Early Life
In handwritten biographies written for Stalin's secret police, Mielke described his background as follows,
"I, Erich Mielke, was born on December 28, 1907, in Berlin, (Prussia). My father was a poor, uneducated woodworker, and my mother died in 1911. Both were members of the SPD Social Democratic Party and joined the KPD
Mielke became a member of the Communist Party of Germany in 1925, and worked as a reporter for the communist newspaper Rote Fahne from 1928 to 1931. He then joined the Parteiselbstschutz ("Party Self Defense Unit").
According to John Koehler,
Like their Nazi counterparts, the Selbstschutz men were thugs who served as bouncers at Party meetings and specialized in cracking heads during street battles with political enemies. Besides the Nazis, their arch foes included the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD) – the Social Democratic Party of Germany – and radical nationalist parties. They always carried a Stahlrute, two steel springs that telescoped into a tube seven inches long, which when extended became a deadly, fourteen inch weapon. Not to be outdone by the Nazis, these streetfighters were often armed with pistols as well.
Read more about this topic: Erich Mielke
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or life:
“Yet, haply, in some lull of life,
Some Truce of God which breaks its strife,
The worldling’s eyes shall gather dew,
Dreaming in throngful city ways
Of winter joys his boyhood knew;
And dear and early friends—the few”
—John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892)
“There is probably not more than one hundred dollars in cash in circulation today. That is, if you were to call in all the bills and silver and gold in the country at noon tomorrow and pile them on the table, you would find that you had just about one hundred dollars, with perhaps several Canadian pennies and a few peppermint Life Savers.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)