38 Facts About Peter Blachstein

Peter Blachstein was a German journalist who became a politician.

Peter Blachstein's father, Max Blachstein, was a businessman who worked in the textiles sector.

Between 1917 and 1929 Blachstein attended the local junior and secondary schools but, unusually with this type of school, he left without passing his school leaving exams.

Peter Blachstein studied here between 1929 and 1933, focusing on Economics and Germanistics, which included significant study of history and literature.

Peter Blachstein found time to attend lectures at Dresden's theatre school: he was thereby a "guest student" with Erich Ponto, Josef Gielen and Fritz Busch.

Peter Blachstein was already writing for left of centre newspapers such as the Dresdner Volkszeitung, for Breslau's Sozialistische Arbeiterzeitung and for the young persons' newspaper, Junge Pioniere.

Seydewitz was a local man, and Peter Blachstein reacted by switching from the SPD to the new SAPD.

Peter Blachstein was entrusted with what was termed, in the spirit of the time, Agitprop work in the Dresden area, and it was in this context that he set up a political cabaret group called "Die Nebelspalter" which campaigned for the SAPD in the two general elections of 1932.

Peter Blachstein initially remained in Dresden as a member of the city's SAPD leadership group.

Peter Blachstein was taken to Dresden Jail where his interrogation involved serious physical torture.

Peter Blachstein remained keen to continue with his political activity, but this was not a realistic option as long as he remained in Dresden.

Peter Blachstein was at an increased risk of arrest as long as he remained in Germany because his Jewish provenance was a matter of public record.

Peter Blachstein remained in contact with the SAPD leadership, from whom he received an instruction, in July 1935, to relocate again, this time travelling via Gdingen and Copenhagen to Oslo, Norway.

Peter Blachstein was given a post as a secretary with the "International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organisations", a combined grouping that linked member organisations of the "Socialist Youth International", and essentially, for many purposes, an exiled continuation of the Socialist Youth League of Germany.

The Oslo affiliate was led by Willy Brandt, with whom Peter Blachstein was able to build a relationship of mutual trust.

Peter Blachstein was entrusted with organising and implementing a theoretical training programme for the IBRJ, designed to help create a united front against fascism.

Peter Blachstein went to Brussels where he took part in an international worker's congress of opposition to war.

Peter Blachstein became a member of the executive committee of the POUM and served a leading role in producing propaganda for the POUM and for the exiled SAPD.

Peter Blachstein's was given the rank of lieutenant in a "shock battalion", but sources indicate that he was kept away from the actual fighting.

Peter Blachstein was affected more directly by the intense political tensions radiating out from Moscow, based on Stalin's suspicions - not entirely unfounded - that there might be comrades in the Soviet Union and further west in Europe who favoured an alternative Soviet leader.

The POUM, of which Peter Blachstein was a member, backed a broadly Trotskyist vision for a communist future and its members therefore became targets for Soviet agents.

In June 1937 Peter Blachstein was arrested in Barcelona by communist secret police and accused of spying for Franco and working for the Gestapo.

Peter Blachstein was uncompromising in his opposition to any whisper of a united front between communist elements and social democratic elements in the LDG.

Peter Blachstein remained in Sweden until the early summer of 1947, working in Stockholm as secretary to the International Rescue and Relief Committee.

Peter Blachstein soon obtained a post with the Hamburger Echo as Feuilleton editor.

Peter Blachstein continued to serve as a member of the regional party executive between 1948 and 1976.

Peter Blachstein had an ambition to become involved in national politics, and in 1949 stood successfully for election to the Bundestag.

Peter Blachstein remained a member for nearly two decades, until October 1968.

Peter Blachstein was a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and of the advisory council to the Western European Union.

Peter Blachstein took a particular concern in refugees, founding the German Committee for Spanish Refugees in 1958.

In May 1968 Peter Blachstein resigned from the Bundestag in order to take up an appointment as West Germany's ambassador to Yugoslavia.

Peter Blachstein seldom mentioned his family in public, or even privately with friends.

Peter Blachstein himself was a committed atheist who could never understand how a national government could simply decide who was Jewish and who was not: he robustly rejected the conflation of race and religion.

Blachstein's parents spotted the dangers in good time, and while Peter Blachstein remained in Europe his parents and his two siblings emigrated to the United States.

Peter Blachstein's sister pursued a successful career as an academic.

Peter Blachstein's brother took over the delicatessen that their parents had started.

The brothers were not on particularly good terms: Peter Blachstein nevertheless liked to serve his friends "Blachstein delicacies" from the family shop, which he had brought back from his latest American trip.

Peter Blachstein's fiancee was killed, in barbaric circumstances under the Nazi regime.