Erich Honecker Archives - Walled In Berlin

Posts Tagged ‘Erich Honecker’

Berlin’s East Side Gallery history

Thursday, August 23rd, 2018

The East Side Gallery is not a traditional indoor gallery. It is the world’s longest open-air art gallery. This artistic landmark was created in 1990, one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The concrete that now serves as the “canvass” for this 0.8-mile-long gallery was once part of the hated 12-feet tall wall that divided East and West Berlin. Today, it is a monument to the former east-west division and the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence. During its almost 28-year existence, the Berlin Wall went through four major redesigns. The part of the wall that is now known as the East Side Gallery was built in 1975.

Section of the East Side Gallery in Berlin, Germany. Photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Where is the East Side Gallery?

The East Side Gallery is located in the Muehlenstrasse close to the historical Oberbaumbruecke, which spans the River Spree. At one time, the wall formed the border between the Soviet and the American sectors here. After the wall came down, most of it was quickly dismantled. But 118 artists from 21 countries came together and painted 101 murals on the east side of the wall. They chose the east side for their art because during the years of the Berlin Wall only the west side of the wall was covered with graffiti. The East side remained unadorned because it was inaccessible to the East German population during the division. After the fall of the wall, painting on the east side became possible, and with their creations, the artists expressed their euphoria over the peaceful dismantling of the Iron Curtain and their optimism for the new era of freedom.

One of the famous murals in the East Side Gallery is the “Bruderkuss” (brotherly kiss) by Dmitri Vrubel. It depicts Leonid Brezhnev, former General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, kissing Erich Honecker, former General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party.

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

Tags: Berlin Wall, Bruderkuss, Dmitri Vrubel, East Side Gallery, Erich Honecker, Iron Curtain, Leonid Brezhnev, Oberbaumbruecke
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Guenter Mittag – East German Economic Tsar

Monday, May 8th, 2017

Guenter Mittag was the third most powerful man in the former East Germany, after Erich Honecker, General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED), http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-honecker-berlin-wall-architect/ and Erich Mielke, Minister of State Security. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-mielke-master-of-fear/ From 1976 to 1989, Mittag headed the Economic Commission at the Politbuero (Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission – DWK), advocating and implementing the state’s economic policies.

Guenter Mittag who headed the East German Economic Commission at the Politbuero from 1976 to 1989. Photo: Bundesarchivbild

Guenter Mittag’s rise and fall

Born in 1926, Guenter Mittag joined the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD) in 1945. A year later, he became member of the newly created SED). In 1958, Mittag earned a doctorate with his dissertation “Problems of Socialist Development of the Transport System”. At the same time, he became Secretary of the Economic Commission at the Politbuero, the principal policymaking committee of the SED. From 1976 on, he headed the Commission.

Along with Erich Apel, Guenter Mittag designed the New System for Economic Management and Planning (Neues Oekonomisches System). The system was implemented in 1963 and replaced Walter Ulbricht’s http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/image-challenged-walter-ulbricht/ Five-Year Plans, which had been launched in 1951. The New System for Economic Management was to streamline and modernize the East German economy by reducing waste of raw materials, increasing mechanization, reducing food shortages and improving product quality. Above all, the new policies were to demonstrate East German competitiveness with the West German economic miracle. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/ludwig-erhard-and-the-economic-miracle/ The new system was also put into place to halt Republikflucht attempts (desertion from the Republic), which had plagued the East German economy prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. But Mittag’s new system did not generate the expected results and was replaced in 1967/1968 by policies, which concentrated on building up East Germany’s high-tech industries.

Guenter Mittag was a central figure in the German planned economy from 1958 to 1989. Although he recognized sooner than his comrades that the centralized and monopolistic economic policies did not produce the desired results, he did not want to admit his plan’s failure and hid the facts by doctoring the balance sheets. http://www.zeit.de/1994/13/total-gescheitert It was not until mid-1989 that Mittag proposed a radical change of course, but by then it was too late. Following German reunification in 1990. Guenter Mittag was among the first to be relieved of his duties.

Tags: Deutsche Wirtschaftskommission, East Germany, Economic Commission at the Politburo, Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke, Guenter Mittag, Neues Oekonomisches System, New System of Economic Management and Planning, Republikflucht, Walter Ulbricht, West German economic miracle
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Erich Honecker – Berlin Wall Architect

Monday, April 24th, 2017

Erich Honecker was an uncompromising East German politician who rose to the top leadership post in East Germany. After holding several lesser positions, he was elected First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands – SED) in 1971, a post which later morphed into General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party. Erich Honecker held that position until just before the fall of Berlin Wall in 1989. It was during his leadership that the Berlin Wall was built in 1961. He is said to have been its prime architect and a proponent of the order “to fire” on border crossers. More than 1,100 border crossers died trying to escape the former East Germany during his years in office. http://www.dw.com/en/more-than-1100-berlin-wall-victims/a-1673538

Erich Honecker, First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party 1971-1989. Photo courtesy of Bundesarchiv.

Erich Honecker – Communist to the core

Born in 1912, Erich Honecker was the fourth of six children in the family. By the time he was ten years old, he had already joined the children’s division of a Marxist youth organization. Two years later, Honecker entered the Young Communist League of Germany (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands – KJVD). Following high school he worked for a farmer in Pomerania for a stint. Then he returned to his hometown to enter an apprenticeship as a roofer. He never completed that apprenticeship but entered the International Lenin School in Moscow instead.

At that point Honecker’s political career began in earnest. He entered the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands – KPD), but during the Nazi years, Communist activities became illegal. Honecker was imprisoned. Following his release in 1946, he helped form the Free German Youth (Freie Deutsche Jugend) and quickly became a leading member in the party’s Central Committee. As Party Security Secretary, he was the prime planner of the construction of the Berlin Wall.

Erich Honecker – Rise to the Top

In 1971, Erich Honecker initiated a political power struggle that ended with him replacing Walter Ulbricht http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/image-challenged-walter-ulbricht/ as the First Secretary of the Central Committee and as chairman of the state’s National Defense Council. Under Honecker’s command, East Germany began to normalize relations with West Germany and became a full member of the United Nations. The latter was one of his greatest political successes.

Erich Honecker – Fall to the bottom

In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/mikhail-gorbachev/ introduced several reforms to liberalize communism. Honecker refused to implement similar reforms in East Germany. Friction grew between the two men. At the national celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the East German state in October 1989, which were attended by Gorbachev, several hundred members of the Free German Youth suddenly chanted, “Gorby, help us! Gorby, save us!“ The peaceful revolution had begun. Honecker’s leadership came to an end. He was forced to resign in October 1989.

Erich Honecker’s Final days

Following German reunification in 1990, Erich Honecker escaped to the Chilean embassy in Moscow. He was handed over to Germany a year later to stand trial for his role in the human rights abuses committed by the East German regime. Due to his illness proceedings were abandoned, and he was allowed to join his wife in Chile. In 1994, Erich Honecker died in Chile from liver cancer.

Tags: Berlin Wall, Communist Party of Germany, Erich Honecker, Free German Youth, Freie Deutsche Jugend, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands, Mikhail Gorbachev, Socialist Unity Party, Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, Walter Ulbricbht, Young Communist League of Germany
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Human Trafficking Called Haeftlingsfreikauf

Monday, April 17th, 2017

Haeftlingsfreikauf is the German word for ransom money once paid by West Germany to East Germany for the release of East German political prisoners. West Germany also paid ransom moneys for East German citizens who had applied for exit visas but were denied exit by East German authorities. Such human trafficking was unofficially practiced between 1962 and 1990 and sanctioned by both governments.

According to Andreas Apelt, author and historian, 33,755 political prisoners (which included people who had attempted to cross the east/west border illegally) and 250,000 of their relatives were sold to West Germany between 1964 and 1989. The Haeftlingsfreikauf cost West Germany a total of 3.5 billion West Marks. http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-29889706 Some of these political prisoners were well-known agents; others were nameless. The prisoners were given the option of being released into the East or into the West. Most of them chose the West. At times, the ransom consisted of western currency. Other times, “buying free” involved “merchandise” for merchandise, such as cadmium, copper, crude oil, rubber, equipment, cooking oil, coffee, tropical fruit. Human trafficking infused the East German economy with much needed cash and merchandise. West Germany assisted for humanitarian reasons.

Haeftlingsfreikauf = ransom moneys paid by West Germany to East Germany of the release of its political prisoners between 1962 and 1990. www.walled-in-berlin.com

Start of the Haeftlingsfreikauf practice

The first East German political prisoners were bought free during the Christmas season of 1962. At that time, ransom moneys were paid for 20 prisoners and a number of children. They were released to the west in return for three truckloads of fertilizer. During those initial exchanges, the price per prisoner was about 40,000 West Marks. By 1989 that amount had risen to over 95,000 West Marks. Supposedly, the price was based on the “damage” the prisoner had caused to the regime plus the educational investment the East German state had made in the prisoner. For the last Haeftlingsfreikauf in January 1990 West Germany paid with copper, crude oil and light trucks amounting to 65 million West Mark. The funds were deposited in special accounts held by Stasi chief Erich Mielke http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-mielke-master-of-fear/ and by General Secretary Erich Honecker http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/erich-honecker-berlin-wall-architect/.

How the Haeftlingsfreikauf practice worked

Neither side wanted the public to find out about the Haeftlingsfreikauf practice. East Germany did not want to appear weak, and West Germany did not want to be seen as supporting a communist regime. Therefore, the operation remained clandestine. Government representatives unofficially handled the arrangements. Representatives of the Protestant and Catholic Church acted as intermediaries. Attorneys from both sides facilitated the operation. Wolfgang Vogel http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/wolfgang-vogel-east-german-profiteer/ represented the East German side; Juergen Stange acted on behalf of the West German side. Some prisoner releases took place in the underground railway. In other cases, prisoners were driven across the border in buses with revolving license plates.

How the Prisoners were actually exchanged

Exchanges were handled with utmost discretion. If the exchange involved busses, the prisoners were usually transported to the Kassberg prison in Chemnitz and then driven to the Herleshausen/Wartha border where they were expelled to West Germany. While still in East Germany, the bus displayed East German license plates. At the border crossing, the driver pushed a button on the dashboard, and the license plate pivoted to display a West German license. https://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Artikel/2014_Deutsche_Einheit/1990-01-23-haeftlingsfreikauf-letztes-kapitel.html

I have a friend who was one of the 33,755 political prisoners bought free by West Germany. His story is hair-raising. When he was a high school student still living in East Germany with his family, he and a group of boys in his class decided to defect. It was more of a boys’ prank than a serious desire to leave East Germany. Nonetheless, the boys planned their get-away. But someone denounced them to the authorities. All of the boys were immediately taken into custody, separated and sent to prison. My friend found himself in solitary confinement for the better of six months. One night, he and a number of prison inmates of all ages and both sexes were told to get on a bus in a hurry. The bus was standing ready. They were not allowed to take anything. My friend did not know anyone on the bus.

It was completely dark inside the bus. All the prisoners could see was that they were being driven into the woods. There was dead silence in the bus. The prisoners feared for their lives. Finally, headlights became visible in the distance. Moments later, the headlights went off. The bus continued in the direction of the headlights now gone dark and then came to a stop. The driver turned off the engine. The prisoners were told to quickly get off. Once outside and still in complete darkness, they were barely able to make out the outline of another bus parked directly next to theirs. At gunpoint, they were told to get on the second bus as quickly as possible. Once everyone had boarded, the doors closed, the engine started, and the bus took off. It was still completely dark inside the bus. No one spoke.

A few minutes later, the lights came on inside the bus, music blared from the radio and the driver said, “Welcome everybody. In a few minutes you will be in the West. You are free.”

Tags: Andreas Apelt, buying free, Chemnitz, East Germany, Erich Honecker, Erich Mielke, Haeftlingsfreikauf, human trafficking, Juergen Stange, Kassberg prison, political prisoners, ransom, West Germany, Wolfgang Vogel
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Wolfgang Vogel: East German Profiteer

Monday, November 2nd, 2015

Not only capitalist societies spawn profiteers. During the Cold War, Wolfgang Vogel, largely unknown to the general public but known to many prominent figures, pulled strings in Moscow as effectively as in Washington. For three decades, he was an extremely successful communist profiteer. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/23/world/europe/23vogel.html?_r=0

Licensed to practice law in both East and West Berlin, Vogel was the “point man” between East and West Germany. He was central to the exchanges of more than 150 spies from 23 countries and the last hope for many emigrants from East Germany. He earned millions in the process.

Wolfgang Vogel was central to the exchanges of more than 150 spies from 23 countries, photo www.dw.com

The life of Wolfgang Vogel

Born in 1925 in Lower Silesia (now Poland), Wolfgang Vogel studied law in Jena and Leipzig and passed the equivalent of the bar exam in 1949. In 1954, he began practicing law in East Berlin. Three years later, he gained the right to practice in West Berlin as well. The East German Ministry for State Security, known as the Stasi, employed Vogel to make contacts among West German lawyers and politicians. These contacts eventually helped him broker exchanges of spies captured by the West for political prisoners held by the East. Vogel died in Bavaria in 2008.

Wolfgang Vogel’s famed spy swaps

Wolfgang Vogel brokered some of the most famous spy swaps between East and West. In 1962, he was instrumental to negotiating the exchange of both, the American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers and the American Ph.D. student Frederic L. Pryor for the Soviet KGB spy, Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher (also known as Rudolf Abel). The exchange inspired the 2015 movie, “Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks as James Donovan, Abel’s defense attorney, and Sebastian Koch as the East German attorney Wolfgang Vogel. For more information on the Glienicke Bridge, visit http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/glienicker-bruecke-bridge-of-spies/

In 1981, Vogel negotiated the exchange of East German Stasi-agent Guenter Guillaume for Western agents captured by the Eastern bloc.

In 1986, Wolfgang Vogel brokered the exchange of Israeli human rights activist and author Anatoly Shcharansky for Czech sleeper-agent Karl Koecher and his wife.

Wolfgang Vogel – the profiteer

Representing the East German leader Erich Honecker, Wolfgang Vogel not only helped facilitate East-West prisoner exchanges, he also negotiated the re-location of thousands of East Germans to the West. However, his assistance did not come cheap. He became a wealthy man in the process.

Between the 1950s and 1989 (the fall of the Berlin Wall), Wolfgang Vogel was an official “representative of the German Democratic Republic for humanitarian issues.” In that capacity, he “sold” 33,755 political prisoners to West Germany. Their value varied according to their profession, their “crime” and how well they were known in the West. He also reunited 215,019 families and individuals in line with to the East German government’s maxim, “Human relief against hard Deutschmark”. http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/wolfgang-vogel-tot-der-anwalt-zwischen-den-welten-1.692361 The family reunion-seekers were individuals who had been left behind when the Berlin Wall was erected in August 1961, or they were relatives of escapees or relatives of those who had defected on business trips to the West. When these individuals turned to Vogel to obtain permission to emigrate, he was often able to negotiate the necessary permissions, provided these family reunion-seekers had private property to sell. Only then would Vogel locate buyers – for a fee, of course.

For his efforts, Wolfgang Vogel received benefits in cash and in kind. These benefits amounted to the equivalent of more than a half billion euros. http://www.welt.de/geschichte/article130633378/Darf-man-einen-Menschenhaendler-heiligsprechen.html At times, he earned half a million Deutschmark and more in just one year, practically tax-free. Still, Wolfgang Vogel saw himself as a humanitarian and a lawyer of the people. He said, “My ways were not white and not black; they had to be gray.”

Tags: 2015 movie "Bridge of Spies", Anatoly Shcharansky, Berlin, Berlin Wall, Cold War, Erich Honecker, Francis Gary Powers, Frederic L. Pryor, Guenter Guillaume, Karl Koecher, Rudolph Abel, spie exchanges, Stasi, Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher, Wolfgang Vogel
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Schabowski sparks fall of Berlin Wall

Monday, August 10th, 2015

Guenter Schabowski was a former official of the East German Socialist Unity Party (SED). In 1989, his name became a worldwide household word when he committed a colossal blunder during an international press conference. His faux pas sparked the Fall of the Berlin Wall.

Guenter Schabowski in a Nutshell

Born in 1929 in Pomerania, Schabowski studied journalism in Leipzig, became editor of a trade union magazine, joined the SED and became chief editor of former East Germany’s leading newspaper, Neues Deutschland. In 1981, he became a member of the SED Central Committee. Four years later, he became the First Secretary of the party’s East Berlin chapter and member of the SED Politburo. In an effort to improve the regime’s image, Schabowski and several other members of the Politburo forced party leader, Erich Honecker, to step down in October 1989 in favor of Egon Krenz. Schabowski became the regime’s spokesman and held daily press conferences to announce changes in the system.

9 November 1989

Live press conferences were a novelty in communist days. Shortly before the 9 November 1989 meeting with the press, Schabowski was handed a note that stated that East Germans would forthwith be allowed to cross the borders to the West with proper permission. No one told him that the new rules were to be phased in the following morning to allow time for informing the border guards.

The following is an excerpt of the pertinent section of the announcement:

(“Guenter Schabowski’s Press Conference in the GDR International Press Center,” Making the History of 1989, Item #449, accessed June 14 2015, 6:36 pm). http://chnm.gmu.edu/1989/items/show/704

Schabowski: A recommendation from the Politburo was taken up that we take a passage from the [draft of] travel regulation and put it into effect, that, (um)—as it is called, for better or worse—that regulates permanent exit, leaving the Republic. Since we find it (um) unacceptable that this movement is taking place (um) across the territory of an allied state, (um) which is not an easy burden for that country to bear. Therefore (um), we have decided today (um) to implement a regulation that allows every citizen of the German Democratic Republic (um) to (um) leave the GDR through any of the border crossings.
Reporter: At once? When? When does it come into effect?
Schabowski: That comes into effect, according to my information… immediately, without delay.

West German television broadcast Schabowski’s announcement as the lead story at 8:00 p.m. Within minutes a trickle of East Berliners arrived at the border crossings. The guards had been given no instructions on how to handle the situation. Their standing orders were to stop anyone from crossing. They called their headquarters for orders, but the government officials had gone home already, unaware of the situation. Their standing orders were to stop anyone crossing. By 9:20 p.m. the border guards at the Bornholmer Strasse crossing http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/boesebruecke-a-bridge-with-history/ yielded to the pressure from the crowd and let the most belligerent people leave for West Berlin. Soon the numbers of people wanting to take advantage of their new travel right grew into thousands. By 11:30 p.m. the crowd was so unwieldy that the guards – still without orders – finally raised the barrier. Over the next hour, around 20,000 people crossed the Boesebruecke into West Berlin.

The Boesebruecke, Berlin, seen from the East (2015) Photo © J. Elke Ertle

Schabowski Today

After German Reunification in 1990, Schabowski became highly critical of Soviet-style socialism and his own role in it. He was charged with the murders of East Germans attempting to flee and was convicted in 1997. After serving less than one year in prison, he was pardoned and released in December 2000. He says that he does not consider himself a hero for having helped to open the border. He was still a committed communist at the time, he says. But he is glad now that he helped – even if unintentionally – to bring the confrontation between east and west to an end.

Tags: Boesebruecke, Bornholmer Strasse border crossing, East-West confrontation, Egon Krenz, Erich Honecker, fall of Berlin Wall, Guenter Schabowski
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The day the Berlin Wall fell

Saturday, November 9th, 2013

9 November 1989 will be remembered as the day the Berlin Wall fell. The Berlin Wall became the hated symbol of the Cold War. It had stood for twenty-eight years and fell unexpectedly within a few short hours. Not one shot was fired.

What caused the Berlin Wall to fall

In the wake of glasnost and perestroika, Hungary had opened its borders to Austria on 19 August 1989. The following month, thousands of East Germans raced to Hungary to flee to free Austria. Hungary’s border opening created a chain reaction. Demonstrations for increased freedoms broke out all over East Germany. Two months later, in October, East German leaders forced longtime Head of State, Erich Honecker, to resign and installed the moderate, Egon Krenz. With this action they hoped to appease the public. But the protests and the exodus continued. When Hungary tightened its new border crossing policies again, East Germans begged the West German embassy in Prague for help. The situation was quickly becoming a public relations disaster for East Germany.

What was supposed to happen

To release some of the pressure that had built-up, Egon Krenz decided on 9 November 1989 to allow East German refugees to exit legally through the crossing points between East Germany and West Germany, including West Berlin. Furthermore, his government intended to also ease private travel restrictions. These new regulations were to take effect the following day to allow time to inform the border guards. In other words, the East German government intended to relax the regulations for travel abroad. It did not mean to open the borders completely.

What happened instead

Shortly before giving a live evening press conference on 9 November 1989, party spokesman Guenter Schabowski was handed a note announcing the planned travel restriction changes. The regulations had only been written a few hours earlier. Schabowski had not been made privy to their content. Instead, he read at 6:53 p.m. the press release handed to him, “…Und deshalb haben wir uns entschlossen, heute eine Regelung zu treffen, die es jedem Buerger der DDR moeglich macht, ueber Grenzuebergangspunkte der DDR auszureisen – …And that is why we decided, to introduce a new regulation which will make it possible for every citizen of the GDR (East Germany) to legally exit the GDR through existing border crossings.” http://www.kalenderblatt.de

When a reporter asked when the new regulations would go into effect, Schabowski shrugged his shoulders and guessed, “Sofort – Immediately.” His offhand answer brought about dramatic consequences.

The beginning of the end of the Berlin Wall

The press conference was aired on East German television and news agencies around the world. Shortly after hearing the broadcast around 7 p.m., East Berliners began gathering at the six checkpoints between East and West Berlin, demanding that the border guards open the gates to the West. The surprised guards frantically called their superiors but received no clear instructions. By 8 p.m. hundreds of people had reached the border crossings. Soon thousands. The crowds failed to disperse. The situation was rapidly deteriorating. The vastly outnumbered soldiers had no way of holding back the huge crowds of East German citizens. By 9 p.m. the guards began to open the checkpoints. By midnight, all of Berlin’s border crossings were open. One hour later, West Germany’s checkpoints were open as well. They never closed again. 9 November 1989 will be remembered as the day the Berlin Wall fell.

East and West Berliners celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall in front of the Brandenburg Gate in the early morning of 10 November 1989.
AP Photo – Jockel Finck

Tags: 9 November 1989, Berlin Wall, Egon Krenz, Erich Honecker, fall of the Berlin Wall, Glasnost and Perestroika, Guenter Schabowski
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Walter Ulbricht

Wednesday, July 24th, 2013

On 24 July 1953, communist statesman Walter Ulbricht became the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Social Unity Party of East Germany. He had been the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of East Germany since 1949. When the party restructured into a more Soviet-style Communist party the following year, Walter Ulbricht became General Secretary of the Central Committee. In 1953, the position was renamed First Secretary, making Walter Ulbricht the actual leader of East Germany. On account of a childhood diphtheria infection, he retained a squeaky falsetto voice, which made his speeches difficult to understand.

Walter Ulbricht, East German Statesman
1950-1971

Already during the Weimar Republic (1919 to 1933) Ulbricht had played a key role in the creation of Germany’s Communist Party. He had spent the Hitler years in exile in the Soviet Union. In 1945, he returned to Germany to reconstruct the communist Social Unity Party and to help establish the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Walter Ulbricht was a loyal follower of Leninist and Stalinist principles and is quoted as having said, “Es muss demokratisch aussehen, aber wir muessen alles in der Hand haben–it has to look democratic but we must have everything in our hand.”

In 1950, Ulbricht announced a five-year plan concentrating on the doubling of industrial production in East Germany. By 1952, eighty percent of industry had been nationalized. Consumer goods were often in short supply or of shoddy quality. His leadership is said to have been repressive and undemocratic, and that he crushed all opposition. As a result, large numbers of citizens fled to the West. In order to stop the outflow of workers he gave orders to build the Berlin Wall in 1961. Only two months earlier he had publicly stated, “Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten–No one has the intention to build a wall.” His unwillingness to seek an accord with West Germany coupled with his difficult relationship with Soviet Union party leader, Leonid Brezhnev, forced his resignation in 1971. He was replaced by his protage, Erich Honecker.

Tags: Berlin Wall, communism, dictatorship, Erich Honecker, This day in history, Walter Ulbricht
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