Editing Walter Ulbricht (section)

===The Bülowplatz murders===
{{Walter Ulbricht sidebar}}
{{see also|Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck}}

During the last days of the [[Weimar Republic]], the KPD had a policy of assassinating two [[Berlin police]] officers in retaliation for every KPD member killed by the police.<ref>Koehler (1999), page 33.</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2024|reason=As noted by editors in [[Talk:Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck]], Koehler is not a reliable source in this instance.}}

On 2 August 1931, KPD members of the [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] [[Heinz Neumann (politician)|Heinz Neumann]] and [[Hans Kippenberger]] received a dressing down from Ulbricht, who was the party's leader in the Berlin-Brandenburg region. According to John Koehler, enraged by police interference and by Neumann and Kippenberger's failure to follow the policy, Ulbricht snarled, "At home in [[Saxony]] we would have done something about the police a long time ago. Here in Berlin we will not fool around much longer. Soon we will hit the police in the head."<ref>John Koehler, ''The Stasi'', p. 36.</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2024|reason=As noted by editors in [[Talk:Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck]], Koehler is not a reliable source in this instance.}}

Kippenberger and Neumann decided to assassinate [[Paul Anlauf]], the captain of the Berlin Police's Seventh Precinct. Captain Anlauf had been nicknamed ''Schweinebacke'', or "Pig Face" by the KPD. Anlauf was notorious for his brutal methods in breaking up Communist-led demonstrations at the time.<ref>{{Cite web |title=German secret police chief convicted |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1993/10/27/german-secret-police-chief-convicted/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=Tampa Bay Times |language=en}}</ref>

According to John Koehler, "Of all the policemen in strife-torn Berlin, the reds hated Anlauf the most. His precinct included the area around [[Karl-Liebknecht-Haus|KPD headquarters]], which made it the most dangerous in the city. The captain almost always led the riot squads that broke up illegal rallies of the Communist Party."<ref>''The Stasi'', p. 36.</ref>{{Unreliable source?|date=May 2024|reason=As noted by editors in [[Talk:Murder of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck]], Koehler is not a reliable source in this instance.}}

In 1934, the Nazi government erected a memorial to Anlauf and Lenck at the square where they were killed, then renamed Horst-Wessel-Platz after a Nazi martyr.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Collections Search - United States Holocaust Memorial Museum |url=https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1003433 |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=collections.ushmm.org}}</ref> In 1950 the socialist German government destroyed the monument and the square was renamed [[Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz]].<ref>Stricker, Michael (2010). ''Letzter Einsatz. Im Dienst getötete Polizisten in Berlin von 1918 bis 2010'' [''Last use. Police officers killed on duty in Berlin from 1918 to 2010''] (in German). Frankfurt: Verlag für Polizeiwissenschaft. p. 103. {{ISBN|978-3-86676-141-4}}</ref>