5 Germans who became Heroes of the Soviet Union
Among those awarded the high title were former Wehrmacht soldiers, GDR leaders and cosmonauts. Not everyone, however, was awarded it for their feats, often simply in honor of the person's anniversary.
1. Fritz Schmenkel
As a worker from Stettin and a convinced communist, Fritz Schmenkel never wanted to fight for the Nazis. He was mobilized into the German army and sent to the Eastern Front, but, at the end of November 1941, he deserted near Smolensk.
Schmenkel tried to reach the positions of Soviet troops, but, in one of the villages, he was captured by the Germans and sentenced to death as a deserter. However, they did not have time to carry out the sentence – a partisan detachment had just entered the village.
At first, the partisans did not trust Schmenkel and watched his every move. However, Fritz soon earned the complete trust of the fighters, who nicknamed him ‘Ivan Ivanovich’.
Shmenkel trained partisans to handle German weapons and participated in ambushes, posing as a Wehrmacht lieutenant. His effectiveness was noticed by the military and he was taken from the partisan detachment to the ‘Polye’ (‘Field’ in Russian) sabotage and reconnaissance group. There, he even rose to the rank of deputy commander.
At the end of December 1943, ‘Ivan Ivanovich’ went on his last mission behind enemy lines. A few weeks later, he was captured along with two comrades and executed in Minsk on February 22, 1944.
In 1964, Fritz Shmenkel was posthumously awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’.
2. Erich Mielke
Another German communist and anti-fascist, Erich Mielke, lived and studied in the Soviet Union before the start of World War II and also fought in the Spanish Civil War in the ranks of one of the international brigades.
Later, Mielke was involved in underground work in occupied Belgium and France. After the war, he made a brilliant career in the GDR, rising to the rank of Minister of State Security.
On December 25, 1987, for his personal contribution to the fight against fascism and in connection with his 80th birthday, Erich Mielke was awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’.
3. Walter Ulbricht
Like many German communists, future leader of the GDR, Ulbricht, spent a lot of time in the USSR in his youth. There, among other things, he worked in the German editorial office of ‘Moscow Radio’.
During World War II, Ulbricht was engaged in propaganda among German prisoners of war and, in Stalingrad (now Volgograd), he used a loudspeaker to call on surrounded Wehrmacht soldiers to surrender. After returning to his homeland in 1945, Walter Ulbricht quickly rose to the heights of power.
In his politics, he showed himself to be an ardent Stalinist, which, in 1953, led to growing discontent in the country. Ulbricht had to seek protection from a group of Soviet troops in Germany and, with their help, suppress the opposition.
In 1963, Walter Ulbricht was awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ for his participation in the fight against fascism and in connection with his 70th birthday. However, eight years later, the politician turned out to be an extremely inconvenient figure for Moscow – he interfered with the establishment of cooperation between the USSR and the FRG.
In 1971, under pressure from Leonid Brezhnev, Ulbricht resigned from his posts as Chairman of the State Council of the GDR and First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.
4. Erich Honecker
Erich Honecker, another future leader of the GDR, spent his youth in the USSR. There, he studied at the International Lenin School and participated in the construction of the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works.
Returning to his homeland, Honecker joined the Communist Party of Germany. He fought against the Nazis from the very moment they came to power in the country. However, in 1935, the young underground fighter was arrested and sent to prison, where he spent the entire war.
In post-war GDR, Erich rapidly made a political career: In 1958, he joined the Politburo and then the National Defense Council. He became one of the organizers of the construction of the Berlin Wall.
In 1971, Honecker took the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and, five years later, became Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, concentrating all power in the country in his hands. He was, however, forced to resign from his posts as a result of the political crisis of 1989.
Erich Honecker was awarded the title ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ for his personal contribution to the fight against fascism during World War II and in connection with his 70th birthday on August 25, 1982.
5. Sigmund Jähn
Jähn is the first and only East German cosmonaut. In 1978, he made a space flight under the Intercosmos program, within the framework of which the USSR attracted friendly states to the exploration of outer space.
On August 26, Jähn, together with his Soviet colleague Valery Bykovsky, made a space flight on the Soyuz-31 spacecraft to the Salyut-6 orbital station. A week later, they safely returned to Earth.
In the same year, the GDR government awarded Jähn the ‘Order of Karl Marx’ and awarded him the title ‘Hero of the German Democratic Republic’. The USSR, in turn, made Jähn a ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’.
After his only flight, Sigmund Jähn maintained ties with both the space industry and Russia. For example, in the 1990s, he worked as a representative of the German space agency DLR and the European Space Agency in Moscow.
