Hans Marchwitza

Hans Marchwitza (25 June 1890 – 17 January 1965) was a German communist revolutionary, proletarian writer and poet. A miner by trade and a veteran of the First World War, he fought in the Ruhr Red Army during the Ruhr Uprising and the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He was later a prominent cultural figure in East Germany.

Life Marchwitza was the son of miner Thomas Marchwitza and his wife Thekla Maxisch, and was born in Scharley (Szarlej) (now a part of Piekary Śląskie) near Beuthen in Upper Silesia. Already at fourteen years old (1904) Marchwitza was working underground in the mines. In 1910 he was hired to work in the Ruhr area.

Two years later, however, he became unemployed because of his participation in a strike.

In 1919 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. In the following year, he fought as a platoon leader for the Red Ruhr Army against the Kapp Putsch, WIn Frankreich (1949) Unter uns (narrative, 1950) Die Heimkehr der Kumiaks (novel, 1952) Die Kumiaks und ihre Kinder (novel, 1959) In Amerika (novel, 1961) Gedichte (1965)