Remus Koffler

A free spender, he amassed wealth during the German occupation of Romania (1916-1918), by selling bulk quantities of liqueurs to the temporary rulers.

In 1919, he read the Communist Manifesto, followed by a work of Leon Trotsky on the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Revolution; the same year, when he reached Zürich, he declared himself a communist.

His mother (Ernestina née Blatt) was a merchant's daughter and died in 1920.

His father was an authoritarian figure whose arguments with his wife left a lasting impression on Koffler.

Although the family was Jewish, Koffler was baptized, and attended a Catholic followed by a Lutheran school.

After attending several grades at Matei Basarab High School, he passed the baccalaureate exam at Zürich in 1920.

His interest in politics began in primary school; influenced by his father, he sided with the Central Powers during World War I. Near the war's end, he became a Zionist.

In 1920, in Bucharest, he joined the Socialist Party of Romania.

In response, his father beat him and took away his party card, also inflicting blows upon the son for reading Socialistul newspaper.

Leaving to study in Berlin, he attended communist meetings, took part in demonstrations and agitated on Soviet Russia's behalf.

In autumn 1920, while in the German capital, he contracted syphilis from a girl he brought to his room, and was continuing treatment as late as 1948.

Koffler married in the early 1920s; his daughter was born in 1925.

The same year, at the insistence of his father, who soon went bankrupt, he returned to Romania without having graduated.

His father Isac, initially a merchant in Galați, eventually owned a factory and several houses before losing his fortune in 1926, and died in 1941.

In Bucharest, he met communist activist Timotei Marin, whom he hid after the latter escaped a dragnet initiated in August 1926 by the Siguranța secret police of the Kingdom of Romania.

This investigation also targeted Pavel Tcacenco, Boris Ștefanov and Elek Köblös, all members of the banned Communist Party of Romania (PCdR, later PCR).

He also became acquainted with Lucrețiu Pătrășcanu.

Koffler ran a firm until 1927, when he departed for Germany yet again.

In Berlin, he was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), taking part in clandestine operations.

At the time, Berlin was not only an important center for communists, but was also a hub for Comintern activities throughout Europe.

Moreover, the political and economic crisis of the Weimar Republic created a dynamic atmosphere, with Koffler partaking in street movements, demonstrations and campaigns.

In 1930, he formally joined the KPD, returning to Romania in 1932 after being called home by his father, again without completing his studies.

He worked in his father's firm but quit following an argument.

For a time, he gave private German lessons, then found a position as a clerk.

By his own account, he embezzled significant sums while on the job, allowing him to play roulette at the Sinaia Casino.

Between 1932 and 1935, he lived in a single room with his wife and daughter, sharing meals with his in-laws.

The same room hosted communist meetings organized by Pătrășcanu.

Also during this period, he persuaded his wife to enact a fantasy to which he had masturbated: of her having sexual intercourse with other men.

First, a barber visited four times, followed by a mechanic once and the brother of her brother-in-law, also once.

During each session, Koffler would watch unseen and masturbate, and would then have intercourse with his wife after the other man left.

He was an occasional courier to Prague, where the PCdR's political office was located.

He worked with members of the party secretariat, Ana Pauker, Nicolae Goldberger and Șmil Marcovici.

He belonged to the agitprop section then led by Marcel Pauker.

He was part of the editing committee of the clandestine gazette Scînteia, to which he was a frequent contributor, along with Solomon Schein, Ion Popescu-Puțuri and Ștefan Voicu.

A skilled conspirator, Koffler, despite having close relations with the PCdR's leaders for years, never drew the attention of the Siguranța, which never suspected him of being a communist or anything but a casual acquaintance of the known party leaders.

He became a regular client there after 1937, and also used party funds to gamble.

At the same time, he helped fund the extravagant lifestyles of party members, including Foriș, Bela Breiner, Teohari Georgescu and Iosif Chișinevschi, who frequently asked him for loans that would finance see houses, cars, furniture and travel.

Arrested in 1949 as an inconvenient survivor, he was executed over four years later.

According to his autobiography, which he wrote in early 1950, while held under arrest by the Securitate secret police of Communist Romania, he was born in Bucharest in 1902.

Remus Koffler (1902 – April 17, 1954) was a Romanian communist activist who, during the 1930s and 1940s, helped assure financing for the Romanian Communist Party.