the following year by the Gestapo for preparing for acts of high
treason and was imprisoned in Silesia until 1939. Bialek’s illegal
work promptly resumed, and he enthusiastically greeted the arrival
of the Red Army in May 1945. His first postwar position in Dresden
establishing a new communist youth organization was followed by
his appointment to the People’s Police.
Much less doctrinaire than most of his communist comrades, Bi-
alek achieved a reputation for energy, sober assessment of matters,
and rhetorical skill. Yet his ascending career was purposely derailed
by leading party officials, including Erich Mielke. His demotion to
minor posts coupled with his deep disillusionment following the Up-
rising of 17 June 1953 led to his defection to West Berlin later that
year. Bialek soon became known for his critical writings and weekly
commentaries for the British Broadcasting Company that were
beamed to the German Democratic Republic (GDR). That he also
worked undercover for the Ostbüro der SPD (code name bruno
wallmann) only increased the danger he posed in the eyes of the
GDR. On 4 February 1956, the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
orchestrated his forced return to East Berlin in a drugged state. Bialek
died either en route or shortly thereafter at Berlin-Hohenschönhau-
sen. One of the suspected accomplices in his abduction, Herbert
Hellwig, had to appear before a Berlin court in 1997.BIERMANN, WOLF (1936– ). A prime dissident target of the Mi-
nisterium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), Wolf Biermann was born in
Hamburg on 15 November 1936, the son of a communist dockworker
later killed at Auschwitz. Moving to the German Democratic Repub-
lic (GDR) in 1953, he studied at Humboldt University in East Berlin.
His attempts to develop a cabaret theater featuring his own highly
irreverent compositions met with repeated denials by government
authorities. In 1965, when a collection of his poems was published
in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), not only was Biermann
denied the right to perform, publish, or travel outside the country, but
the MfS began one of its most intensive surveillance efforts under
his assigned code name lyriker. He received permission to perform
again publicly in 1976, including a visa for a West German tour. But
following a concert in Cologne on 13 November, the GDR denied
his reentry and revoked his citizenship. A large wave of protest on
38 • BIERMANN, WOLF