Erwin Kramer

Who was Erwin Kramer?

Erwin Kramer was a German politician, East German Minister of transportation and General Director of the Deutsche Reichsbahn.

Kramer was born in Schneidemühl, where he grew up. After a traineeship at the Reichsbahnausbessungswerk Schneidemühl he studied electrical engineering and railroadsciences at the Technical University of Berlin. He joined the Young Communist League of Germany in 1919, the Red Student's Aide in 1924-27 and the Communist Party of Germany in 1929. In 1930-32 Kramer worked as a workmaster for the Reichsbahn administration of Berlin.

In 1932 Kramer emigrated to the Soviet Union and worked at the "Central Research Institute of Transportation" in Moscow. In 1937 he passed a course in "Military Tactics" at the Red Army's military school at Tambov and fought as a member of the XI. International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War.

In 1939 he was interned in a French camp at Saint-Cyprien, Pyrénées-Orientales and returned to the Soviet Union, where he worked for the German desk of Radio Moscow. After the German attack on the Soviet Union he, together with other German communist emigrants, was sent to Samara in October 1941.