Claim: Hans Beimler Medal was a GDR decoration instituted on 17 May 1956 named after Hans Beimler(1895 – 1936).
Evidence: The Hans Beimler Medal (German: Hans Beimler Medaille) was a GDR decoration. The medal was instituted on 17 May 1956 and was awarded to East Germans who fought in the Spanish civil war on the side of the republicans. The medal was named after Hans Beimler, the first commissar of the German Communist contingent and the XI International Brigade in Spain. Hans Beimler (2 July 1895 – 1 December 1936) was a trade unionist, Communist-Party official, deputy in the 1933 Reichstag, an outspoken opponent of the Nazis and a volunteer in the international brigades fighting for the Spanish Republic.