Hanns Maaßen was a German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

 and writer

Writer

A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....

.

Life

Hanns Maaßen came from a working-class family. He completed a lesson as a stonemason and worked subsequently in the profession. He was a member of the Young Communist League of Germany

Young Communist League of Germany

The Young Communist League of Germany was a political youth organization in Germany. It was formed in 1920 from the Free Socialist Youth of the Communist Party of Germany, which itself was formed in October 1918, with support from the Spartacus League . The KJVD was created in 1925...

 and from 1928 the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

. He participated in a strike

Strike action

Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...

 of the Stone Mason Union against the beginning rearmament in Kiel in 1931 caused by the launching of the German pocket battleship Deutschland

German pocket battleship Deutschland

Deutschland was the lead ship of her class of heavy cruisers which served with the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany during World War II. Ordered by the Weimar government for the Reichsmarine, she was laid down at the Deutsche Werke shipyard in Kiel in February 1929 and completed by April 1933...

. Maaßen was the editor of the communist Norddeutsch Zeitung (North German Newspaper). After the Nazi takeover, he became unlawful in 1933 and would be arrested that same year and spent a year in KZ

Nazi concentration camps

Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

 Kieslau in Baden

Baden

Baden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....

. He fled Germany in 1935 and emigrated

Emigration

Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...

 through Saarland

Saarland

Saarland is one of the sixteen states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest state in Germany other than the city-states...

 and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 into Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

.

Since he had been actively publishing for the Kommitee für Recht und Freiheit (Committee for Law and Freedom) in Zürich

Zürich

Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...

, he took part from November 1936 on the side of the Second Spanish Republic

Second Spanish Republic

The Second Spanish Republic was the government of Spain between April 14 1931, and its destruction by a military rebellion, led by General Francisco Franco....

 in the Spanish Civil War

Spanish Civil War

The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

 as a member of the International Brigades

International Brigades

The International Brigades were military units made up of volunteers from different countries, who traveled to Spain to defend the Second Spanish Republic in the Spanish Civil War between 1936 and 1939....

. He was a contributing editor

Contributing editor

A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. The contributing editor regularly contributes articles to the publication but does not actually edit articles, and the title...

 of the German language edition of the International Brigades' newspaper "El voluntario de la libertad" and also orator at the German language "Freiheitssender 29,8" (Freedom Transmitter 29.8) in 1938 and 1939. After the resignation of the Republic in 1939, Maaßen would be jailed and spent the following year in prisons and camps of the Franco Regime. He could first return to Germany in 1946 when he settled in the Soviet occupation zone.

Hanns Maaßen started worked as a commentator at Sender Leipzig where he would be dismissed in 1950 because of "leftist allowances". From 1953 to 1966, he was editor at the Leipzig

Leipzig

Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...

 created newspaper "Volkskunst" and from 1968 to 1971 chairman Editor in chief

Editor in chief

An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...

 of the East German weekly newspaper

Weekly newspaper

A weekly newspaper is a general-news publication that is published on newsprint once or twice a week.Such newspapers tend to have smaller circulations than daily newspapers, and are usually based in less-populous communities or small, defined areas within large cities; often, they may cover a...

 "Sonntag". From 1971, he lived as an author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 in Kleinmachnow.

Hanns Maaßen wrote essay

Essay

An essay is a piece of writing which is often written from an author's personal point of view. Essays can consist of a number of elements, including: literary criticism, political manifestos, learned arguments, observations of daily life, recollections, and reflections of the author. The definition...

s on literary themes narrative

Narrative

A narrative is a constructive format that describes a sequence of non-fictional or fictional events. The word derives from the Latin verb narrare, "to recount", and is related to the adjective gnarus, "knowing" or "skilled"...

 works in which he processed the experiences of his many year Spanish stay.

Hanns Maaßen received the 1957 Heinrich Mann Prize

Heinrich Mann Prize

The Heinrich Mann Prize is a literary award given annually by the Berlin Academy of Art . The prize given for works with socially critical aspects in a character that would honor Heinrich Mann...

, the bronze Vaterländischer Verdienstorden (Fatherland's Order of Merit) in 1959, the 1960 Kunstpreis der Stadt Leipzig (Art Prize of the City of Leipzig), the silver Vaterländischer Verdienstorden in 1969, the Art Prize of the Free German Trade Union Federation

Free German Trade Union Federation

The Free German Trade Union Federation, in German Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund , was the trade union federation in East Germany. It was part of the National Front and had representatives in the Volkskammer....

 in 1979 and the gold Vaterländischer Verdienstorden also in 1979.

Works

• Die Messe des Barcelo (The Mass of Barcelo), Halle (Saale) 1956
• Die Söhne des Tschapajew (The Sons of the Tschapajew), Berlin 1960
• Die Kreuzertaufe (The Cross Baptism), Berlin 1963
• Spanien (Spain), Leipzig 1965
• Potsdam (Potsdam), Leipzig 1969
• In der Stunde der Gefahr (In the Hour of Danger), Berlin 1971
• Gedenkstätte der deutschen Interbrigadisten (Memorial Place of the German International Brigade), Berlin 1974
• Vom Heuberg weht ein scharfer Wind (From Heuberg blew a sharp Wind), Berlin 1978

Publishing work

• Odio y amor, Leipzig 1967 (together with Karl Kormes)
• Brigada Internacional ist unser Ehrenname ... (Brigada Internacional is our honorary name), Berlin
  • Bd. 1 (1974)
  • Bd. 2 (1974)