Portrait of Erich Hancke - main study, MAX LIEBERMANN, 1929 by Atelier Liesjes

Erich Hanke (13 January 1911 in Petershagen near Berlin; 10 April 2005 in Berlin-Rahnsdorf) was a German resistance fighter and Marxist economist.

From October 1947 to August 1949 Hanke studied at the SED. From September 1949 he was director of the labour and farming faculty in Berlin, then in 1951/52 professor at the Institute for Dialectics and Historical Materialism of the PH Berlin and then until February 1955 first teacher, then head of the school of the Foreign Intelligence Institute for Economic Research or of his successor, Head Section XV of the State Secretariat for State Security. 4] From March 1955 Hanke became professor at the University of Finance in Potsdam-Babelsberg - after the merger of the two universities, from 1956 at the Economic University of Berlin; from 1957 he headed the Institute of Marxism-Leninism there. From 1959 to 1962 Hanke was responsible for studying general partners of the semi-public companies of the GDR.

After his retirement in 1962 Hanke worked as a freelance writer of scholarly articles and treatises; in the 1970s he wrote his memoirs, which were published in several editions in the GDR and other countries.

Max Liebermann (Berlin, Germany, 20 July 1847 - 8 February 1935) was a German painter, graphic artist, pastellist and illustrator. His work shows a transition from realism to impressionism.