Activities and affiliations

Government and administration East Germany state institutions 1894–1964 ○ Natural causes

The Social Democrat who led a divided state into being

In April 1946, he was elected co-chairman of the newly founded Socialist Unity Party alongside Wilhelm Pieck.

Otto Grotewohl was a Weimar-era Social Democratic politician who voted against Hitler’s Enabling Act and later led the postwar SPD in the Soviet occupation zone. Initially cautious, he helped drive the merger with the Communist Party under Soviet occupation authorities, becoming the SED’s co-chairman in 1946. The merger created the political foundation of East Germany, but it also followed the suppression of free choice within the SPD. As the GDR’s first head of government from 1949, Grotewohl helped build the new state while operating within the limits imposed by Soviet power.

Security, intelligence and policing East Germany state institutions 1907–2000 ○ Natural causes

East Germany's 'Master of Fear': the Stasi chief who ruled state security for 32 years

“All this blithering over to execute or not to execute, for the death penalty or against — all rot, Comrades. Execute! And, when necessary, without a court judgment.” — to senior Stasi officers, 1982

A communist militant from Berlin's Wedding district, Mielke fled to the USSR after the 1931 killing of two Berlin policemen and was trained by the NKVD. After the Spanish Civil War he returned in 1945 to help build the GDR's state security apparatus, leading the Stasi from 1957 to 1989 and expanding it into a 90,000-strong surveillance network. The Stasi controlled all of East German society while training armed groups across the Third World and Western Europe, extending socialist-bloc security architecture. He fell with the regime in 1989 and was convicted after reunification for the 1931 murders.

Political and party leadership East Germany state institutions 1912–1994 ○ Died

The long-serving East German leader of the walled republic

His removal in October 1989 showed that the GDR's collapse could no longer be contained even within its leadership.

A German communist trained at Moscow's International Lenin School, he rose through East Germany's youth organization and party leadership. He led the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 to 1989 as the GDR's long-serving ruler.

Economy, finance and planning East Germany state institutions 1921–2010 ○ Died

The GDR State Planning Commission chief who warned of bankruptcy but could not save the system

When I warned Honecker against this policy in the Politburo I was brushed aside as a 'saboteur'.

Gerhard Schürer was the economic official who chaired the GDR State Planning Commission from 1965 to 1989. He warned that Honecker's 'unity of economic and social policy' was tilting the country toward insolvency by favouring consumption over investment, but was denounced as a 'saboteur' in the Politburo and remained a candidate member for 18 years. Summoned by Egon Krenz, on 30 October 1989 he presented the 'Analysis of the Economic Condition of the GDR' revealing 49 billion Valutamark in Western debt and impending insolvency, and proposed looser border controls in exchange for West German loans: a document that laid bare the regime's desperation. After reunification he was jailed for 18 days on charges of 'breach of trust,' released without trial, and later published his memoir Gewagt und verloren (Dared and Lost).

Security, intelligence and policing East Germany state institutions 1923–2006 ○ Natural causes

A long-serving architect of Cold War intelligence

At the August 1984 RYaN meeting, he stressed the need to establish the “actual situation” rather than mistake indicators for a Western nuclear attack.

Markus Wolf was a communist official and intelligence chief who, after fleeing Nazi persecution to the Soviet Union, led the foreign intelligence service of East Germany. From 1952 to 1986 he directed the Stasi’s Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, organizing espionage and active measures aimed at West German political, military, and economic institutions. When Soviet leaders expanded Operation RYaN amid fears of a pre-emptive nuclear attack in the early 1980s, Wolf maintained cooperation while exposing a tension between alarmist indicators and the need to establish the actual situation. After German reunification he passed through exile and trial, and used memoirs and public interventions to address responsibility for state security work and the possibility of reforming socialism.

Political and party leadership East Germany state institutions 1937–

The last communist leader of East Germany, who succeeded Honecker, opened the Wall, and fell in 50 days

On 9 November 1989, Krenz read the travel regulation draft to the Central Committee, handed the note to Schabowski saying "Here, explain this to the journalists," and hours later the Berlin Wall was open.

Designated as Erich Honecker's successor, Egon Krenz was the last communist leader of East Germany, becoming SED General Secretary after Honecker was ousted in October 1989. Just three weeks into his tenure, he approved the draft travel regulations, read them to the Central Committee on 9 November, and handed the note to Günter Schabowski for announcement at a press conference; that night the Berlin Wall was opened. He promised reforms but never gained public trust, and resigned all his posts by early December. After reunification, he was convicted of manslaughter for the border deaths and served nearly four years of a six-and-a-half-year sentence.

Security, intelligence and policing East Germany state institutions 1943–

From border controller to the officer who ordered the Wall opened

“That’s why I gave my people the order: Open the barrier!”

Harald Jäger was a border-control officer who served the East German Ministry for State Security, enforcing the state’s travel controls and intelligence work. On 9 November 1989, without clear direction from his superiors, he faced a growing crowd and the danger of violence at Bornholmer Straße. He belonged to the machinery of control, yet that night he ordered the barrier opened, allowing thousands of East German citizens into West Berlin. He later acknowledged both the GDR’s inner contradictions and the freedom brought by the Wall’s fall.