Commemorative stamp series - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1973 - 40 Pfennig

Major figures, issue 1973 Within the series "Important personalities", the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues another special postage stamp. No special first-day cover letter Hermann Matern Born and raised in Burg am Magdeburg, the son of a class-conscious Arbeiler family, Hermann Matern took the step towards active political activity at a young age: As a 14-year-old white-tanner apprentice he joined the Sozialistische Arbeiterjugend. Since the age of 17, he has been unionized in the German Leatherworkers Association. In 1911 he joined the SPD. Forced to military service, he confessed during the First World War to the struggle of the German left against imperialism and war and resigned in protest against the social-chauvinist attitude of the right-wing social-democratic leaders from the SPD. In the class struggle of 1918-1933 Hermann Matern matured into a leading functionary of the revolutionary party of the working class. As a functionary of the USPD and since 1920 the KPD, as a union official and as a city councilor, he gained first in his hometown and beyond, great experience in the mass political work. Standing loyally to the Thälmann Central Committee, he acquired his own energy and power of persuasion in political work as union secretary of the KPD district leadership Magdeburg-Anhalt (1926-1928), as Political Secretary of the KPD for Magdeburg-Anhalt (1929-1931) and For East Prussia (1931-1933) and as a Member of Parliament (1925-1933) increasingly the confidence of the working masses. Under the conditions of the fascist dictatorship Hermann Matern worked in an excellent position in the anti-fascist resistance struggle. He was arrested by the Gestapo in July 1933 as the head of the illegal district party organization Pomerania of the KPD. After escaping from the fascist dungeon in September 1934, he continued the illegal fight along with other comrades in Western and Northern European countries on the decision of the party. Sent by the party to the Soviet Union in 1941, during the Great Patriotic War, as a member of the National Committee "Free Germany," he provided valuable preliminary work for the future of democratic Germany. After the destruction of Hitler fascism by the Red Army, a new period of struggle also began in Hermann Matern's life. Belonging to the signing of the call of the Central Committee of the KPD on June 11, 1945, he worked first in Saxony and, from April 1946 in Berlin, actively and creatively on the realization of the anti-fascist-democratic upheaval. The unification of the KPD and SPD into the SED in Saxony and Berlin is inseparably linked with his name. Since the founding of the SED in 1946, belonging to the party leadership collective, Hermann Matern has made a great contribution to the development and implementation of the SED policy. As a member of the Politburo and chairman of the Central Party Control Commission, he had a significant role in the development of the SED into a party of a new type. With all his personality he worked to strengthen the fighting power of the Porte, to strengthen the unity, purity and unity of its ranks. True to the principles of proletarian and socialist internationalism, his tireless and consistent pursuit of friendship and cooperation with the Soviet Union and the other socialist countries applied. He made an invaluable contribution to the consolidation and cooperation of the international communist world movement. This was expressed, inter alia, in participation in the deliberations of the communist and workers' parties in 1957, 1960 and 1969 in Moscow and in other international consultations. Since 1949, Hermann Matern was a member of the People's Chamber of the GDR and since 1950 as a deputy of the President of the highest popular representation at the head of our socialist state power. With the principledness of an experienced Marxist-Leninist and with the power of a strong personality, he contributed as a leading party and state functionary to a great extent to the emergence and growth of the socialist social order in the GDR. As a member of the Defense Council of the GDR (since 1960), he earned lasting service in securing the military protection of the GDR and the socialist community of states. Hermann Matern had a great personal interest in the realization of the Marxist-Leninist alliance policy, especially in the cooperation of the friendly parties that had been rallied around the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. For his outstanding achievements of work and struggle he was awarded high state awards: the Karl Marx Order, the title Hero of Labor, the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold, the Star of Friendship in Gold and many others. In 1968 he received the Order of Lenin. Emerging from the working class and deeply rooted in it, Hermann Matern embodied a high degree of authority and authority in the more than five decades of his revolutionary work in the service of the working-class party-until death tore him out of a martial life on January 24, 1971 Popularity.