Alfred Kurella

Alfred Kurella (2 May 1895 – 12 June 1975) was a German author and functionary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in East Germany.

Kurella (1966).

Early years

Kurella was born in Brieg, Silesia.

Career

In 1918, he became a member of the German Communist Party, met Lenin in 1919 and became a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Kurella began living in Moscow in spring 1934 and began writing for the Deutsche Zentral Zeitung in 1935.[1] In 1937, Kurella became Soviet citizen and in 1943 was involved in the activity of the antinazi Committee for Free Germany. His brother, Heinrich Kurella, also in exile in the Soviet Union, was arrested by the NKVD during the Great Purge and was executed.[2] In 1954, Kurella returned to East Germany and became a member of the ideological committee of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

Death

His ashes were interred in the Memorial of the Socialists in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Awards and decorations

• Order of Karl Marx (1961)
• National Prize of the German Democratic Republic (1969)
• Cultural Award of the Free German Trade Union Federation and Free German Youth (1970)
• Honour Clasp to the Patriotic Order of Merit

References

1. Kurella, Alfred (Pseudonym Bernhard Ziegler, Viktor Röbig, A. Bernard) Neue Deutsche Biographie 13 (1982). Retrieved December 7, 2011 (in German)
2. Peter Erler, "'Moskauer-Kader der KPD in der SBZ" in: Manfred Wilke (ed.), Die Anatomie der Parteizentrale: Die KPD/SED auf dem Weg zur Macht. Berlin: Akademie Verlag (1998), p. 239, footnote 57. ISBN 3-05-003220-0 Retrieved December 6, 2011 (in German)