Bernd Jannack, son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Portrait of Karl Jannack, 1950
Photograph by Kurt Heine, Sorbisches Kulturarchiv Bautzen
Karl Jannack
(Sorb: Korla Janak)
23 January 1891 – 27 May 1968
Life before Imprisonment
Karl Jannack was born on 23 January 1891 in Cölln near Bautzen into a Sorbian family with two sisters. After training as a shoemaker, he travelled through southern Germany, Switzerland, South Tyrol, and Bremen. The working-class milieu there left a deep mark on him. Even as a front-line soldier in the First World War, he advocated for an end to the conflict. In 1918, he became a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and a leading figure in the short-lived Bremen Council Republic during the November Revolution.
“… of course, then they locked him up.”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
From 1922 to 1933, Karl Jannack continued his political work across Europe. He served as a KPD functionary, trade unionist, and contributor to communist newspapers and welfare organizations in Germany, Sweden, Czechoslovakia, and the Soviet Union. At times he was expelled from the KPD for failing to toe the party line. In Dresden he married Emilie Katharina Bode in 1927, whom he had met during the First World War in France. After the Nazi seizure of power, he continued his work illegally but fled in May 1933 from the Rhineland to his in-laws in Sarrebourg, Lorraine. There he rebuilt his life, working again as a shoemaker and, since 1938, running a laundry with his wife. That same year, the Nazi regime stripped both of their German citizenship because of their communist background.
Conviction and Imprisonment in Düsseldorf, Wolfenbüttel, and in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp
Emilie Katharina Jannack died in January 1940. Shortly thereafter, Karl Jannack was interned in France as a German “émigré.” Following the German occupation in June 1940, he was released, but in October 1940 the GestapoThe Gestapo, the Secret State Police of the Nazi regime, was the political police during the Nazi era. arrested him in Sarrebourg and transferred him to Düsseldorf. There he endured interrogations and seven months of pre-trial detention. On 23 May 1941, the Higher Regional Court of Hamm sentenced him to 14 months’ imprisonment for preparing high treason. A month later he was transferred to Wolfenbüttel Prison, where he worked at times as a shoemaker. His petitions for clemency – like those of his mother – were rejected.
After six months in Wolfenbüttel, the Gestapo rearrested him upon release in December 1941 and deported him in February 1942 to Buchenwald Concentration CampDetention centres established from March 1933 in the Reich territory and later in the occupied territories, initially for opponents of the Nazi regime, whose daily life was marked by arbitrary violence and terror. The Gestapo was responsible for the internment of concentration camp inmates, using the instrument of so-called protective custody. The inmate community was subject to an internal camp hierarchy and was increasingly used for forced labour in the German armaments industry from 1942 onwards. Thousands of inmates fell victim to the Nazi programme of “extermination through labour.”. There he suffered sadistic, arbitrary abuse by guards and grossly inadequate provisions, but also witnessed numerous efforts by fellow prisoners to improve living conditions.
“That stay in the camp…”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Aftermath of Imprisonment, Compensation, and Political Work
In autumn 1945 Jannack returned to Bautzen, now under Soviet occupation. Recognized as a “Victim of Fascism,” he received emergency assistance. From September 1945 to April 1946, he oversaw land reform in the Bautzen district.
Family Jannack, September 1957
Property of Bernd Jannack
In December 1946 he married Agnes (“Angelika”) Leimer in Bautzen. Their three sons – Karl, Bernd, and Martin – were born in 1947, 1952, and 1953. Between 1946 and 1949, Karl Jannack held various political offices in the region: member of the denazification commission, district secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), and deputy district administrator of Bautzen. He also co-initiated the “Law for the Protection of the Rights of the Sorbian Population” of 23 March 1948, which for the first time guaranteed the Sorbs’ right to support for their language and culture.
In August 1950, he was formally recognized as a “Victim of the Nazi Regime” (VdN). He was granted a total of 15 multi-week convalescent stays. Between 1950 and 1955, despite recurring health problems, he served in several leadership roles for Sorbian institutions in Bautzen.
As both a communist and Sorbian resistance fighter, Karl Jannack was featured in DDR poster campaigns and youth lectures, and honoured multiple times – for example, for his autobiography Wir mit der roten Nelke (We with the Red Carnation).
“Everywhere … he was paraded around.”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Even into old age (here in summer 1961), Karl Jannack gave lectures to youth and soldiers about his time in the KPD and in prison, despite health difficulties.
Property of Bernd Jannack
Impact on the Family
Karl Jannack died on 27 May 1968. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was posthumously honoured in numerous ways: a school, the Sorbian Institute for Teacher Training in Bautzen, and streets were named after him; several biographies were published; a film was produced about his role in land reform; and a Karl Jannack Memorial was established at the SIfL.
“The funeral was probably the largest in the Bautzen district.”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Bernd Jannack fühlte sich nicht privilegiert, aber er nahm die Anerkennung, die sein Vater zu Lebzeiten und insbesondere nach dessen Tod erfuhr, stets wahr.
Former Karl-Jannack-Street sign in Cölln, in German and Sorbian.
Property of Bernd Jannack
“Study diligently and emulate those…”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Yet his father spoke little about his imprisonment and the Nazi era.
“Otherwise, I only know my father from the book.”
Bernd Jannack
son of Karl Jannack, 2025
Bronze bust of Karl Jannack, exhibited 1975–1991 at the Sorbian Institute for Teacher Training “Karl Jannack” in Bautzen, since 2005 in the collection of the Sorbian Museum, Bautzen.
Rudolf Enderlein, Bronzebüste Korla Janaks, 1974, Sorbisches Museum, Bautzen. Photograph by Johann Custodis, 2025.
After Karl Jannack’s death, his three sons received a VdN half-orphan’s pension and occasional school and study support. Angelika Jannack’s VdN widow’s pension was repeatedly increased and continued to be paid after reunification.
Following reunification, the Karl Jannack Memorial was closed and the street and school names changed. Bernd Jannack experienced this as a profound rupture. His mother Angelika remained active until the age of 90 in supporting Nazi victims and preserving the memory of Karl Jannack as a resistance fighter.
