KULTURBUND ZUR DEMOKRATISCHEN ERNEUERUNG DEUTSCHLANDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00457R000800190009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: November 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 5, 1999
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 11, 1947
• Content Type: IR

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C NTRAL
INTEL
COUNTRY Germany (Russiat Zone)
SUBJECT
mom
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Kulturbund zur Demokratische
grneuerung Deutschlands
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LiGqICE GROUP
TtketiefairnMaTeby regr
-00NcIDENr1AL in acco:
letter of 16 0
Director ral
Ar of the United States. INFO.
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Next Review Date: 2008
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1
646T- X August 1947
-.ram ,A.up iAGES 4 ?
SUPPLEMENT
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/. The Kultufbund zur Demokratischen Erneuerung Deutsehlands ie the most tport
and and most powerful Soviet-sponsored cultural organization in Berlin end the
RuSsian Zone. No organization in Berlin or in the Russian Zone could properly
be considered a competitor or opponent of the Kulturbutd. It was fgunfeeti on
4 Jay 1945 in the Furkbene in Berlin and maintains offices in Schlutesetrasse
(ritish sector), but its halls, restaurant, and meeting place are located at
Jageretraese 2 (Soviet sector).
2.. The avowed purpose of the Rulterbund is the revival of democracy in. Getman
cultural .and political life. Its ()Moore and publications have repeatedly
stated that the Kulturbund does not favor any political party. Hethodb used
to evade this self-imposed bonpartisenship vary. Paul Wendel, for exar711e, a
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Communist member of the KUlturbundr is reported blyil:;;;:141:1:vel::::::t:
his partisan statements by saying that he speaks not for his office or the
Aulturbund? but rather for his carty, the SM.
bar of the Central Secretariat of the SED and president of the Centre:. /Amin-
istration for Education in the Russian Zone, is also said by Wade to have
declared, in connection with the reeent Russian arrests of University of Berlin
students, that it is the duty and privilege of SED students to prevent the
university from becoming a veftee of reaction. He reportedly receives almost
daily directives from the Kulturbund on shaping the political mood of the Rus-
sian Zone Germans.)
The present officers of the Wulturbued are for the most part the origieal of-
ficers, chosen soon after the Kulterbund ems founded. The president; 7,TMan
?
born, Voscow trained, repatriate Johannes R. Becher, was kuewn as a Communist
writer and poet before 1933. qmplA: Becher, a member of the Central
Secretariat of the SED. is reported to have been a member of the Steer Come
mittee of the Free Germany Committee in Russit. He is credited by some rith
having. converted FieleiMarshell von Paelus to collaboration with the Fiaiitinsi,
General secretaries of the Kultarbund are Heinz Willmann and Alexander kbuoch.
IIIIIIVemmee Willmann? a Communist organizer of considerable exeeeience?
returned from Moscow in the summer of 1945. According to acaleat, he was de-
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tailed byMoscow to organize the Kulturbund? and is its present true loader.
He is a member of the SED, and is in charge of ideological planning. 7ilimann
vas, and may still be, a member of the Soviet Army. (Other,Kulturbund loaders
who have been members of the Soviet Army are Willi Bredel - Communist nriter,
formerly a member of the Steering Committee of the Free Germany ComMitee in
Russia, and Ilein,Schmidt, a former prieet vho is a ranking SED functionary
in Province Me - burg.)
ATiON offenr
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NO CHANGE
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Date ;
/09/24: -RDP82-00457R000800190009-8
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Abusch returned to Germany from ?etc? a out eie;ht eonths ago; i1) member
o" long stern, and one o' the .o-t important Communists in lornany, he is
said to he eovertly the editor-in-chief of three 1:rge r1iti iournels: 1h2
j,;22?.t1-kna; the Ltan (of'icial ii ion of the Kulturbund), edited a-y
:leus Gysi; and the '9".2nIzz edited by Dr. Gunther Brandt. (Brandt is a mem-
ber ef the Central -lea4ruarters of the SZ,D).
T:irty Kulturbund re-bers form the h4sidielret, or -erberslap Committee, of
the erannization. Cf these, the eteiority -re SD ee bars, though some belong
to the CDU; none rre feebors o' the Si.D, within this coemitt e ',here oeists
a seallar .g.teep celled the Irasidialauseeluss, or Subcomeittee. 30cher.is a
me-ber of tMe group; and Its peoninent CDU --e.ber is Obrgerneister Friedens-
burg. est o" the other meebers belone: to the SD or syeT-ei.htee -ith it. The
real control, ho-ever? rests in a 'our -an -orkina party (Arboitsausschuss).
;embers of tm orkine Comvittee Johannes i. 7ocher, Tleinz illevnn,
Alexander Ahusch, rnd Kleus Gysi. ?he -gorde or ho el?rship comeittee and
sub.-coemittee is orked out by the seen .orking perty. Tie imer sane ur
constitutes c ticr.tly knit erou:, of' neoele -ho eor overate eit'-out4ie interference
free the CDU or ether no-ee D me-bers. 411111112=4 Three -residialrat 25X1A6a
members besides Decher were me leers or the Free Gereany Comnittee in aussia
during the -nr: Friedrich 'elf, -na Theodor :livier, nether of
stallutau Plivier is also said to be a me ber or he Central Coeeittee of
the re-ly "oemed, Communist front, Vereinilung ler Terfolgten des ?,Iziregi.ss.)
5. The Berlin organization of -he Kultur,ernd in eralleled in ell Lander of the
Russian 7.oro, -ith a Leniesleitun- of the Kelturbund as the tor Len or-e.ri-
zation. The Kulturbund put up cenlidotes for the Lanl ani Iroie electior- in
the au-sian or lest 'all, "ut the number of seats geined hy then eres negligible.
6. The rersraper and, as quoted in amil2J 12 'ay 1947, esti?tee ---v-bor.lhip in
the Kulturbund around the rirst or this year to have Ileon ?.0,0n0 to 35,000 in
the iussian one, 12,000 in :Aerlin, end a scattered -e-borehip in the re-tern
zones, 1-hich brings the total .0 b-rship to about 30,000. rrdoebtedly 1 3
chief recruiting appeal of the Kulturbund is not intellectual but physical.
It has made every effort to make the clubrooms it maintains luxurious, and
in than mid-day meals are served to members for a very nominal fee without
surrender of ration coupons.
7. According to ,a2padg,, the :ultuobund receives eonthly duos Prom its .e-bers,
.ho in or instences make voluntcry contribut'ons of nee? than the arount
o' eho dues. It Is difficult, horev r* even allo-ine for occasional larger
contributions, to see hor the Fe-cunt of dues collected is a sufficient sun to
eover the -out of ud-inistration Aare. Sonade cites as an exa,ple the "act
that the last information received inlic.ted that the provinciel presidents
of the Kuiturbund in the Russian :one receive 1,200 to 1,500 RM pot. nonth) ond
their esnistents between 1,000 end 1,200 RI. Tho heads of the various sectio
of the Kulturbund (soee ton in all, including rritineo art, music, and seeolare
ship) receive about 300IU7 per eonth. 12,,,a2 claims to have received irferma-
tion that in ThollenburgePoemern the provinciol Kulturbund receives money in
the hundreds of thousands or Aeichseerks throueh 1h Finence Den.rt-ent or the
provincial government. 411111komplat: If any proof were needed 1;ha t the
Kulturbund is an instrument of the Wit and by the same token a Comuni;$t
front organization, such conceqled governmental subsidizing would be prima
facie evidence.
8. An instnnec of outright propagerda brie-Pine of a Kulturbund official by rep-
resentattve of S-A has been re-orted. According to this -ell 017cod and reliable
source, a men ro ed Sell 7-an, a- r-,10Itct've o' 'the :ulturbund for Sonnoberei
Thurinein, called in by e Lt. Col. 7ostrilrov of the loofa "oeetrikov
Islied 7;011 to orm:--:e motin--o o" the '-t1-fascist tzrt.iee, to be hod during
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April in in Sonnebra end in tvelve of the lnrger communities nf the district.
7he lectures nere to 'le in sepnort of the ,iloeestic er 'oroIgn policies of
the Sovie'c, Union. 0
9. The Delnerbund collOmretes very closely rith the Free lorma17ade Unions
Aerociation (FDGB). An enteelo or theii cooperstion is the organizational
rork done in April ,c3 I mr of' this voer in setting up a ni-eoples" Theater
Organization (VoralAhnen). no, initial oc-!ting rOst hold in Dresden on 29
April 1947, and ras dominated by representatives of the Kulturbund and the
FDGB. The meeting_ nes keyrotod by K. Knoschke, Provincial Secretary of the
Kulturbund in Land Saxony, nhose theme primnrily was that the Soviet occupa-
tion authorities had generously eupeorted the movement for a Peoples' Theater,
thereby giving the lie to 7itlorian propenda about Slavic lack of culture.
His speech rae follored nith one be 'Torr Pfannschnidt, Secretery for Cultural
Activities in the Provincial Cooaittee'or the 71)GB, ho pointed out the im-
portance of cultural octivities in the political mei private life of workers.
The J:rovincial Committee for the Gorean Peoples' 'heater Aesocintion for
Saxony consistedcf fifteen members, of whom rive rore representatives of the
FDGB and the follorina five nere rerrosertativesethe Kulturbund:
Frau T'argarete Wirth, Plauen
Herr r Knaschkoy - Dresden
. .4 -
Frau Kate Hoidenbereer, Dresden
Herr Hens Stuhrmann, Zwickau
Herr Siogran alhrentraut, Dresden
10. The collaboration 'oetweon the Kulturbund and FAIT representetives roe, continued
at a convention held in the Yulturbund's 7ear1in clubhouee on the l, 17,, and 18
of ny 1947 for the purpose o4? founding e Peoelest '!heater Association Poe Ger-
aany (Uundes Doutschor Vor'sbuhnen). At this meeting the a-A was represerted
by 'Fijor Or, Dynschitz of the cultural derertrent of the S.A, and by 1st Lt.
Feor -ndra, 3"A 2hetter Officer.
The meeting was dietingrishod by the presence of Alhelm ?Jock, ts -ell as
Frietzel of the FOG; 'Arbor, actress 5nd poetess. Karl-"leinz . ertin,
director of the '=aebbelthenter; Or. Friedrich 'aft pleynrieht; Director Schulze;
Fritz e:rponock, nublieher; Director Llfred Lindemann of DnFA; Klaus Cyst; and
-alter - aschke oP the rnGE.
11. he Kulturbund is est known shrough its publications, nleich enoear under the
imrrint of the eufbnu Verle a, rounded in august 1945. General -oneger o' the
Aufben Verlag -as Lert 'ilhelr? o, however, was never issued r pu'elieher's
license by the S'A. In th3 "Ell o" 19/.5 the Kulturbund bcc-eo the lic.-soo
of the ;urban concern. ell the sheres of the nufb-u Verlag nrn caned 'IT the
Kultnrbuni, ehich rece!vos a eonthly sua from the publiohina hove? as profits
accrued derinn the nonth. Aufbau Verlag is reaponsible for the ronthly aaga-
rine Autbau; Aufbau books; Sonntae, a semi-escanist cultural weekly; and
Aussnreche, theKulturbund's house organ, distributed to ulturburd reeners only.
Aufbaule magazine, rhIch mnde a roticen7ble -tto pt durine first veer of its
laistence to bocoeo a nonpartisan publication, has a. resent eirculation of
t0,000 conies. It- former circulation was 125,000. Five thorserd note,ag of
Aefbau are regularly sent to the British ?ore, th restping to Berlin and the
Russian Zone. ro sizable number of copies, anterently, is distributed in the
Anerican Zone.
12. All allocations of bulk paper to Aufbau Verlag eacd to he nada by the SnA.
This function has recently reverted_ to the :ulturbeirat, or Cultneel Advis-
ory Couroil, an annex of the Central Adeinistration for-:Zeicetion in the aus-
eiar Zone. Though non-partisan publishers ard printers are eerbers of this
Cultural ndvieory Council, the controlling influence lios nith einert ard
-andel, both leraar born renatrietes from Thocor. 'andel 14 eertioned in
paragnaph 2, above, as nresident the Central Al-iniTtrion for adueation
in the :Lussinn Zone. --einert, during the ner, conducted the Soviet Army erona-
eanda addressed to the German eBecause ? Paper allocations were in the-
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hands of the VA, rd editorial plarm1n7 is in ti.4 ',lands of the' tour man com,4
mittN) of the nIlturbund, the role or he Pormor 7enora1 nengor of the Aufbau
Vorlog, Kurt 'ilhelm, was a limite one llhelm, himself once a !lombor of the
SM, rossossor of e good anti-Nazi record, lAth some tventy years experience
in publishing, attorTted from the st!,rt to abide by the non-partisan pretensions
of the KulturbuH. At a'-recent mecting of Abusch? 7:echor? an 'illoann, 711helm
,:ras eased out of the Auflnau Verlag.
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411111111111Conmont: See report for Kulturbund props.rnda.)
This doeumT- .?--rains information
affecting the nat-.-- defense of the
United States within eaning of .
the Espionage Act, 50, U.L4 1 and
32 as amended. Its transmiss
the revelation of is contents in
manner to an unauthorized person is
prohibited by law,
STe.777?.
REFERENCE CENTER HO
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