Wilhelm Pieck
Wilhelm Pieck
From the Spartacus League to GDR head of state, the sole founding member who lived the full arc of German communism
On the night of 15 January 1919, Pieck was arrested alongside Luxemburg and Liebknecht and taken to the Eden Hotel. He became the sole survivor — the last to witness his comrades alive.
A coachman's son turned carpenter, he joined the SPD in 1895 and was radicalized under Rosa Luxemburg's influence. Court-martialed for anti-war agitation, he co-founded the Spartacus League and the KPD. Arrested with Luxemburg and Liebknecht in January 1919, he alone survived. He served on the ECCI (1921) and its Presidium (1931), then led the KPD in Moscow exile as Comintern secretary. Returning after the war, he drove the SPD-KPD merger that created the SED and became the first President of the GDR in 1949, holding that office until his death.
Career timeline
- 1895Joins the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
- 1915Conscripted; court-martialed for anti-war agitation; flees to Amsterdam
- 1918–1919Co-founds Spartacus League and KPD; Central Committee member
- 1921ECCI member; elected to the Prussian Landtag
- 1928–1933Reichstag deputy
- 1931Elected to the ECCI Presidium
- 1934–1946KPD chairman (exile leadership)
- 1935–1943Secretary of the Comintern
- 1943Co-founds the National Committee for a Free Germany
- 1946–1950Co-chairman of the Socialist Unity Party (SED)
- 1949–1960President of the German Democratic Republic