Gerhart Eisler

Gerhart Eisler
Gerhart Eisler on 1977 GDR stamp
Born	20 February 1897 Leipzig, German Empire
Died	21 March 1968(1968-03-21) (aged 71) Yerevan, Armenia, USSR
Citizenship	East German (later life)
Years active	1923–1968
Known for	Espionage
Political party	Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ), Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Communist International
Spouse(s)	1. Hede Tune Massing 2. Elli Tune 3. Hilde Vogel-Rothstein
Children	Anna Eisler
Parent(s)	Marie Fischer,
Relatives	Hanns Eisler, Ruth Fischer

Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic.

Eisler was born in Leipzig, the son of Marie Edith Fischer and Rudolf Eisler, a professor of philosophy at Leipzig but of Austrian nationality. His father was Jewish and his mother was Lutheran.

His brother was the leftist composer Hanns Eisler and his sister was Communist activist Ruth Fischer. In November 1918, Eisler returned from the front of World War I and joined the Austrian Communist Party under the influence of his older sister. In 1919, he married Hede Massing (1900–1981). In 1920, he followed his sister to Berlin, where in January 1921 he became associate editor of the Die Rote Fahne. It was Germany's leading left-wing newspaper.

He left Hede in 1923 for her sister Elli Tune. Elli left him with their baby daughter Natasha in 1933, when she could no longer cope with the demands the Comintern made on him. In 1937 he met Hilde Vogel-Rothstein and they married in Queens, New York City in 1942. His first wife Hede and her third husband Paul Massing both spied for the Soviet Union in the USA and they all kept in touch. Hede Massing later turned towards the FBI and testified against Alger Hiss in his second trial.

Hede Massing saw Eisler on his return to the Soviet Union: "Gerhart… was involved in the Wittdorf affair, a political maneuver to dethrone Ernst Thälmann, who was supported by Stalin…. Gerhart was, after a time, in complete isolation in Moscow, forbidden to read German papers in order to get Germany out of his system, and then sent as Comintern representative to China where, according to many reports, he achieved great success through his ruthless policy. He stepped back into Stalin's favor."