Abusch, Alexander

Born Feb. 14, 1902, in Cracow. German publicist, literary critic, and public figure.

In 1918, Abusch joined the Communist Party of Germany. He has been a member of the United Socialist Party of Germany since 1946. In the 1920’s he wrote agitational verses and stories. After Hitler seized power, he joined the underground, living in France in 1939 and 1940. From 1941 to 1945 he edited the newspaper Freies Deutschland in Mexico. From 1958 to 1961 he was the minister of culture of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and in 1961 he became deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

Abusch is the author of The False Path of One Nation (1945, Russian translation 1962), Literature and Reality (1952), Johannes R. Becher (1953), Schiller: The Grandeur and Tragedy of a German Genius (1955, Russian translation 1964), and In the Ideological Battle for Socialist Culture (1957). In 1962 he published The Culture and Art of Socialist Humanism, and in 1966 he published Hraawsra and Realism in Literature (speeches and articles from 1927 to 1966).