Hans Marchwitza

Hans Marchwitza (June 25, 1890 – January 17, 1965) was a German writer, proletarian poet, and communist.

Marchwitza was the son of miner Thomas Marchwitza and his wife Thekla Maxisch, and was born in Scharley (Szarlej) (now a part of Piekary Śląskie) near Beuthen in Upper Silesia. Already at fourteen years old (1904) Marchwitza was working underground in the mines. In 1910 he was hired to work in the Ruhr area.

Two years later, however, he became unemployed because of his participation in a strike. Until he was drafted into the military in 1915, he worked as a laborer in odd jobs. He served on the Western Front until 1918.

In 1919 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. In the following year, he fought as a commander for the Red Ruhr Army against the Kapp Putsch, Freikorps groups, and the Reichswehr during the Ruhr Uprising. In 1920, he joined the Communist Party of Germany. When France occupied the Ruhr area, he fought in resistance.

In the meantime, he again became unemployed because of his participation in a strike. In this period, he wrote his first literary pieces. Alexander Abusch, an editor for the Ruhr-Echo supported him and published his initial piece. After 1924, he published in the Communist newspapers the Rote Fahne (Red Banner) and the Rote Front.

In 1929, he was invited along with a number of other journalists and writers to visit the Soviet Union. In 1930, he published his first book Sturm auf Essen, reporting on the fighting in the Ruhr Area in 1920. After the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, he fled to Switzerland, but was expelled by 1934. Until 1935 he worked for the Communist Party in the French occupied Saarland and fought as an officer in the Spanish Civil War after 1936.

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