View source for Left Column (theater troupe)

The '''Left Column''' (German: ''Kolonne Links'') was an [[agitprop]] theater troupe during the 1920s and 1930s. The troupe worked in support of the [[Workers International Relief]] (WIR). During the Nazi era, some of the group went into exile in the Soviet Union, where some of the members were arrested by the [[NKVD|Soviet secret police]] in the [[Great Purge]] and in connection with the [[Hitler Youth Conspiracy]].
== History ==
In its early years, the group consisted of nine people, none of whom had any theatrical training, a pianist and a driver. The [[Berlin]] troupe<ref>C.D. Innes, [https://books.google.com/books?id=J7Y8AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA55 ''Erwin Piscator's political theatre: the development of modern German drama''] Cambridge University Press (1972), p.&nbsp;55. {{ISBN|0-521-08456-3}}. Retrieved November 29, 2011</ref> was one of the most highly praised agitprop troupes in Germany,<ref>Ewan MacColl, [http://www.wcml.org.uk/contents/activists/ewan-maccoll/theatre/theatre-of-action/#pagetop "Theatre of Action"] Working Class Movement Library. Retrieved November 29, 2011</ref> despite its lack of training.
Hans Hauska joined the troupe in late summer 1930.<ref name="phelps">Thomas Phelps, [http://www.uni-giessen.de/~g51092/LinkswodasHerz.html "Links wo das Herz ist"] Justus Liebig University Giessen (October 27–28, 1997). Retrieved November 29, 2011 {{in lang|de}}</ref>
In 1931, the Left Column were rewarded with a tour in the [[Soviet Union]] for five weeks for having gained 16,000 new members for the WIR.<ref name="phelps" /> On their return, they discovered that several of their performances in Germany were cancelled because a March 28, 1931 decree from the [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|Reichspräsident]] to combat violence led to a local prohibition against agitprop theater assemblies.<ref name="phelps" /> Six members then left Germany, embarking on a 4-month trip by boat and train across [[Siberia]] back to Moscow.<ref name="phelps" /> In 1933, under [[Gustav von Wangenheim]]'s leadership, they established the German Left Column Theater with members of "Troupe 31", another agitprop theater group.<ref name="phelps" />
In 1935, troupe members [[Helmut Damerius]] and Bruno Schmidtsdorf, were in Wangenheim's 1935 anti-Nazi film, ''Kämpfer''. Schmidtsdorf played the lead role,<ref name="hs-1">Hans Schafranek, [http://www.iwk-online.de/2001-1_schafranek.html "Kontingentierte 'Volksfeinde' und 'Agenturarbeit'"] Internationale wissenschaftliche Korrespondenz zur Geschichte der deutschen Arbeiterbewegung (January 2001). Retrieved November 26, 2011 {{in lang|de}}</ref> Fritz Lemke, and Hauska wrote the music.
Beginning in 1935, the NKVD began arresting members of the troupe in the Great Purge.<ref name="phelps-n39,40" /> All those arrested were members who had arrived in Moscow after 1932. Arrested members included Hans Hauska on November 20, 1937.<ref name="phelps-n39,40">Thomas Phelps (1997), [http://www.uni-giessen.de/~g51092/LinkswodasHerz.html See footnotes 39 and 40]</ref> On February 5, 1938, Kurt Ahrendt, Karl Oefelein and Schmidtsdorf were arrested, charged with starting a branch of the [[Hitler Youth]], and were executed three weeks later.<ref name="phelps-n39,40" /> On March 17, 1938, Helmut Damerius, once a leader of the troupe, was arrested and sent to a [[gulag]] in [[Siberia]]. His sentence ended in 1946, after which he was exiled to [[Kazakhstan]] and forced to remain another eight years.<ref name="epstein">Catherine Epstein, [https://books.google.com/books?id=MHjpAWwF-zQC&pg=PA57 "The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century"] President and Fellows of Harvard College (2003), p.&nbsp;57. {{ISBN|0-674-01045-0}}. Retrieved November 30, 2011</ref> Hauska, after four years in custody, and sentenced in a Nazi court on August 18, 1939 to one and a half years at hard labor in a [[Prisons in Germany#Previous types of prisons|Zuchthaus]],<ref name="phelps" /> was returned to the Nazis on December 5, 1940 under the [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]].<ref name="phelps-n39,40" /> Other arrested members were [[Hans Klering]]; Max Mielke, who arrived in Moscow in 1932, was arrested in 1938 and never heard from again; Albert Wolff; and Max (Samuel) Katzenellenbogen, a former member of the troupe in Berlin, who fled to Moscow after having been arrested by the Gestapo.<ref name="phelps-n39,40" /> He was arrested by the NKVD in 1937 and never heard from again.<ref name="phelps-n39,40" />
Damerius survived his imprisonment,<ref name="fict-220">Hans Schafranek, Natalia Musienko (2003), [https://books.google.com/books?id=8yorTJl1QEoC&pg=PA220 "The Fictitious 'Hiter-Jugend' of the Moscow NKVD"] in: Barry McLoughlin, Kevin McDermott (Eds.), ''Stalin's Terror: High Politics and Mass Repression in the Soviet Union.'' Palgrave MacMillan (2003), p.&nbsp;220. {{ISBN|1-4039-0119-8}} Retrieved December 1, 2011</ref> as did Klering, who returned to Germany in 1946 and became a co-founder of [[DEFA]].<ref name="phelps-n39,40" /> Damerius was unable to leave the Soviet Union until 1956.<ref name="epstein" />
== Notable members ==
* [[Helmut Damerius]]
* [[Hans Hauska]]
* [[Hans Klering]]
* [[Gustav von Wangenheim]]
== See also ==
* [[Blue Blouse]]
== Further reading ==
* Christine Kanzler, "Vom Kulturrevolutionär zum 'Volksfeind'. Hans Hauska und die 'Kolonne Links'" in: Hans Schafranek (Ed.), ''Die Betrogenen. Österreicher als Opfer stalinistischen Terrors in der Sowjetunion'', Vienna (1991) p. 48ff {{in lang|de}}
* Hermann Weber, "Weiße Flecken" in der Geschichte. Die KPD-Opfer der Stalinschen Säuberungen und ihre Rehabilitierung, Frankfurt am Main (1989), p. 86ff {{in lang|de}}
== References ==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027388/ ''Der Kampf'' (1936), U.S. release of Gustav von Wangenheim's film, ''Kämpfer''] Internet Movie Database. (Original Russian title: ''Bortsy'')
[[Category:German actors]]
[[Category:Great Purge]]