{{Short description|East German interpreter and party functionary (1931–1984)}} {{good article}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Ilse Stephan | honorific_suffix = | image = | image_size = | caption = | order = | office = Head of the General Department Working Group of the Central Committee | 1blankname = {{nowrap|Secretary}} | 1namedata = {{ubl|Hermann Axen}} | term_start = 16 April 1981 | term_end = 19 June 1984 | predecessor = Werner Albrecht | successor = ''Position abolished'' | birth_name = Ilse Korth | birth_date = {{birth date|1931|05|08|df=y}} | birth_place = Hamburg, Weimar Republic {{small|(now Germany)}} | occupation = {{hlist|Interpreter|Party Functionary}} | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1984|06|25|1931|05|08}} | death_place = East Berlin, East Germany | death_cause = Suicide by hanging | resting_place = Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery | spouse = | children = | party = Socialist Unity Party<br />{{small|(1956–1984)}} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * CPSU Higher Party School "W. I. Lenin" }} | website = }}
'''Ilse Stephan''' ({{née}} '''Korth'''; 8 May 1931 – 25 June 1984) was an East German interpreter and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
Stephan, whose stepfather was a communist functionary, emigrated to the Soviet Union after Adolf Hitler's rise to power. Her stepfather became a victim of the Great Purge and she was deported to the Kazakh SSR.
She returned to East Germany in 1955, where she became an interpreter and party functionary for the Central Committee of the SED. One of only a handful of women in the SED's nomenklatura, Stephan rose to head the Central Committee's General Department Working Group in 1981 and served as Erich Honecker's chief interpreter.
Stephan was fired in 1984 after making critical remarks regarding tensions between the leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the SED and committed suicide shortly thereafter.
==Life and career== ===Early life and family=== Stephan was born in Hamburg on 8 May 1931 as Ilse Korth.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Erler |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Erler |year=2010 |title=Stephan, Ilse |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/ilse-stephan |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de |series=Wer war wer in der DDR? |publisher=Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref> Her stepfather was Heinrich "Heino" Meyer, a teacher and local functionary of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in Hamburg.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last1=Herbst |first1=Andreas |last2=Weber |first2=Hermann |year=2008 |title=Meyer, Heinrich (Heino) |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/heinrich-heino-meyer |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de |series=Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten |publisher=Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book |last=Uschner |first=Manfred |author-link=Manfred Uschner |title=Die zweite Etage: Funktionsweise eines Machtapparates |publisher=Dietz |year=1993 |isbn=978-3-320-01792-7 |edition=2nd |series=Zeitthemen |location=Berlin |pages=89–90 |language=de}}</ref>
After Hitler came to power, Meyer was arrested in December 1932 and Korth, under the cover name "Gerda Zinke",<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/sites/default/files/uploads/files/2023-12/RemigratListeXI2023.pdf |title=Überarbeitete Liste, nachgearbeitet bis XI 2023. |publisher=Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship |year=2023 |language=de |access-date=2025-05-18}}</ref>{{rp||page=77}} emigrated with her mother to the Soviet Union in December 1933.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Meyer was released from a concentration camp in 1934, after which he too emigrated to the Soviet Union, where he, like many other members of the exiled KPD leadership in Moscow, became a victim of the Great Purge.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=43}} Korth was deported from Moscow to Pachta Aral in the southernmost Kazakh SSR in 1941. After attending school, she worked as an electrical mechanic at a sovkhoz in Pachta Aral from 1948 to 1955.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> Korth eventually married, taking on the name Ilse Löffler, and had a son in 1953.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=34}} Her application to become a Soviet citizen was rejected on 10 June 1947.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=66}}
===Career in East Germany=== In 1955 and 1956, most remaining German communists and their families that had fled to the Soviet Union (referred to as "Politemigranten" by the SED) where repatriated back to Germany. Ilse Korth, as she was now known again,<ref name=":7">{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 47/55 Sitzung am 23. November 1955 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=ee3dd822-9ff6-4e14-95d1-cab4e5bfdea1 |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=9. Aufnahme der Annemarie Erdmann und Ilse Korth als Kandidat in die SED}}</ref> returned to what was now East Germany in October 1955 with her widowed mother and began working as a Russian language interpreter.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=34, 43}}<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last1=Blum |first1=Hanna |last2=Schmitz |first2=Manfred |date=2023 |title=Austausch – Ausverhandlung – Ausbildung: Die Rolle von Berufsorganisationen für die Sprachmittlung in der DDR |url=https://chronotopos.eu/cts/article/view/155 |journal=Chronotopos: A Journal of Translation History |language=de |volume=5 |issue=2 |page=49 |doi=10.70596/cts155 |issn=2617-3441 |quote=Ilse Stephan, Dolmetscherin und Leiterin der Allgemeinen Arbeitsgruppe des Zentralkomitees der SED (später, nach ihrem Suizid, integriert in die Abteilung Internationale Verbindungen)|doi-access=free }}</ref> She applied to join the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) in November of the same year.<ref name=":7" /> She, now remarried as Ilse Stephan, was accepted by the Central Committee Secretariat as a full party member in October 1956.<ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=66}}<ref>{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 35/56 Sitzung am 31. Oktober 1956 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=0edfffdf-b371-46ec-bc15-5b7ec94c1004 |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=8. Aufnahme der Politemigrantin Ilse Stephan als Kandidat in die SED}}</ref>
She became an employee of the General Department of the Central Committee of the SED,<ref name=":0" /> the SED's liaison office to the CPSU,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gräfe |first=Sylvia |year=2002 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Büro Erich Honecker im ZK der SED |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30bho/index.htm?kid=31491d83-bf5a-4f54-818a-4aa458db9f92 |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=die Allgemeine Abteilung als Schaltstelle zwischen SED und KPdSU}}</ref> among other things translating CPSU publications.<ref>{{Cite journal |year=1973 |title=Neu bei Dietz |url=https://www.gvoon.de/art/dokumente/1973/neuer-weg-zk-sed-ddr-1973/pdf/neuer-weg-zk-sed-ddr-1973-seite_0883.pdf |journal=Neuer Weg |language=de |issue=1/1973 |pages=883 |access-date=2025-01-04 |quote=Aus dem Russischen von Ilse Stephan.}}</ref> From 1971 to 1972, she attended a one-year course at the CPSU Higher Party School "W. I. Lenin" in Moscow.<ref name=":1" /> Stephan, who was as fluent in Russian as in German,<ref name=":2" /> eventually rose to become Erich Honecker's chief interpreter.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" />{{rp||page=34}}
When fellow Soviet emigrant Werner Albrecht retired as head of the General Department in 1981, Stephan succeeded him after the 10th Party Congress in April.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Malycha |first=Andreas |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1524/9783110347852/html |title=Die SED in der Ära Honecker: Machtstrukturen, Entscheidungsmechanismen und Konfliktfelder in der Staatspartei 1971 bis 1989 |date=2014-09-11 |publisher=De Gruyter Oldenbourg |isbn=978-3-11-034785-2 |pages=84 |language=de |doi=10.1524/9783110347852}}</ref> She only held the rank of a deputy department head as the General Department was simultaneously downgraded to the "General Department Working Group".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last=Gräfe |first=Sylvia |year=2006 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Büro Hermann Axen im ZK der SED |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30bax/index.htm?kid=c5946f73-fff8-4075-9835-9a2f8e1d8eb0 |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=die Allgemeine Abteilung im Zentralkomitee (ab Mai 1977, heruntergestuft zu einer Arbeitsgruppe Allgemeine Abteilung 1981, die im Juni 1984 in den Sektor Dolmetscher/ Übersetzer umbenannt und der Abt. Internationale Verbindungen zugeordnet wurde)}}</ref>
===Downfall and death=== thumb|Stephan's grave in 2025 Stephan eventually found herself caught in the increasing tensions between the CPSU and the SED. Honecker accused her of being at fault for these tensions for allegedly mistranslating during a June 1984 visit to CPSU General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> something disputed by both herself and others present.<ref name=":2" />
In the weeks prior, Stephan had already voiced her frustrations about these tensions privately to Manfred Uschner, personal assistant to Hermann Axen, the Central Committee Secretary responsible for her working group,<ref name=":4" /> saying she would tell the Soviets about the inner problems of the SED if things went on as they were. Uschner has since alleged that these conversations were secretly recorded by the Stasi. Uschner has also called her "a great admirer of Mikhail Gorbachev".<ref name=":2" />
Honecker immediately ordered Axen to dismiss her.<ref name=":2" /> She was dismissed as working group head on 19 June 1984 following a decision by the Central Committee.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> A week later, on 25 June 1984, she committed suicide by hanging.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":5" /> In her suicide note, immediately confiscated by the Stasi, she attacked both Honecker and Axen.<ref name=":2" /> After her death, the General Department Working Group was abolished and integrated into the International Relations Department as a new interpreter/translator sector.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":4" /><ref>{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 70/84 Umlauf am 19. Juni 1984 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=48f7415f-e411-4a8b-b9a8-c4b62137141c |access-date=2025-01-04 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=9. Umwandlung der Arbeitsgruppe Allgemeine Abteilung in den Sektor Dolmetscher/Übersetzer der Abteilung Internationale Verbindungen des ZK der SED (Stephan)}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Gräfe |first=Sylvia |year=2007 |editor-last= |editor-first= |title=Abteilung Internationale Verbindungen im ZK der SED |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30aiv/index.htm?kid=621e9bff-571a-43af-8d47-0fc4de1fc262 |access-date=2025-01-15 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=Das Schriftgut der Allgemeinen Abteilung ging nach Bildung des Sektors Dolmetscher und Übersetzer im Jahre 1984 in die Abteilung Internationale Verbindungen über.}}</ref>
She was buried in Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery alongside her mother.
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stephan, Ilse}} Category:1931 births Category:1984 deaths Category:Interpreters Category:20th-century German women politicians Category:East German women in politics Category:Politicians from Hamburg Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany Category:Great Purge victims from Germany Category:German emigrants to the Soviet Union Category:Suicides by hanging in Germany Category:Suicides in East Germany Category:Female suicides Category:German politicians who died by suicide Category:German communists