DDR 'Faschismus' medal

[HARRY THE MOLE]

Another medal from my collection... this one is the: 'Medaille fur Kampfer gegen den Faschismus 1933 bis 1945.' the medal was instituted on February 22nd 1958, and was awarded to all those who had participated in the fight against the Nazi ideology between 1933 and 1945... such as members of the International Brigades, individuals incarcerated in concentration camps, prison, or sentenced to hard labour because of their political beliefs. This particular medal was awarded to Aenne Kundermann in September 1958. Kundermann had fled Germany before the outbreak of WW11 and took up residence in Russia, moving further east to Ufa when Germany invaded Russia in June 1941. From 1942 she worked as an administration inspector at the Spasski Sawod POW camp, and then as a political instructor at the Basjan and Nizhny Tagil camps. After the war she eventually returned to East Germany with her husband and entered the diplomatic service. From 1950 to 1951 she was head (ambassador) of the diplomatic mission to Sofia, Bulgaria, and from 1951 to 1953, head of the diplomatic mission in Warsaw. There is a full page dedicated to her on Wikipedia, and it is well worth having a look. A casual search of her name on the internet also reveals that she was a 'person of interest' to the U.S. intelligence agencies. The signature on the Urkunde is original... not a facsimile stamping.

When I originally came across the listing on eBay de... I actually gave it a miss because the Urkunde was displayed with the wrong medal, the dealer had put alongside it the: 'Kampfer gegen die Reaktion 1918 -1923,' another important award in East German history which I will show another time. I went back on eBay and took another look at the Urkunde, and then I noticed the typewritten letter from SED party HQ which signified (to me) that it might be a fairly important person. So I 'googled' the name and got quite a surprise. I reached a deal with the seller and ended up getting both the correct medal for the Urkunde, and the other medal too. The letter makes interesting reading about Kundermann's career, but I only used 'google translator' to get sufficient understanding of the contents. Click on all images (twice) to enlarge.

Cheers,
Steve

[Blitzvogel]

Never judge a book by it's cover, or in this case, an urkunde by it's accompanying medal. The curious will sometimes be greatly rewarded!

-Joel

[Gunny Hartmann]

Very nice Steve.

[Anderson]

Interesting medal and associated documents. Kundermann is worthy of further research, perhaps in Soviet service from before the war.

[BlackCat1982]

Thanks for directing me to this thread Steve, a very impressive piece!