Ulbricht group
Encyclopedia
The Ulbricht Group, led by Walter Ulbricht
, was a group of exiled German communists who flew from the Soviet Union
back to Germany on April 30, 1945. Composed of functionaries from the Communist Party of Germany
(Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD) and ten anti-fascist prisoners of war
, their job was to seek out anti-fascist
individuals and prepare the groundwork for the re-establishment of communist organizations and unions in postwar Berlin
. There were two additional regional groups, the Ackermann
Group in Saxony
and the Sobottka Group in Mecklenburg
. Many of the group's members later became high-level officials in the government of the German Democratic Republic
(GDR).
who were to return to Germany were defined at a meeting between Wilhelm Pieck
and Georgi Dimitrov
held in Moscow on April 25, 1945. Dimitrov was then a high-level functionary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
, working as the assistant division leader of the International Information Division. They were to prepare the region to accept and follow the instructions of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
so the Nazi government could be dismantled. The de-nazification process was to convince the people to turn over Nazi war criminals. The Group was to calm people and assure them that the Red Army
would neither destroy nor enslave them, but that the German people had to understand that they bore the responsibility for the Nazi's rise to power, giving force to Hitler's policies and causing the catastrophe. The communists had tried to warn them of the coming catastrophe and they were now there to help them out of their distress and at the same time, establish a basis for the future of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). They were also to seek out anti-fascist individuals who would be willing to work with the new organizations. The youngest member of the group was 24-year old Wolfgang Leonhard
.
The Ulbricht Group left from the Hotel Lux
, where they had been living in exile, some for years, and flew from Moscow
to Minsk
, then to Calau
, near Międzyrzecz
. Not all members of the group knew what their assignment was or how long it would last until after they landed. They landed in an airfield and were met by a Soviet officer, who drove away with Ulbricht. The rest left by truck for Bruchmühle
, about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) east of Berlin and the offices Marshall Georgy Zhukov
, the first commander of the Soviet occupation zone. The Ulbricht Group began working from there on May 2, 1945, though not much could be done with the city in flames after the Battle of Berlin
. In the evening, Ulbricht met with the group and explained their assignment. They were to cover all 20 districts in Berlin and begin building local administrations. In each, they were to seek out as many social democrats
as possible, also a civil servant with a Ph.D from each local administration who was willing to work with the Soviets and a cleric to lead a religious advisory council. Communists were to be installed in each district as assistant administrator, and to head up the departments for personnel and development. The group worked from Bruchmühle till May 8, after which they moved to the Friedrichsfelde area of Berlin.
On May 6, 1945, Ulbricht gave the Soviet commander of Berlin, Nikolai Berzarin
, the first list of suggested names to fill important administrative posts in Berlin. On May 12, 1945, the district administrators and city councils were appointed from Ulbricht's list without exception. Paul Markgraf, one of the ten anti-fascist prisoners of war, was appointed the "Berlin Police President", also on Ulbricht's initiative.
In the beginning of June 1945, Ulbricht, Ackerman and Sobottka traveled back to Moscow to give the first reports and get their further instructions. On June 4, 1945, they met with Pieck, Joseph Stalin
and Andrei Zhdanov
. Stalin urged them to found a nation-wide working class party that would remain open for the proletariat
, farmers and intellectuals. He wanted the party to work for a unified Germany and said in his opinion, the West
wanted to split the country into partitions, so, according to Pieck, their goal was to "[complete] the civil-democractic revolution through a civil-democratic government." The founding manifesto of the KPD was written by Ackermann. In it, the new party spoke openly against a sovietization
of Germany. It said the goal was to "continue to its conclusion the civil-democratic transformation begun with the revolutions of 1848
" and through land reform
, to eliminate the "remnants of feudalism
". The goal the Party named was as the "establishment of an anti-fascist, democratic republic with all democratic rights and freedoms
for the people". With the re-establishment of the KPD on June 11, 1945, the Ulbricht Group reached its first goal. On July 10, 1945, it moved into the KPD's Central Committee building.
There is disagreement among historians as to whether or not Stalin and Ackermann were earnest in their affirmation of parliamentarian democracy and fundamental rights. Leonhard reported the oft-cited comment by Ulbricht made during this period, "It is quite clear. It must look democratic, but we must have everything in hand." Some historians say that by spring 1945, the establishment of a communist-dominated government in the Soviet-occupied zone and the proclaimed democracy was merely a transitional stage but at least one historian believes that Stalin earnestly pursued a western-style democracy for Germany, that it was the only way he could secure the responsibility from the others, which without him, would easily have been able to deny access to the resources of the Ruhr region, reparations he desperately needed as resources to rebuild the war-ravaged western regions of the Soviet Union.
The group for Mecklenburg
was led by Gustav Sobottka:
Walter Ulbricht
Walter Ulbricht was a German communist politician. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 , he played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany and later in the early development and...
, was a group of exiled German communists who flew from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
back to Germany on April 30, 1945. Composed of functionaries from the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD) and ten anti-fascist prisoners of war
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
, their job was to seek out anti-fascist
Anti-fascism
Anti-fascism is the opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals, such as that of the resistance movements during World War II. The related term antifa derives from Antifaschismus, which is German for anti-fascism; it refers to individuals and groups on the left of the political...
individuals and prepare the groundwork for the re-establishment of communist organizations and unions in postwar Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. There were two additional regional groups, the Ackermann
Anton Ackermann
Anton Ackermann was an East German politician. In 1953, he briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs....
Group in Saxony
Saxony
The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....
and the Sobottka Group in Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
. Many of the group's members later became high-level officials in the government of the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(GDR).
Political operation
The tasks for the Ulbricht Group and the other communist cadreProfessional revolutionaries
The concept of professional revolutionaries, alternatively called cadre, is in origin a Leninist concept used to describe a body of devoted communists who spend the majority of their free time organizing their party toward a mass revolutionary party capable of leading a workers' revolution...
who were to return to Germany were defined at a meeting between Wilhelm Pieck
Wilhelm Pieck
Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck was a German politician and a Communist. In 1949, he became the first President of the German Democratic Republic, an office abolished upon his death. He was succeeded by Walter Ulbricht, who served as Chairman of the Council of States.-Biography:Pieck was born to...
and Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov
Georgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
held in Moscow on April 25, 1945. Dimitrov was then a high-level functionary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , abbreviated in Russian as ЦК, "Tse-ka", earlier was also called as the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party ...
, working as the assistant division leader of the International Information Division. They were to prepare the region to accept and follow the instructions of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
so the Nazi government could be dismantled. The de-nazification process was to convince the people to turn over Nazi war criminals. The Group was to calm people and assure them that the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
would neither destroy nor enslave them, but that the German people had to understand that they bore the responsibility for the Nazi's rise to power, giving force to Hitler's policies and causing the catastrophe. The communists had tried to warn them of the coming catastrophe and they were now there to help them out of their distress and at the same time, establish a basis for the future of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). They were also to seek out anti-fascist individuals who would be willing to work with the new organizations. The youngest member of the group was 24-year old Wolfgang Leonhard
Wolfgang Leonhard
Wolfgang Leonhard is a German political author, historian, and expert on Communism. He is the only living member of the Ulbricht Group.-Early years:...
.
The Ulbricht Group left from the Hotel Lux
Hotel Lux
Hotel Lux was a hotel in Moscow that, during the early years of the Soviet Union, housed many leading exiled Communists. During the Nazi era, exiles from all over Europe went there, particularly from Germany. A number of them became leading figures in German politics in the postwar era...
, where they had been living in exile, some for years, and flew from Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
to Minsk
Minsk
- Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened...
, then to Calau
Calau
Calau is a small town in the Oberspreewald-Lausitz district, in southern Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 14 km south of Lübbenau, and 27 km west of Cottbus...
, near Międzyrzecz
Miedzyrzecz
Międzyrzecz is a town in western Poland with 18,584 inhabitants . The capital of Międzyrzecz County, it was part of the Gorzów Wielkopolski Voivodeship from 1975–1998. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, Międzyrzecz has been situated in the Lubusz Voivodeship...
. Not all members of the group knew what their assignment was or how long it would last until after they landed. They landed in an airfield and were met by a Soviet officer, who drove away with Ulbricht. The rest left by truck for Bruchmühle
Altlandsberg
Altlandsberg is a historic town in the district of Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated about east of Berlin.-History:Altlandsberg was first mentioned in a 1230 deed, it was located at the site of a former Slavic settlement...
, about 30 kilometres (18.6 mi) east of Berlin and the offices Marshall Georgy Zhukov
Georgy Zhukov
Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov , was a Russian career officer in the Red Army who, in the course of World War II, played a pivotal role in leading the Red Army through much of Eastern Europe to liberate the Soviet Union and other nations from the Axis Powers' occupation...
, the first commander of the Soviet occupation zone. The Ulbricht Group began working from there on May 2, 1945, though not much could be done with the city in flames after the Battle of Berlin
Battle of Berlin
The Battle of Berlin, designated the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, was the final major offensive of the European Theatre of World War II....
. In the evening, Ulbricht met with the group and explained their assignment. They were to cover all 20 districts in Berlin and begin building local administrations. In each, they were to seek out as many social democrats
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
as possible, also a civil servant with a Ph.D from each local administration who was willing to work with the Soviets and a cleric to lead a religious advisory council. Communists were to be installed in each district as assistant administrator, and to head up the departments for personnel and development. The group worked from Bruchmühle till May 8, after which they moved to the Friedrichsfelde area of Berlin.
On May 6, 1945, Ulbricht gave the Soviet commander of Berlin, Nikolai Berzarin
Nikolai Berzarin
Nikolai Erastovich Berzarin was a Soviet Red Army General during the Stalinist era and the Second World War. In 1945 he became commander of the Soviet occupying forces in Berlin.-Family:Berzarin was born the son of a pipefitter and a seamstress...
, the first list of suggested names to fill important administrative posts in Berlin. On May 12, 1945, the district administrators and city councils were appointed from Ulbricht's list without exception. Paul Markgraf, one of the ten anti-fascist prisoners of war, was appointed the "Berlin Police President", also on Ulbricht's initiative.
In the beginning of June 1945, Ulbricht, Ackerman and Sobottka traveled back to Moscow to give the first reports and get their further instructions. On June 4, 1945, they met with Pieck, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Zhdanov
Andrei Alexandrovich Zhdanov was a Soviet politician.-Life:Zhdanov enlisted with the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1915 and was promoted through the party ranks, becoming the All-Union Communist Party manager in Leningrad after the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934...
. Stalin urged them to found a nation-wide working class party that would remain open for the proletariat
Proletariat
The proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
, farmers and intellectuals. He wanted the party to work for a unified Germany and said in his opinion, the West
West
West is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography.West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of east and is perpendicular to north and south.By convention, the left side of a map is west....
wanted to split the country into partitions, so, according to Pieck, their goal was to "[complete] the civil-democractic revolution through a civil-democratic government." The founding manifesto of the KPD was written by Ackermann. In it, the new party spoke openly against a sovietization
Sovietization
Sovietization is term that may be used with two distinct meanings:*the adoption of a political system based on the model of soviets .*the adoption of a way of life and mentality modelled after the Soviet Union....
of Germany. It said the goal was to "continue to its conclusion the civil-democratic transformation begun with the revolutions of 1848
Revolutions of 1848
The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...
" and through land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
, to eliminate the "remnants of feudalism
Feudalism
Feudalism was a set of legal and military customs in medieval Europe that flourished between the 9th and 15th centuries, which, broadly defined, was a system for ordering society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour.Although derived from the...
". The goal the Party named was as the "establishment of an anti-fascist, democratic republic with all democratic rights and freedoms
Fundamental rights
Fundamental rights are a generally-regarded set of entitlements in the context of a legal system, wherein such system is itself said to be based upon this same set of basic, fundamental, or inalienable entitlements or "rights." Such rights thus belong without presumption or cost of privilege to all...
for the people". With the re-establishment of the KPD on June 11, 1945, the Ulbricht Group reached its first goal. On July 10, 1945, it moved into the KPD's Central Committee building.
Existence concealed
Until 1955 and the publication of Wolfgang Leonhard's book, Die Revolution entläßt ihre Kinder (later published in English as Child of the Revolution), knowledge of the Ulbricht Group was kept secret. In Leonhard's opinion, it was kept secret so as not to emphasize the role of communist exiles from Moscow in the establishment of the GDR. After 1955, several versions of the story appeared regarding the composition of the group and the order of events leading to the appointments.There is disagreement among historians as to whether or not Stalin and Ackermann were earnest in their affirmation of parliamentarian democracy and fundamental rights. Leonhard reported the oft-cited comment by Ulbricht made during this period, "It is quite clear. It must look democratic, but we must have everything in hand." Some historians say that by spring 1945, the establishment of a communist-dominated government in the Soviet-occupied zone and the proclaimed democracy was merely a transitional stage but at least one historian believes that Stalin earnestly pursued a western-style democracy for Germany, that it was the only way he could secure the responsibility from the others, which without him, would easily have been able to deny access to the resources of the Ruhr region, reparations he desperately needed as resources to rebuild the war-ravaged western regions of the Soviet Union.
Members of the Ulbricht Group
- Walter UlbrichtWalter UlbrichtWalter Ulbricht was a German communist politician. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971 , he played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany and later in the early development and...
(1893–1973), first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of GermanySocialist Unity Party of GermanyThe Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
, 1950 to 1971; chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic, 1960 to 1973 - Fritz Erpenbeck (1897–1975), National Committee for a Free GermanyNational Committee for a Free GermanyThe National Committee for a Free Germany was a German anti-Nazi organization that operated in the Soviet Union during World War II.- History :...
(from 1943) - Karl Maron (1903–1975), co-editor of the newspaper Freies Deutschland from 1943; later, assistant chief editor of the newspaper, Neues DeutschlandNeues DeutschlandNeues Deutschland is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany , which governed the German Democratic Republic , and as such served as one of the party's most important organs...
and Interior Minister of the GDR - Hans Mahle (1911–1999), editor of the German-language Moscow radio broadcasts, later chief editor of the newspaper, Schweriner Volkszeitung
- Walter Köppe (1891–1970), administrative director of the Bauakademie Berlin until 1955, employed at the Ministry for Heavy Machinery Construction
- Richard Gyptner (1901–1972), secretary to Comintern General Secretary Georgi DimitrovGeorgi DimitrovGeorgi Dimitrov Mikhaylov , also known as Georgi Mikhaylovich Dimitrov , was a Bulgarian Communist politician...
, 1933–1935; editor at radio Deutscher Volkssender in Moscow; head of the Capitalist Foreign Countries division (Kapitalistisches Ausland) of the GDR's Foreign Ministry and diplomat - Wolfgang LeonhardWolfgang LeonhardWolfgang Leonhard is a German political author, historian, and expert on Communism. He is the only living member of the Ulbricht Group.-Early years:...
(b. 1921; went by the name Vladimir Leonhard), graduate of the CominternCominternThe Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
school and radio announcer at Freies Deutschland; broke with StalinismStalinismStalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
in 1949, fled to YugoslaviaYugoslaviaYugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, then to the Federal Republic of Germany - Otto WinzerOtto WinzerOtto Winzer was an East German diplomat. He returned from exile in the Soviet Union as part of the Ulbricht Group, charged with setting up the Soviet Military Administration in Germany after World War II. He served as the foreign minister of East Germany between 1965 and 1975.- References :...
(1902–1975), Moscow pseudonym: Otto Lorenz; chief of staff for GDR President Wilhelm PieckWilhelm PieckFriedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck was a German politician and a Communist. In 1949, he became the first President of the German Democratic Republic, an office abolished upon his death. He was succeeded by Walter Ulbricht, who served as Chairman of the Council of States.-Biography:Pieck was born to...
until 1956; Foreign Minister of the GDR, 1965 to 1975 - Gustav Gundelach (1888–1962), editor and radio announcer at Deutscher Volkssender in Moscow; KPD representative of the first German BundestagBundestagThe Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
- Otto Fischer (1901–1974), worked at radio Berliner Rundfunk
Regional groups
The group for Saxony was led by Anton Ackermann:- Anton AckermannAnton AckermannAnton Ackermann was an East German politician. In 1953, he briefly served as Minister of Foreign Affairs....
(1905–1973), went by the name "Peter Ackermann", as he was most often called in Moscow) - Hermann Matern (1893–1971)
- Fred Oelßner (1903–1977), known as "Fred Larew"
- Kurt Fischer (1900–1950)
- Heinrich Greif (1907–1946)
- Peter FlorinPeter FlorinPeter Florin, born in Cologne on October 2, 1921, is a former East German politician and diplomat.-Early life:Peter's father, Wilhelm Florin, was a leading figure in the pre-war Communist Party of Germany....
(b. 1921), deputy representative to the United NationsUnited NationsThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace... - Franz Greiner
- Egon Dräger
- Artur Hofmann (1907–1987)
- Georg Wolff (1882–1968)
The group for Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg
Mecklenburg is a historical region in northern Germany comprising the western and larger part of the federal-state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern...
was led by Gustav Sobottka:
- Gustav SobottkaGustav SobottkaGustav Sobottka was a German politician in East Germany. He was a member of the Communist Party and was in exile during the Nazi era...
(1886–1953), East German politician - Gottfried Grünberg (1899–1985)
- Willi BredelWilli BredelWilli Bredel was a German writer and president of the Akademie der Künste. Born in Hamburg, he was a pioneer of socialist realist literature....
(1901–1964) - Stanislaw Switalla
- Arthur Fiedler
- Georg Kamann
- Rudolf HerrnstadtRudolf HerrnstadtRudolf Herrnstadt was a German journalist and communist politicianmost notable for his anti-fascist activity as an exile from the Nazi German regime in the Soviet Union during the war and as a journalist in East Germany until his death, where he and Wilhelm Zaisser represented the anti-Ulbricht...
(1903–1966), replaced Kurt BürgerKurt BürgerKurt Bürger was a German politician. From 1912 to 1918, he was a representative of the Social Democratic Party. In 1919, he was a cofounder of the Communist Party of Germany...
(1894–1951) who was originally supposed to be in the group) - Karl Raab (1906–1992)
- Oskar Stefan
- Herbert Hentschke
- Walter Offermann
- Bruno Schramm
Sources
- Wolfgang Leonhard, Die Revolution entlässt ihre Kinder. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Cologne (1955), Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich (1985)
- Wolfgang Leonhard, Spurensuche. 40 Jahre nach 'Die Revolution entlässt ihre Kinder'. Kiepenheuer und Witsch, Cologne (1992–94)
External links
- Documents and photos of the Ulbricht Group in the German Federal Archives
- Aufruf des Zentralkomitees der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands vom 11. Juni 1945 (PDF) German Historical InstituteGerman Historical InstituteGerman Historical Institute are five independent academic research institutes situated in Rome, London, Washington, D.C., Warsaw and Moscow, dedicated to the study of historical relations between Germany and the host countries in which they are based, along with four other institutions, in Paris,...
, Washington, D.C.