Stern, Leo

Stern, Leo 

Born Mar. 27, 1901, in Woloka, Austria. German historian and social figure (German Democratic Republic). Member of the German Academy of Sciences (1955); professor at the University of Halle (1950).

In 1921, Stern joined the Communist Party of Austria. He studied at the University of Vienna and took part in armed proletarian uprisings in Vienna in 1927 and 1934. He emigrated in 1934 and lived first in Czechoslovakia and then in the USSR. Stern fought in the international brigades in Spain. From 1941 to 1945 he was an officer in the Red Army and fought against fascist Germany; he joined the National Committee, Free Germany.

Upon his return to Austria, Stern became a teacher. He moved to the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in 1950 and joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. He was vice-president of the German Academy of Sciences from 1963 to 1968; from 1957 to 1975 he was chairman of the German section of the Commission of Historians of the USSR and German Democratic Republic. Stern’s works deal with a broad range of problems in German history from the Middle Ages to modern times, focusing particularly on the working-class movement and historiography.

WORKS

Martin Luther und Philipp Melanchthon. Berlin, 1953.
Zur Vorgeschichte der Gründung der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands. [Halle, 1954.]
Die zwei Traditionen der deutschen Polenpolitik und die Revolution von 1905–1907 in Königreich Polen. Berlin, 1961.
Der Antikommunismus als politische Hauptdoktrin des deutschen Imperialismus. Berlin, 1963.
In Russian translation:
Vliianie Velikoi Oktiabr’skoi sotsialisticheskoi revoliutsii na Germaniiu i germanskoe rabochee dvizhenie. Moscow, 1960.