone to Britain as a Soviet agent and not as a political refugee – in contrast, of course, to Koenen, Schmidt, Hager, Schrecker and others. Interestingly, Hager, in his interrogation by the ZPKK on 23 July 1953, also stated that as far as he was concerned ‘Kuczynski's fate must be decided by one question and one question alone: was he really working for the friends? If not, then I am of the opinion that he is a [western] agent . . . The same applies for Castro and . . . Grete Wittkowski’ – see ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Kurt Hager’ (see above, n. 61), Bl. 124; and Keil, ‘“Irgendetwas ist schief”’, 1039.

72 See also Werner, Sonya's Report, 259–60; McElvoy, The Saddled Cow, 42–3.

73 Felix Albin (i.e. Kurt Hager), The Socialist Unity Party of Germany, with an introduction by Konni Zilliacus (London: New Germany Publications, 1946). See also Hager, Erinnerungen, 103–4. On 6 Dec. 1952, in a letter to the ZPKK written shortly after the Slánský trial, Schmidt also admitted to having had occasional dealings with Zilliacus and with the ‘criminals’ (Verbrecher) Šling and Frejka through his involvement in the Czech Refugee Trust Fund and related political lobbying – see SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/113, Bl. 218.

74 Weber, ‘Schauprozeß-Vorbereitungen in der DDR’, 481 and 483; Hodos, Show Trials, 25.

75 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Kurt Hager’ (see above, n. 61), Bl. 124–5. See also Grieder, The East German Leadership, 72; and Hager, Erinnerungen, 39–40.

76 Grete Wittkowski, one of Kuczynski's leading supporters in exile, was interrogated by the ZPKK on 22 July 1953, and Kurt Hager and Heinz Schmidt, his two fiercest critics, on 23 July and 8 Aug., respectively. Finally, on 5 Oct. Ursula Beurton, Kuczynski's sister, was questioned and asked to confirm that Moscow knew and approved of his work for the US Strategic Bombing Survey, and of ‘Castro's’ work with the OSS; Otto Niebergall was also interviewed about ‘Castro’ on the same day. After this the trail of records comes to an end. See SAPMO-BArch, DY 30/IV 2/4/123.

77 Grieder, The East German Leadership, 29; Keßler, Die SED und die Juden, 97–9; Otto, ‘Antizionismus’, 104–5; Kießling, Paul Merker, 24–6.

78 Kuczynski, Ein linientreuer Dissident, 175.

79 ‘Protokoll der Befragung des Genossen Professor Jürgen Kuczynski’ (see above, n. 39), Bl. 205.

80 On Hager's Stern interview, see Grieder, Peter, ‘“To Learn from the Soviet Union is to Learn How to Win”: The East German Revolution, 1989–90’, in McDermott, Kevin and Stibbe, Matthew, eds., Revolution and Resistance in Eastern Europe: Challenges to Communist Rule (Oxford: Berg, 2006), 157–74, here 164Google Scholar.

81 See Kuczynski, Jürgen, Schwierige Jahre: Tagebuchblätter 1987–1989 (Berlin: Tacheles Verlag, 1990), 37–41Google Scholar. Also my forthcoming essay, ‘A Hopeless Case of Optimism? Jürgen Kuczynski and the End of the GDR’, in McDermott, Kevin and Stibbe, Matthew, eds., The 1989 Revolutions in Central and Eastern Europe: From Communism to Post-Communism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012)Google Scholar. Kuczynski's published interview with the left-wing West German magazine konkret in May 1987 was a deliberate response to Hager's Stern interview and an implicit attack on the latter.

82 Hager, Erinnerungen, 100–1.

83 Kuczynski, Jürgen, Ein treuer Rebell: Memoiren 1994–1997 (Berlin: Aufbau Verlag, 1997), 173–4Google Scholar; idem., Fortgesetzter Dialog mit meinem Urenkel: Fünfzig Fragen an einen unverbesserlichen Urgroßvater (Berlin: Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, 1996), 154.

84 Hager, Erinnerungen, 183.

85 Grieder, The East German Leadership, 36; Kuczynski, Ein treuer Rebell, 31; Hager, Erinnerungen, 184.

86 Hager, Erinnerungen, 183.

87 In an interview with Peter Grieder in Dec. 1992, Hager confessed that he had lived ‘in constant fear of arrest’ in the early 1950s, but this seems to have been a rare instance of letting the guard down – see Grieder, The East German Leadership, 31. Kuczynski broke with ‘Stalinism’ in 1956, but on his own admission, he was a true believer before then; his subsequent analyses of the causes of ‘Stalinism’ were always presented in ‘objective’ terms and mostly avoided reference to personal experiences in the years 1950 to 1953, with the exception of his removal as President of the German–Soviet Friendship Society, which he blamed on Semyonov and not on any of the GDR leaders. See Kuczynski, Ein linientreuer Dissident, 47; and idem., Ein treuer Rebell, 137–9. Also Keßler, Exilerfahrung, 126–7.

88 Grieder, The East German Leadership, 30 and 36.

89 Keßler, Die SED und die Juden, 86.

90 Gomułka and Kuczynski were also polar opposites, in the sense that Gomułka was rabidly anti-German and a firm advocate of Poland's post-war expansion up to the Oder–Neiße line. He was purged in 1948 and held under house arrest between 1951 and 1954, although never put on trial, only to be rehabilitated and reinstated as Polish party leader in 1956. For further details see Łukasz Kamiński, ‘Stalinism in Poland, 1944–1956’, in McDermott and Stibbe, Stalinist Terror in Eastern Europe, 78–97.

91 See also Epstein, The Last Revolutionaries, 151.