- published: 30 May 2015
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Walter Ulbricht (30 June 1893 – 1 August 1973) was a German communist politician. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 (and then Honorary "Chairman" until his death), he played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (spending the years of Nazi rule in exile in the Soviet Union) in the early development and establishment of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 he was the East German head of state until his own death in 1973.
Ulbricht was born in Leipzig, Saxony, where his father worked as a tailor. He spent eight years in primary school (Volksschule). After leaving school, he trained to be a joiner. Both his parents worked actively for the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Walter Ulbricht joined the party in 1912.
Ulbricht served in World War I from 1915 to 1917 in Galicia on the Eastern Front, and in the Balkans. He deserted in 1917, as he had opposed the war from the beginning. Imprisoned in Charleroi, in 1918 he was released during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. In 1917 he became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) after it split off from the Social Democratic Party (SPD) over support of Germany's participation in World War I. During the German Revolution he became a member of the soldier's soviet of his army corps and later a member of the KPD in 1920, joining its Central Committee in 1923. Ulbricht attended the International Lenin School of the Comintern in Moscow in 1924/1925. The electors subsequently voted him into the regional parliament of Saxony (Sächsischer Landtag) in 1926. He became a Member of the Reichstag for South Westphalia from 1928 to 1933 and served as KPD chairman in Berlin from 1929.
Actors: Leander Haußmann (writer), Steffi Kühnert (actress), Günter Rohrbach (producer), Jürgen Vogel (actor), Mark Zak (actor), Leander Haußmann (director), Michael Herbig (producer), Gennadi Vengerov (actor), Juraj Kukura (actor), Arved Birnbaum (actor), Thomas Thieme (actor), Leander Haußmann (actor), Michael Herbig (actor), Josef Brandmaier (miscellaneous crew), Hansjörg Weißbrich (editor),
Plot: In 1938 Hans Zeisig, an apolitical comedian, impersonator and cabaret actor, flees with a Russian passport (instead of American, which he would have preferred) from Nazi-Berlin, and finds himself in the legendary Hotel Lux, the 'lost paradise' of the Comintern, in Moscow. Everyone believes that Zeisig is a man named Hansen, Hitler's personal astrologer. But Zeisig quickly realizes that he's gone from the frying pan into the fire. In the Hotel Lux he meets his friends Frida and later Meyer again, still passionate communists. For the three idealists an adventure between love and death begins to run its course.
Keywords: 1930s, 1940s, best-friend, comedian, hitler-spoof, holocaust, nazi-germany, reference-to-charlie-chaplin, stalinismActors: Kai Wiesinger (actor), Martin Seifert (actor), Dieter Wien (actor), Bruno F. Apitz (actor), Uwe Bohm (actor), Hans-Uwe Bauer (actor), Bernd Stegemann (actor), Karl Kranzkowski (actor), Martin Feifel (actor), Manfred Möck (actor), Ulrich Mühe (actor), Günter Junghans (actor), Günter Junghans (actor), Andreas Schmidt (actor), Martina Gedeck (actress),
Genres: Biography, Drama,Actors: Dieter Wien (actor), Christian Redl (actor), Jürgen Vogel (actor), Uwe Bohm (actor), Günter Junghans (actor), Michael Kind (actor), Heikko Deutschmann (actor), Herbert Knaup (actor), Karl Kranzkowski (actor), Jan Josef Liefers (actor), Florian Lukas (actor), Dieter Mann (actor), Florian Martens (actor), Horst-Günter Marx (actor), Stefanie Stappenbeck (actress),
Genres: Drama, History,Actors: Lena Stolze (actress), Horst Königstein (producer), Ulrich Tukur (actor), Gustav-Peter Wöhler (actor), Gennadi Vengerov (actor), Lotte Loebinger (actress), Ulrike Kriener (actress), Ulrich Mühe (actor), Heinz Baumann (actor), Hans-Michael Rehberg (actor), Udo Samel (actor), Hans Peter Hallwachs (actor), Hermann Lause (actor), Horst Hiemer (actor), Peter Sodann (actor),
Genres: Biography, Drama,Actors: Fred Mahr (actor), Werner Senftleben (actor), Werner Pledath (actor), Hans-Peter Minetti (actor), Fred Delmare (actor), Nikolay Kryuchkov (actor), Michel Piccoli (actor), Werner Peters (actor), Hans W. Hamacher (actor), Erich Brauer (actor), Walter Jupé (actor), Wilhelm Koch-Hooge (actor), Adolf Fischer (actor), Günther Simon (actor), Horst Kube (actor),
Plot: The second part of the Ernst Thaelmann films encompasses the time period between 1930 and Thaelmann's murder in 1944. It shows Thaelmann's battle to achieve a united front with all German workers against the National Socialists, his arrest following Hitler's seizure of power and the eleven years of his incarceration, in which he unwaveringly clings to his beliefs until his death. An attempt to free him on the part of his comrades ends disastrously, and a corrupt offer of freedom from Goering himself receives Thaelmann's refusal. He must also witness how his brave fellow socialist Aenne Jansen in the women's prison across from his tragically loses her life during a bombing raid. The second primary character of the film is Aenne's husband Fiete Jansen, who already proved his loyalty to Thaelmann's side as a friend and fighter in the first part. As the commander of the Thaelmann Batallion, he fights in Spain on the side of the people and later in the ranks of the Red Army toward a speedy end to the war against fascism.
Keywords: anti-nazi, anti-nazism, communism, communist, communist-party, communist-propaganda, german-communist, heroic, red-army, russian-soldier