# Hugo Eberlein > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hugo_Eberlein > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Hugo_Eberlein.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Eberlein > Source revision: 1349046195 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|German politician (1887–1941)}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Hugo Eberlein | image = Hugo Eberlein 1921.jpg | alt = | caption = Eberlein {{circa}} 1921 | office = Member of the [Landtag of Prussia](/source/Landtag_of_Prussia)
for [Berlin](/source/Berlin_(electoral_district)) | term_start = [10 March 1921](/source/1921_Prussian_state_election) | term_end = [31 March 1933](/source/Provisional_Law_and_Second_Law_on_the_Coordination_of_the_States_with_the_Reich) | predecessor = ''Constituency established'' | successor = ''Constituency abolished'' | pronunciation = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1887|05|04}} | birth_place = [Saalfeld](/source/Saalfeld), [Kingdom of Saxony](/source/Kingdom_of_Saxony), [German Empire](/source/German_Empire) | death_date = {{death date and age|df=y|1941|10|16|1887|05|04}} | death_place = [Moscow](/source/Moscow), [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) | death_cause = Firing squad | resting_place = [Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde](/source/Zentralfriedhof_Friedrichsfelde) | resting_place_coordinates = | citizenship = | party = [SPD](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) {{small|(1906–1917)}}
[USPD](/source/Independent_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) {{small|(1917–1919)}}
[KPD](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany) {{small|(1919–1941)}} | other_party = [Spartacus League](/source/Spartacus_League) {{small|(1914–1918)}} | height = | spouse = {{marriage|Luise Harms|1913}}
Inna Armand | partner = | relations = [Inessa Armand](/source/Inessa_Armand) (mother-in-law) | children = {{flatlist| * [Werner](/source/Werner_Eberlein) * Ines }} | parents = | relatives = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = Politician | profession = | known_for = | awards = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | module = {{collapsible list | title = Central institution membership | bullets = on | 1924–1925; 1927–1929: Full member,
[KPD Politburo](/source/KPD_Politburo) | 1919–1929: Full member,
[KPD Central Committee](/source/List_of_members_of_the_Zentrale_of_the_Communist_Party_of_Germany){{refn|group=note|Zentrale until 1925}} }} ---- {{collapsible list | title = Other offices held | bullets = on | 1918–1919: Chairman,
[Danzig](/source/Danzig) [Workers' and Soldiers' Council](/source/German_workers'_and_soldiers'_councils_1918%E2%80%931919) }} }} '''Max Albert Hugo Eberlein''' (4 May 1887 – 16 October 1941) was a German [communist](/source/communist) politician. He took part of the founding congress of the [Communist Party of Germany](/source/Communist_Party_of_Germany) ("KPD") in December 1918 and January 1919, and then in the [First Congress of the Comintern](/source/First_Congress_of_the_Comintern) (2–6 March 1919),Hugo Eberlein: Erinnerung aus dem Jahr 1928 an seine abenteuerliche Reise nach Moskau zum Grünungskongress der Kommunistischen Internationale, document published in: [Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung](/source/Jahrbuch_f%C3%BCr_Forschungen_zur_Geschichte_der_Arbeiterbewegung), No.III/2012, p.159.{{in lang|de}} where he held important posts until 1928, the result of his involvement with the [Conciliator faction](/source/Conciliator_faction). When the [Nazis](/source/Nazis) took power in Germany in 1933, Eberlein fled to the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union), where he found refuge at the [Hotel Lux](/source/Hotel_Lux).Hermann Weber, [http://www.kas.de/wf/doc/kas_9163-544-1-30.pdf ''Hotel Lux – Die deutsche kommunistische Emigration in Moskau''] (PDF) [Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung](/source/Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung) No. 443 (October 2006), p. 58. Retrieved November 12, 2011 {{in lang|de}} In July 1937 he fell under the [Great Purge](/source/Great_Purge). In January 1938 he was interrogated and tortured for ten days and nights. In April 1938 he was taken to [Lefortovo Prison](/source/Lefortovo_Prison), where he was tortured for weeks at a time; then in 1939 he was sentenced to 15 years in the [Vorkuta Gulag](/source/Vorkuta_Gulag). He was returned to Moscow in 1941, when he was tried and sentenced again, and was shot on 16 October 1941. Hugo Eberlein was later [rehabilitated](/source/Political_rehabilitation) and became a national hero in [East Germany](/source/East_Germany); his name was even borne by [a guard regiment](/source/Guard_Regiment_Hugo_Eberlein) of the [National People's Army](/source/National_People's_Army). == Years in Germany == Eberlein was born in [Saalfeld](/source/Saalfeld) on 4 May 1887,{{cite book |last1=Kienast |first1=Ernst |title=Handbuch für den Preußischen Landtag |date=1932 |publisher=Schenk |location=Berlin |page=427 |url=https://digitale-sammlungen.llb-detmold.de/content/pageview/10098765 |access-date=13 February 2026}} the son of a factory worker. A trained technical draftsman, he joined the [SPD](/source/Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) in 1906, where he belonged to the left wing. As an opponent of ''[Burgfriedenspolitik](/source/Burgfriedenspolitik)'', the party's policy of support for and cessation of strikes during the [First World War](/source/World_War_I), he co-founded the [USPD](/source/Independent_Social_Democratic_Party_of_Germany) and the [Spartacus League](/source/Spartacus_League). Following the [German Revolution](/source/German_Revolution) in 1918, he served as chairman of the [Danzig](/source/Danzig) [Workers' and Soldiers' Council](/source/German_workers'_and_soldiers'_councils_1918%E2%80%931919). At the end of the year he was a founding member of the KPD and was elected to its leadership, to which he belonged until 1929.{{cite web |title=Eberlein, Hugo |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/hugo-eberlein |website=bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de |publisher=[Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung](/source/Federal_Foundation_for_the_Reappraisal_of_the_SED_Dictatorship) |access-date=26 February 2026}} [[File:Platten und Lenin in Moskau 1919.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Eberlein (second from left) with [Vladimir Lenin](/source/Vladimir_Lenin) (third from left) among the Presidium of the [1st Congress of the Comintern](/source/1st_Congress_of_the_Comintern), March 1919]] He represented the party executive of the KPD in the place of the murdered [Rosa Luxemburg](/source/Rosa_Luxemburg) at the [founding congress of the Communist International (Comintern)](/source/1st_Congress_of_the_Comintern) in early March 1919, where he abstained from voting on its founding–as previously recommended by Luxemburg and [Leo Jogiches](/source/Leo_Jogiches)–because he believed that it was premature. Nevertheless, once the [Comintern](/source/Communist_International) had been established, he pleaded successfully for the KPD to join after his return to Germany and acted as a confidante for the Comintern leadership in Germany for the next few years. He was among other things responsible for receiving financial support payments addressed to the KPD. In May 1919 Eberlein was managing director of the newspaper ''[Die Rote Fahne](/source/Die_Rote_Fahne)'', the central organ of the KPD. During the [March Action](/source/March_Action) of 1921, he was head of the party's [military apparatus](/source/Antimilit%C3%A4rischer_Apparat), and traveled to [Halle](/source/Halle_(Saale)) (near the [Leuna works](/source/Leuna_works), a site of major strike efforts) to organize sabotage.{{cite book |last=Weitz |first=Eric D. |authorlink=Eric D. Weitz |title=Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State |page=106 |date=1997 |publisher=[Princeton University Press](/source/Princeton_University_Press) |url=https://www.bannedthought.net/Germany/KPD/General/CreatingGermanCommunism-1890-1990-Weitz-1997-OCR-sm.pdf |isbn=978-0-691-02682-4 |language=en}} He was elected to the [Landtag of Prussia](/source/Landtag_of_Prussia) soon after, serving from 1921 to 1933. Over the course of the 1920s, he initially supported the party leadership around [Heinrich Brandler](/source/Heinrich_Brandler) and [August Thalheimer](/source/August_Thalheimer), then broke with them to join the so-called Middle Group, and from 1927 was part of the [Conciliator faction](/source/Conciliator_faction). The latter supported a [united front](/source/united_front) with the Social Democrats and were driven out of the KPD's leadership in 1929 after the [Wittorf affair](/source/Wittorf_affair) (which Eberlein helped expose) and the return of [Ernst Thälmann](/source/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann) to power at the direction of [Joseph Stalin](/source/Joseph_Stalin). From that point he was employed, like [Arthur Ewert](/source/Arthur_Ewert) and Kurt Sauerland, under the leadership of [Béla Kun](/source/B%C3%A9la_Kun) in the apparatus of the [Comintern](/source/Comintern). == Exile and death == thumb|right|Eberlein's 1937 mugshot After being briefly imprisoned after the [National Socialists seized power](/source/Adolf_Hitler's_rise_to_power) in 1933, Eberlein was able to go into exile in the [French Third Republic](/source/French_Third_Republic), where he campaigned for the establishment of a [popular front](/source/Popular_Front_(France)) between communists, social democrats and bourgeois forces. After being arrested in [Strasbourg](/source/Strasbourg) in 1935 and temporarily imprisoned, he emigrated to the [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) in 1936 after a stopover in [Switzerland](/source/Switzerland). Despite the intercession of his friend [Wilhelm Pieck](/source/Wilhelm_Pieck), Eberlein was swept up in the Great Terror and was imprisoned in July 1937. On 5 May 1939, at a closed session of the [Military Collegium of the USSR Supreme Court](/source/Military_Collegium_of_the_Supreme_Court_of_the_Soviet_Union), he was sentenced to 15 years in the [gulag](/source/gulag) for allegedly being involved in a "terrorist organization" within the Comintern apparatus as part of the "anti-Comintern bloc". On 1 June 1939 he was transported to [Vorkuta](/source/Vorkutlag). According to other sources, he was imprisoned in the [Unzhlag](/source/Unzhlag) camp in 1939/1941. In 1941 he was transferred to a camp 100 km north of [Syktyvkar](/source/Syktyvkar) in the [Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic](/source/Komi_Autonomous_Soviet_Socialist_Republic). From here he was transported back to [Moscow](/source/Moscow) and charged again. On 30 July 1941 he was sentenced to death by firing squad, which was carried out on 16 October 1941. His brother was also shot. == Personal life == thumb|left|Tombstone of Hugo and Werner Eberlein Eberlein was married twice; first to Luise Auguste Anna Harms (15 July 1889 – 11 January 1964) in Berlin-Charlottenburg on 3 April 1913, and second to Inna Armand, a daughter of the French-born Russian Bolshevik [Inessa Armand](/source/Inessa_Armand). From his first marriage came his son [Werner](/source/Werner_Eberlein), who made a career as an [SED](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) official. From his second marriage came his daughter Ines, born 1923. By 1923, Eberlein had separated from Armand and was living with his secretary, Charlotte Scheckenreuter. Hugo Eberlein is also commemorated on the tombstone of his son Werner in the graves for victims of fascism and those persecuted by the Nazi regime in Berlin's [Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery](/source/Friedrichsfelde_Central_Cemetery). == Notes == {{reflist|group=note}} == References == {{reflist}} == External links == {{Commons category|Hugo Eberlein}} * [https://www.marxists.org/archive/eberlein/index.htm Hugo Eberlein Archive] at [marxists.org](/source/marxists.org) * {{PM20|FID=pe/004440}} * [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/52/mode/1up "Founding Congress of the CI in Moscow, 2-6 March 1919. In the Presidium (from left to right): Gustav Klinger, Hugo Eberlein, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin and Fritz Platten" in Ernst Thälmann (1986)] * "Transfer of Julian Marchlewski's urn to the Berlin-Friedrichsfelde Cemetery on 5 April 1925. On the left of the hearse (from front to back): Wilhelm Pieck, Ernst Thälmann, Hugo Eberlein, Ernst Meyer; beside Ernst Thälmann: Ernst Schneller" in [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-eine-biographie/Ernst%20Th%C3%A4lmann%20-%20Eine%20Biographie/page/n77/mode/1up Ernst Thälmann: Eine Biographie (1980)] and [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/124/mode/1up Ernst Thälmann (1986)] * [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/146/mode/1up "Hugo Eberlein (left), Ernst Thälmann, and Vasil Kolarov during the conference" (7th Plenum of the Enlarged ECCI in Moscow, 22 November to 16 December 1926) in Ernst Thälmann (1986)] * [https://archive.org/details/ernst-thalmann-1986/page/134/mode/1up Portrait of Eberlein in Ernst Thälmann (1986)] {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Eberlein, Hugo}} Category:1887 births Category:1944 deaths Category:Communist Party of Germany politicians Category:Executed people from Thuringia Category:German Comintern people Category:German emigrants to the Soviet Union Category:Great Purge victims from Germany Category:Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Category:Members of the Landtag of Prussia Category:Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Germany Category:People from Saalfeld Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Category:Soviet rehabilitations Category:AM Apparat people --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Hugo Eberlein](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Eberlein) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Eberlein?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.