# Helene Berg > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helene_Berg > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Helene_Berg.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Berg > Source revision: 1356407850 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|East German academic and party functionary (1908–1999)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Helene Berg | birth_name = Helene Veser | image = | caption = | office = Director of the Institute for Opinion Research at the Central Committee of the SED | deputy = Joachim Jauch | term_start = 1974 | term_end = 1979 | predecessor = [Karl Maron](/source/Karl_Maron) | successor = ''Position abolished'' | office1 = [Rector](/source/Academy_for_Social_Sciences_at_the_Central_Committee_of_the_Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) of the [Institute for Social Sciences at the Central Committee](/source/Academy_for_Social_Sciences_at_the_Central_Committee_of_the_Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) | term_start1 = 1951 | term_end1 = 1958 | predecessor1 = ''Position established'' | successor1 = Ernst Hoffmann {{small|(acting)}} | image_size = 295px | birth_date = {{birth date|1906|04|10|df=y}} | birth_place = [Mannheim](/source/Mannheim), [Grand Duchy of Baden](/source/Grand_Duchy_of_Baden), [German Empire](/source/German_Empire) {{small|(now [Baden-Württemberg](/source/Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg), [Germany](/source/Germany))}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2006|02|21|1906|04|10|df=y}} | death_place = [Berlin](/source/Berlin), [Germany](/source/Germany) | occupation = {{hlist|Teacher|Party Functionary}} | party = [Party of Democratic Socialism](/source/Party_of_Democratic_Socialism_(Germany))
{{small|(1989–2006)}}
[Socialist Unity Party](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany)
{{small|(1946–1989)}}
[Communist Party of Germany](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany)
{{small|(1927–1946)}} | other_party = [Communist Party of the Soviet Union](/source/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union)
{{small|(1929–1931)}} | awards = {{hlist|[Patriotic Order of Merit](/source/Patriotic_Order_of_Merit), 1st class|[Banner of Labor](/source/Banner_of_Labor)|[Clara Zetkin Medal](/source/Clara_Zetkin_Medal)|[Order of Karl Marx](/source/Order_of_Karl_Marx)|[Grand Star of Peoples' Friendship](/source/Star_of_Peoples'_Friendship)}} | spouse = [Paul Wandel](/source/Paul_Wandel) | children = | alma_mater = [International Lenin School](/source/International_Lenin_School) | module2 = {{collapsible list | title = Central institution membership | bullets = on | 1958–1989: Full member,
[Central Committee](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) }} ---- {{collapsible list | title = Other offices held | bullets = on | 1951: Acting Director,
["Karl Marx" Party Academy](/source/Parteihochschule_Karl_Marx) }} }} '''Helene "Lene" Berg''' born '''Helene Veser''' (10 April 1906 – 21 February 2006) was a German communist politician and a [resistance activist](/source/List_of_Germans_who_resisted_Nazism) against [National Socialism](/source/National_Socialism).{{cite web|url=http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=209|author1=[Helmut Müller-Enbergs](/source/Helmut_M%C3%BCller-Enbergs)|author2=[Bernd-Rainer Barth](/source/Bernd-Rainer_Barth)|title=.Berg, Helene (Lene) geb. Veser * 10.4.1906, † 21.2.2006: SED-Funktionärin, Direktorin des Instituts für Gesellschaftswissenschaften beim ZK der SED|publisher=Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken|accessdate= 16 November 2014}} Between 1958 and 1989 she was a member of the Central Committee of the ruling [SED (party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) in the [German Democratic Republic (East Germany)](/source/German_Democratic_Republic), where she was also director of the [Berlin-based Academy for Social Sciences](/source/Academy_for_Social_Sciences_at_the_Central_Committee_of_the_Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany). ==Life== ===Early years=== Helene Veser was born in [Mannheim](/source/Mannheim), in the [Grand Duchy of Baden](/source/Grand_Duchy_of_Baden) on 10 April 1906. Her father, formerly a miller, owned a timber business while her mother was in [domestic service](/source/Domestic_worker). Helene successfully completed her schooling in 1923 and entered a dressmaking apprenticeship, remaining in this type of work in Mannheim till 1928. ===Activism=== In 1921 she became a member of the [SAJ (''Sozialistische Arbeiter-Jugend'')](/source/%3Ade%3ASozialistische_Arbeiter-Jugend), which was in effect the youth wing of the country's [SPD (Germany's party of the moderate left)](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany). In 1922 she joined the German clothing workers' Trades Union, and in 1924 she joined the [Young Communists (KJVD)](/source/Young_Communist_League_of_Germany).{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} She became a regional leader for the KJVD in what was at that time the [Baden-Baden](/source/Baden-Baden) district. During this period Veser took part in anti-militaristic actions with regard to the French army of occupation in the [Palatinate (Rhineland) region](/source/%3Ade%3AKurpfalz_(Region)) across the river from Mannheim, and undertook so-called spoiling missions (''"Zersetzungsarbeit"'') involving the police there. In 1926 she attended the [ADGB Trades Union confederation](/source/Allgemeiner_Deutscher_Gewerkschaftsbund) College in the [Tinz](/source/%3Ade%3ATinz_(Gera)) quarter of [Gera](/source/Gera). Then in October 1927, a few months after her twenty-first birthday, Helene Veser joined the [Communist Party (KPD)](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany).{{cite web|url=http://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Manuskripte_53_2.pdf|author=GOTTFRIED HAMACHER unter Mitarbeit von André Lohmar, Herbert Mayer, Günter Wehner und Harald Wittstock|page=29|title=Gegen Hitler. Deutsche in der Résistance, in den Streitkräften der Antihitlerkoalition und der Bewegung "Freies Deutschland" Kurzbiografien (Reihe: Manuskripte/Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung; Bd. 53)|accessdate=15 November 2014|publisher=Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung i.A. [Karl Dietz](/source/%3Ade%3AKarl_Dietz_Verlag_Berlin), Berlin|date=2005}} Till 1928 Veser held her KJVD Baden regional leadership position. Then she relocated to [Moscow](/source/Moscow) where she attended the [International Lenin School](/source/International_Lenin_School) till 1931, taking [Soviet](/source/Soviet_Union) [citizenship](/source/citizenship) and, in 1929, becoming a member of the [Communist Party of the Soviet Union](/source/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union). She returned to Germany in 1931, now taking on more senior positions within the [KPD](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany). In 1931/32 Veser was an instructor with the party's [Agitation and Propaganda department](/source/Agitprop) in [Berlin](/source/Berlin). Then, in 1932, she took on the position of [Agitation and Propaganda secretary](/source/Agitprop) for the KPD in the [Hanover](/source/Hanover) district, in the north of the country. This lasted till 1933 and the [Nazi seizure of power](/source/Machtergreifung) which was [quickly followed](/source/Gleichschaltung) by a ban on non-Nazi political parties. Veser continued with her (now illegal) work for [the party](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany) till 1935. In 1933 she became the [Agitation and Propaganda secretary](/source/Agitprop) in the party's [Halle](/source/Halle_(Saale)) leadership team and later in the same year took over from [Max Opitz](/source/%3Ade%3AMax_Ernst_Opitz) the party leadership for the [Württemberg](/source/W%C3%BCrttemberg) region. 1934/35 found her operating under the cover name "Lotte" as a party instructor in the [Saarland](/source/Saarland). In 1935 she escaped to [France](/source/France) from where she emigrated to the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) where she was given the "party name", "Helene Berg", a name to which she switched and which she officially retained after the [war](/source/Second_World_War) ended. === Moscow === Between 1935 and 1937, using the cover name "Lene Neckar", Helene Berg was the deputy head of the German sector at the [ILS](/source/International_Lenin_School), at the same time teaching in Moscow the history of (1) the [Russian Communist Party](/source/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union) and of (2) the German Workers' Movement. In 1938 she took a job with "Ino-Radio" in Moscow, and later worked as a consultant with the Moscow-based "[Soyuz Jetfilm](/source/Soyuzmultfilm)" children's film studio. Till 1941 she worked with [Rudolf Lindau](/source/%3Ade%3ARudolf_Lindau_(Politiker)) creating collections on KPD history. When war broke out, using the cover name "Lene Ring" she had taken over the leadership of the German group at the [International Lenin School](/source/International_Lenin_School), the [Comintern](/source/Communist_International) School that temporarily moved to [Ufa](/source/Ufa) during the invasion. In September 1941 she was put in charge of the German section of the German section of the [Antifa School](/source/%3Ade%3AAntifa-Schule)"Antifa-Schule" (Antifa school)=''Antifaschistischen Frontschulen'') for prisoners of war at [Taliza](/source/Talitsa%2C_Talitsky_District%2C_Sverdlovsk_Oblast), while still continuing to teach at [the party](/source/Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union) [academy](/source/%3Ade%3AParteihochschule_der_KPdSU) in Moscow. === Back to (East) Germany === In April 1946 Berg returned to Germany, settling in the [Soviet occupation zone](/source/Soviet_occupation_zone) which by now was in [the process](/source/Ulbricht_Group) of becoming the [German Democratic Republic](/source/German_Democratic_Republic). Berg became a member of the new country's ruling [SED (party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) and took a position as a teacher at the prestigious [Karl Marx Academy](/source/Parteihochschule_Karl_Marx) in [Liebenwalde](/source/Liebenwalde). Between 1946 and 1951 she undertook various functions in the party's regional leadership in [Saxony-Anhalt](/source/Saxony-Anhalt), working closely with [Bernard Koenen](/source/%3Ade%3ABernard_Koenen). In 1951 she briefly became acting director of the Karl Marx Academy, before accepting a professorial directorship at the Party Central Committee's Social Sciences Institute, remaining in this post till 1958. From 1954 till 1958 Berg was a candidate for the party central committee, which she joined in 1958, retaining her membership till 1989. Between 1958 and 1971 she was the [German](/source/East_Germany) [party's](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) editor and representative for the [Prague](/source/Prague) based international ideological newspaper [World Marxist Review (WMR / "Problems of Peace and socialism" / ''"Проблемы мира и социализма"'')](/source/Problems_of_Peace_and_Socialism). Between 1972 and 1974 she was deputy director of the party's central committee's Opinion Research Institute, succeeding the institute's founder-director, [Karl Maron](/source/Karl_Maron), in 1974. She left that position in 1979, when the Institute was abolished on the instigation of [Erich Honecker](/source/Erich_Honecker), who believed opinion research to be "manipulative". She thereafter acted as a consultant to the [Central Committee's International Relations Department](/source/Departments_of_the_Central_Committee_of_the_Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany). In 1990, following [German reunification](/source/Die_Wende), the old East German [SED (Party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) was succeeded by the [PDS](/source/Party_of_Democratic_Socialism_(Germany)), and Berg became a member of the reborn party's "Council of old people". == Personal == Berg was married to [East Germany](/source/East_Germany)'s first Minister for Education, [Paul Wandel](/source/%3Ade%3APaul_Wandel). He died in 1995 but she died just seven weeks short of her one hundredth birthday on 21 February 2006. == Awards == *1955 [Clara Zetkin Medal](/source/Clara_Zetkin_Medal) *1956 [Patriotic Order of Merit](/source/Patriotic_Order_of_Merit) in Silver *1965 [Banner of Labor](/source/Banner_of_Labor) *1966 [Order of Karl Marx](/source/Order_of_Karl_Marx) *1968 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold *1971 Patriotic Order of Merit - Gold Honour clip *1976 Honorary doctorate from the [Social Sciences Academy](/source/%3Ade%3AAkademie_f%C3%BCr_Gesellschaftswissenschaften) of the [Party](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) Central Committee *1976 [Star of People's Friendship](/source/Star_of_People's_Friendship) in Gold *1981 Great Star of People's Friendship in Gold ==References== {{reflist|2}} {{Authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2014}} {{Use British English|date=November 2014}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Berg, Helene}} Category:1906 births Category:2006 deaths Category:Politicians from Mannheim Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden Category:Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians Category:Members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Category:Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians Category:German emigrants to the Soviet Union Category:Communists in the German Resistance Category:Refugees from Nazi Germany in the Soviet Union Category:International Lenin School alumni Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit (honor clasp) Category:Recipients of the Banner of Labor --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Helene Berg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Berg) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helene_Berg?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.