Rudolf Hamburger

Rudolf Hamburger
Born
Rudolf Albert Hamburger

(1903-05-03)3 May 1903
Died1 December 1980(1980-12-01) (aged 77)
Occupation(s)Architect
GRU intelligence agent
Political partySED
Spouse(s)Ursula Kuczynski (1907–2000)
married 1929, divorced 1939
ChildrenMaik Hamburger (1931–2020)
Parent(s)Max Hamburger (1868–1952)
Else Gradenwitz (1873–1937)
RelativesBrothers:
Viktor Hamburger (1900–2001)
Otto Hamburger (1907–1997)

Rudolf Albert Hamburger (3 May 1903 – 1 December 1980) was a German Bauhaus-inspired architect. Many of his most important commissions were undertaken in Shanghai where he lived and worked between 1930 and 1936. Late in 1930, his wife Ursula Kuczynski was recruited to work for Soviet intelligence; he supported her espionage related activities in various practical ways until their divorce in 1939, after which he became involved with spying for the Soviets on his own account.[1]

By 1943 he had ended up in Tehran where British forces were present in large numbers. Imprisoned successively by American forces and British forces, when he managed to get away he made for the Soviet Union in order to seek asylum. Three days after arriving in Moscow he was arrested. He spent the next ten years in a succession of labour camps, and after a further two years in "internal exile" was able to leave the Soviet Union in 1955. He moved to Dresden and resumed his architectural career.[2]

Rudolf Hamburger is known to students of espionage as the first husband of Ursula Kuczynski, celebrated in some quarters as "Stalin's best female spy" ("Stalins beste Spionin").[3]

  1. ^ Kögel, Eduard; Hassenpflug, Dieter (2006). "Zwei Poelzigschüler in der Emigration: Rudolf Hamburger und Richard Paulick zwischen Shanghai und Ost-Berlin (1930–1955)" (PDF). Dissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades Doktor-Ingenieur an der Fakultät Architektur der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. University Library Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  2. ^ Rudolf Hamburger; Maik Hamburger (9 September 2013). Zehn Jahre Lager: Als deutscher Kommunist im sowjetischen Gulag - Ein Bericht. Siedler Verlag. ISBN 978-3-641-10938-7. Retrieved 8 July 2018.
  3. ^ Thomas Karny [in German] (11 May 2007). ""Sonja" – Stalins beste Spionin". Wiener Zeitung (online). Retrieved 8 July 2018.

Developed by StudentB