Walter Ulbricht

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Ulbricht
General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
In office 1950 – 1971
Preceded by	Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl
Succeeded by	Erich Honecker
Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic
In office 1960 – 1973
Preceded by	Wilhelm Pieck (as State President)
Succeeded by	Willi Stoph
Born	June 30, 1893 Leipzig, Germany
Died	August 1, 1973 East Berlin, Germany
Political party	Socialist Unity Party of Germany
Profession	statesman

Walter Ulbricht (June 30, 1893 – August 1, 1973) was a German communist statesman. As First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971, he held arguably the most central role in the early development and establishment of German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Contents 1 Early life 2 Between the wars 3 Creation of the GDR 4 Notes 5 See Also 6 External links

[edit] Early life

Ulbricht was born in Leipzig as the son of a tailor. Both his parents worked actively for the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD). He attended primary school (Volksschule), and learned the trade of a joiner. Later, he served in World War I from 1915 to 1917 at Galicia and on the Balkan Front.^[1] He deserted in 1917 as he had been opposed to the war from the beginning. In 1918 he was released from his prison in Charleroi during the German revolution.

[edit] Between the wars

In 1912, Ulbricht joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. A member of the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, KPD) in 1920, Ulbricht attended the International Lenin School of the Komintern in Moscow in 1924/1925. The electors subsequently voted him into the regional parliament of Saxony (Sächsischer Landtag) in 1926. He became a Member of the German Parliament (the Reichstag) from 1928 to 1933.

In the years before the 1933 Nazi seizure of power, there were frequent disturbances caused by the presence of paramilitary forces of left and right. Violence connected with demonstrations was common, with supporters of each side fighting each other and the police. In 1931 the Communists in Berlin decided on a policy of killing two police officers for every communist demonstrator killed by police, and as a result Walter Ulbricht urged fellow communists Heinz Neumann and Hans Kippenberger to plan the murder of two Berlin police officers, Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck. The killing was carried out by Erich Ziemer and Erich Mielke. In 1932, the Comintern ordered the Communists to cooperate with the Nazis, so Ulbricht and Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda chief of the Nazi Party, both urged their respective constituents to support a planned strike. The strikers were appalled by the scene of Nazis and Communists marching together and the strike was halted in 5 days. ^[2]

The Nazi Party attained power in Germany in January 1933, and very quickly began a purge of Communist and Social Democrat leaders in Germany. Following the arrest of the KPD's leader, Ernst Thälmann, Ulbricht campaigned to be Thälmann's replacement as head of the Party. Many competitors for the leadership were killed in the Soviet Union thanks to Ulbricht.^[3]

Ulbricht lived in exile in Paris and Prague from 1933 to 1937. The German Popular Front under the leadership of Heinrich Mann in Paris was dissolved after a campaign of behind-the-scenes jockeying by Ulbricht to place the organization under the control of the Comintern. Ulbricht tried to persuade the KPD founder Willi Münzenberg to go to the Soviet Union, allegedly so that Ulbricht could have "them take care of him". Münzenberg refused. He would have been in jeopardy of arrest and purge by the NKVD, a prospect in both Münzenberg's and Ulbricht's minds.^[4] Ulbricht lived in the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1945.

Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Ulbricht was active in a group of German communists under NKVD supervision (a group including, among others, the poet Erich Weinert and the writer Willi Bredel) which, among other things, translated propaganda material into German, prepared broadcasts directed at the invaders, and interrogated captured German officers. In February 1943, following the surrender of the German Sixth Army at the close of the Battle of Stalingrad, Ulbricht, Weinert and Wilhelm Pieck conducted a Communist political rally in the center of Stalingrad which many German prisoners were forced to attend. The political pragmatist Lavrenty Beria commented that Ulbricht was the greatest idiot that he had ever seen. ^[5] This could mean that Ulbricht was not pragmatic himself, but a strong believer in the Stalinist ideology.

[edit] Creation of the GDR

In April 1945, the Ulbricht Group of party functionaries led by him ("Ulbricht Group") was sent to Germany to begin reconstruction of the German Communist party along orthodox Stalinist lines. Within the Soviet occupied zone of Germany, the Social Democrats and Communists united to form the Stalinist dominated Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED).

In October 1949, the Soviet occupied zone became the German Democratic Republic.

In 1957, Ulbricht visited the Landwirtschaftliche Produktionsgenossenschaft of Trinwillershagen in order to demonstrate the GDR's modern agricultural industry to the visiting soviet politburo member Anastas Mikoyan.

A leader of the East German communist Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) from 1949 to 1971, Ulbricht also served as the chairman of the Staatsrat (State Council) of East Germany from 1960, when Presidency was abolished when Wilhelm Pieck died, until his own death in 1973. The Soviets ousted Ulbricht from power in 1971 and he had to hand over the leadership of the SED to Erich Honecker, although he remained the nominal head of state. He died at the Döllnsee near East Berlin, on August 1, 1973, and was interred and honoured by a major state funeral.

He was married to Lotte Ulbricht (1903-2002).

Walter Ulbricht was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union on June 29, 1963. ^[6]

When Ulbricht visited Egypt in 1965, he was awarded by Nasser the Great Collar of the Order of the Nile.[1]

[edit] Notes

1. ^ Frank, Mario, Walter Ulbricht. Eine Deutsche Biographie (Berlin 2001) 52-53.
2. ^ Ibid., 88-89.
3. ^ Ibid., 117-121. Frank only gives an example of Kippenberger. Other competitors were killed as well, but it is very likely the initiative of the NKVD, given the anti-German frenzy in the Soviet union at that time.
4. ^ Ibid., 124-139.
5. ^ Ibid., 241.
6. ^ (Russian)Biography at the website on Heroes of the Soviet Union and Russia

[edit] See Also

• New Economic System
• Lotte Ulbricht

[edit] External links

• Extracts from Walter Ulbricht — A Life for Germany, an illustrated 1968 book on Ulbricht

Preceded by Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl	General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany 1950–1971	Succeeded by Erich Honecker
Preceded by State President Wilhelm Pieck	Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic 1960–1973	Succeeded by Willi Stoph

General Secretaries of the Socialist Unity Party (SED)
Walter Ulbricht | Erich Honecker | Egon Krenz

Heads of State of the German Democratic Republic
Wilhelm Pieck | Walter Ulbricht | Willi Stoph | Erich Honecker | Egon Krenz | Manfred Gerlach | Sabine Bergmann-Pohl

v • d • e Cold War
Participants: NATO · Warsaw Pact · Non-Aligned Movement · People's Republic of China
Timeline of events · Portal · Category
1940s • Yalta Conference • Potsdam Conference • Gouzenko Affair • Iran Crisis • Chinese Civil War • Greek Civil War • Truman Doctrine • Marshall Plan • Czechoslovakian Coup • Tito-Stalin split • Berlin Blockade 1950s • Korean War • First Indochina War • Iranian Coup • Guatemalan Coup • East German Uprising • First Taiwan Strait Crisis • Poznań June • Hungarian Revolution	• Suez Crisis • Sputnik Crisis • Second Taiwan Strait Crisis • Cuban Revolution 1960s • Congo Crisis • Sino-Soviet Split • U-2 Crisis of 1960 • Bay of Pigs Invasion • Cuban Missile Crisis • Construction of the Berlin Wall • Vietnam War • U.S. Invasion of Dominican Republic • Overthrow of Sukarno • Bangkok Declaration • Secret War in Laos • Regime of the Colonels in Greece • Prague Spring • Détente • Sino-Soviet Border Conflict	1970s • Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty • Cambodian Civil War • Ping Pong Diplomacy • Four Power Agreement on Berlin • 1972 Nixon Visit to China • Overthrow of Allende • Yom Kippur War • SALT I • Angolan Civil War • Mozambican Civil War • Ogaden War • Third Indochina War • SALT II • Iranian Revolution 1980s • Soviet-Afghan War • Central American Crisis • Able Archer 83 • Polish Solidarity Movement	• Invasion of Grenada • Fall of the Berlin Wall • Revolutions of 1989 1990s • Dissolution of the USSR See also • Bricker Amendment • Glasnost • Iron Curtain • McCarthyism • Operation Condor • Operation Gladio • Perestroika • Soviet espionage in US Establishments • CIA • Comecon • European Community • KGB • Stasi	Ideologies • Capitalism • Communism • Maoism Races • Arms race • Nuclear arms race • Space Race Foreign policy • Brezhnev Doctrine • Carter Doctrine • Containment • Domino Theory • Eisenhower Doctrine • Johnson Doctrine • Kennedy Doctrine • Nixon Doctrine • Ostpolitik • Peaceful coexistence • Reagan Doctrine • Rollback • Truman Doctrine

Persondata
NAME	Ulbricht, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	East German politician
DATE OF BIRTH	June 30, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Leipzig, Germany
DATE OF DEATH	August 1, 1973
PLACE OF DEATH	East Berlin, Germany