Kaasch, Wienand

Sep. 9, 2017
The communist metalworker Wienand Kaasch was born in 1890 in Stolp, Pomerania. In 1912 he joined the SPD, which he left in 1917 in protest against the Burgfrieden policy. Via the USPD, he switched to the KPD in 1920. From 1922 he worked as a full-time functionary at its headquarters, including as head of the Central Committee's Organization Department. From 1931 he was sent to the Communist International in Moscow, for which he initially worked as an instructor in Romania and the USA. From mid-1932 he worked for a year as a teacher at the Moscow Lenin School, then in the German section of the Red Trade Union International. From this position, he received an order in 1935 to enter Germany illegally as an instructor for the Berlin-Brandenburg district leadership. He was to propagate the policy of action unity in the KPD and establish contacts with the SPD. He was also to promote the establishment of free trade unions. In retrospect, it must be said that he had too little time to achieve lasting success. Just four weeks after beginning his work in Berlin, he was arrested by the National Socialists and sentenced to 11 years in prison for "preparing a highly treasonable enterprise."