# Roland Bauer

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**Roland Bauer** (19 March 1928 – 2017) was a German politician and history academic in the [German Democratic Republic (East Germany)](/source/German_Democratic_Republic).[1]

He was vice-president of the [East German Historical Society](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiker-Gesellschaft_der_DDR), a member of the central committee of the country's ruling [SED (party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) and of the [Berlin city council](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stadtverordnetenversammlung).[1]

## Life

Roland Bauer was born into a working-class family in Eibenberg in the extreme west of Czechoslovakia (today Tisová, part of [Kraslice](/source/Kraslice) in the [Czech Republic](/source/Czech_Republic)). His family was part of the large German speaking minority that had settled the area in the centuries before the creation of Czechoslovakia in 1918 from a part of what had hitherto been [Austria-Hungary](/source/Austria-Hungary). On leaving secondary school he undertook an apprenticeship as a watchmaker and jeweler. That lasted till 1944 when he was enlisted for [National Labour Service (*"Reichsarbeitsdienst"*)](/source/Reichsarbeitsdienst).[1]

Although he was born in a frontier region, while he was growing up Bauer's family lived in [Grünberg](/source/Zelen%C3%A1_Hora_(Vy%C5%A1kov_District)) in the centre of Czechoslovakia, where his parents were members of the [Communist Party](/source/Communist_Party_of_Czechoslovakia), Roland Bauer himself was a member of the Communist "Pioneer" organisation from 1934 till 1938. As a communist party member Bauer's father was interned by the Germans in [concentration camps](/source/Concentration_camps), first in [Dachau](/source/Dachau_concentration_camp) and later in [Mauthausen](/source/Mauthausen-Gusen_concentration_camp).

The [war](/source/Second_World_War) ended in May 1945 and Roland Bauer, together with his parents, were among the millions of ethnic Germans who found themselves [relocated](/source/Expulsion_of_Germans_from_Czechoslovakia). They settled in the [Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ / *Sowjetische Besatzungszone*)](/source/Soviet_occupation_zone) of what had been Germany, fetching up in the heart of [Thuringia](/source/Thuringia), near [Weimar](/source/Weimar).[1]

Bauer joined the [Free German Youth (FDJ / *Freie Deutsche Jugend*)](/source/Free_German_Youth) and in 1946 joined the newly formed [SED (party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany), then in the process of becoming the country's ruling party, endorsed by the [occupying forces](/source/Soviet_Military_Administration_in_Germany), Till 1947 Bauer worked as a watchmaker in [Apolda](/source/Apolda), taking a leading position with the FDJ locally. In 1947 he undertook a training at the party's regional college for [Thuringia](/source/Thuringia) in [Bad Berka](/source/Bad_Berka), and between 1947 and 1949 he was the party's district youth secretary for the [Weimar](/source/Weimar) district.[1]

In 1949 Bauer embarked on a two-year study period at The [Party's Karl Marx Academy](/source/Parteihochschule_Karl_Marx), after which he went on to become successively an assistant, a [teacher](/source/Docent) and then deputy head of the [History](/source/History) department. Between 1954 and 1958 he undertook [postgraduate study](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirantur) at the Institute for Social Sciences run by the [Communist Party Central Committee](/source/Central_Committee_of_the_Communist_Party_of_the_Soviet_Union) in [Moscow](/source/Moscow). He received his [doctorate](/source/Doctorate)[1] for a dissertation entitled "Precondidions and Groundrules for the [November 1918 Revolution in Germany](/source/German_Revolution_of_1918%E2%80%9319) (Stage 1)" (*"Voraussetzungen und Grundzüge der [Novemberrevolution 1918](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novemberrevolution) in Deutschland – 1. Etappe)"*), From 1958 till 1962 Roland Bauer was a member of the management team at the [Karl Marx Academy](/source/Parteihochschule_Karl_Marx), after which he became its deputy head.[1]

From 1962 till 1964, in succession to [Ludwig Einicke](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludwig_Einicke), Bauer served as Director of the Party Central Committee's [Institute for](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Marxismus-Leninismus) [Marxism–Leninism](/source/Marxism%E2%80%93Leninism) in Berlin. Also between 1962 and 1964 he served as vice-president of the [East German Historical Society](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historiker-Gesellschaft_der_DDR). From 1964 till 1967 he served as the party's regional secretary for [Agitation and Propaganda](/source/Agitprop) in Berlin, and at the same time, taking over from the journalist [Erich Selbmann](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Selbmann) he also headed up [The party's](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany) Ideological Commission.[1] Between 1967 and 1978 Bauer served the Berlin region as Party Secretary for Science, popular education and training, a position in which he was succeeded, on 12 June 1978, by Horst Oswald.[2]

A switch towards the national political mainstream came with his candidature for the central committee of the ruling [SED (party)](/source/Socialist_Unity_Party_of_Germany), which lasted from 1967. He was elected to membership following the conventional waiting period at the [8th Party Congress](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parteitag_der_SED) in 1971. From 1971 till 1978 he was a member of the Party Central Committee's Culture Commission and he was also, from 1971 till 1981 a member of the Berlin City Council. In 1976 he was involved in the exclusion from East German citizenship of [Wolf Biermann](/source/Wolf_Biermann).[3][4]

In 1978 Bauer succeeded [Rudolf Wettengel](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudolf_Wettengel) as the East German Party's Central Committee representative on the editorial board of the politically important [Prague](/source/Prague) based journal [Problems of Peace and Socialism (World Marxist Review / *Проблемы мира и социализма*)](/source/Problems_of_Peace_and_Socialism), remaining on the board till August 1990 representing the SED and then its successor party, the German [Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS / *Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus*)](/source/Party_of_Democratic_Socialism_(Germany)) through most of the period of the [German reunification](/source/German_reunification) process.[1]

Roland Bauer went into retirement, still living in Berlin, in August 1990, In May 1991 he resigned from the [PDS (party)](/source/Party_of_Democratic_Socialism_(Germany)). Later he worked with [Wolfgang Harich](/source/Wolfgang_Harich) on the "Alternative Commission of Enquiry into the History of the German Democratic Republic".

## Awards and honours

- 1975 [Medal of Merit from the Interior Ministry](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verdienstmedaille_der_Organe_des_Ministeriums_des_Innern)
- 1975 [Battle Order for Services to People and Fatherland](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kampforden_%E2%80%9EF%C3%BCr_Verdienste_um_Volk_und_Vaterland%E2%80%9C)
- 1978 [Patriotic Order of Merit](/source/Patriotic_Order_of_Merit)
- 1988 [Patriotic Order of Merit](/source/Patriotic_Order_of_Merit) Gold clasp[5]

## Publications

- *Die II. Internationale (1889–1914)*. Berlin 1956, DNB 450262847.
- *Der wissenschaftliche Sozialismus und das Godesberger Grundsatzprogramm*. Berlin 1960, DNB 450262863.
- *Kriegspolitik und Friedenskampf*. Berlin 1963, DNB 450262855.
- Roland Bauer et al.: *Berlin – 800 Jahre Geschichte in Wort und Bild*. Dietz, Berlin 1980, DNB 810456710.
- Roland Bauer et al.: *Berlin – Illustrierte Chronik bis 1870*. Dietz, Berlin 1987, ISBN 3-320-00831-5, DNB 551475684.

## References

1. [Bernd-Rainer Barth](/source/Bernd-Rainer_Barth). ["Bauer, Roland * 19.3.1928 SED-Funktionär, Vizepräsident der Historikergesellschaft"](http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=147). Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur: Biographische Datenbanken. Retrieved 8 December 2014.

1. [Berliner Zeitung](/source/Berliner_Zeitung) 13 June 1978

1. ["Die Hauptakteure der Biermann-Affäre"](https://www.spiegel.de/schulspiegel/kultur-die-hauptakteure-in-der-biermann-affaere-a-213377.html). SPIEGEL-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG. 10 September 2002. Retrieved 9 December 2014.

1. ["Wir werden ihre Schnauzen nicht vergessen"](https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14348879.html). Vol. 48/1981. SPIEGEL-Verlag Rudolf Augstein GmbH & Co. KG. 23 November 1981. Retrieved 9 December 2014.

1. [Neues Deutschland](/source/Neues_Deutschland), 27 February 1988, page 2

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