People of the Revolution and the USSR
- Wilhelm Zaisser Wilhelm Zaisser First East German Minister for State Security, purged in 1953 after trying to replace Ulbricht
- Ernst Wollweber Ernst Wollweber Communist who ran an anti-fascist sabotage network before the war and headed the Stasi from 1953 to 1957
- Heinrich Rau Heinrich Rau Communist who chaired the German Economic Commission, the forerunner of the GDR government, and led East German economic policy