31 Facts About Hans Kippenberger

Hans Kippenberger attended school up to the middle level and then became an intern at a printing machine factory, in Leipzig, shortly afterwards embarking on a traineeship for bank work.

In 1915, Kippenberger volunteered for military service and spent the rest of the First World War in the Imperial German Army.

Hans Kippenberger served on the Western Front, was wounded several times and was decorated with the Iron Cross First Class.

When Hans Kippenberger was discharged in January 1919, he had reached the rank of Oberleutnant.

Hans Kippenberger had already in Leipzig joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, and when that broke apart, he was part of the pro-Soviet faction that joined with the newly-formed Communist Party of Germany.

Hans Kippenberger became a leader in the Communist Party student group and played a leading role in the Hamburg Uprising, which erupted in October 1923.

Badly wounded, Hans Kippenberger lived for several months illegally in Leipzig until March 1924, when he fled to the Soviet Union.

Towards the end of the 1920s, Hans Kippenberger was ordered by the Comintern to create a secret paramilitary wing for the Communist Party.

Hans Kippenberger was successful, despite being arrested during the election campaign.

Hans Kippenberger sat as a Communist Party member for Electoral District 29.

Hans Kippenberger continued to sit in the Reichstag till 1933.

Hans Kippenberger's precinct included the area around KPD headquarters, which made it the most dangerous in the city.

Hans Kippenberger then instructed them to wait at a nearby beer hall which would permit them to overlook the entire Bulow-Platz.

Hans Kippenberger further reminded them that Captain Anlauf was accompanied everywhere by Senior Sergeant Max Willig, whom the KPD had nicknamed Hussar.

Hans Kippenberger concluded, "When you spot Schweinebacke and Hussar, you take care of them".

Not knowing whether the sergeant could talk and identify the attackers, Hans Kippenberger was taking no chances.

Hans Kippenberger directed a runner to summon Mielke and Ziemer to his apartment at 74 Bellermannstrasse, only a few minutes walk from where the two lived.

Hans Kippenberger was one of those who participated in the meeting of the party central committee held at the Ziegenhals cafe, near Berlin, on 7 February 1933.

Hans Kippenberger took on and preserved much of its paramilitary apparatus under conditions of enhanced secrecy and certain important tasks were accomplished, but the Gestapo nevertheless succeeded in infiltrating his information and communications structures.

Hans Kippenberger, operating for some purposes under the code name "Leo", was feverishly sought by the Gestapo in 1933 and 1934.

In Ulbricht, Hans Kippenberger had acquired a powerful and uncompromising enemy at the top of the party who enjoyed the backing of the Soviet Communist Party.

Hans Kippenberger lost his position on the Central Committee, and the quasi-military underground operation that he had directed was dissolved.

Hans Kippenberger was ordered to be relocated from Paris to Moscow, where he was provided with factory work.

Hans Kippenberger was shot, once, in the back of the head, on 3 October 1937.

The older daughter, Margot Hans Kippenberger, was transferred to a labour camp in Vologodskaya and was condemned in 1942 to a lifelong term of forced labour.

Hans Kippenberger was given work in forestry and tasked with collecting the sawdust caused by the felling of trees.

Hans Kippenberger's situation eased after the end of the Second World War, formally in May 1945, and she married Igor Tschnernavin, a Soviet citizen in 1948.

Hans Kippenberger remained under close Stasi surveillance until March 1981, when she was permitted to relocate to West Berlin, where she lived in a small apartment, supported by a small pension provided to survivors of Nazi persecution.

Jeanette Hans Kippenberger worked for the government news service in East Berlin between 1956 and 1973 as a typist.

Hans Kippenberger was given a new job, in September 1973, as a translator with the Intertext, the ruling party's translation bureau.

Margot and Jeannette Hans Kippenberger died respectively in 2005 and 2016.