East German heavy-industry minister who faced the striking workers outside the House of Ministries on 16 June 1953
The son of a coppersmith from Lauterbach in Hesse, he was working underground at seventeen, served in the First World War and in 1918 sat on a soldiers’ council. He joined the USPD in 1920 and the KPD in 1922, becoming the party’s political secretary in Saxony and a Reichstag deputy. Arrested in 1933, he survived the Nazi years in prisons and in concentration camps including Sachsenhausen and Flossenbürg. After the war he was Saxony’s minister for economics and planning, then deputy chairman of the German Economic Commission, and in the GDR minister of industry and of heavy industry. On 16 June 1953 he walked into the crowd outside the House of Ministries and tried to address it from a desk, but was whistled down. In 1958 Ulbricht pushed him out of his offices for a “deviant attitude”, and he turned to writing. He died in East Berlin in 1975.
Activities and affiliations
- 1930–1933 Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
- 1932–1933 Legislature and state representation · Germany state institutions
- 1948–1949 Economy, finance and planning · East Germany
- 1949–1955 Industry and production · East Germany
- 1955–1958 Government and administration · East Germany
- 1969–1975 Literature and arts · East Germany
Career Timeline
- 1922Joined the KPD
- 1932–1933Reichstag deputy
- 1933–1945Imprisoned; held in Sachsenhausen and Flossenbürg
- 1948–1949Deputy chairman of the German Economic Commission
- 1949–1955Minister of Industry, then of Heavy Industry
- 1958Pushed out of office for a “deviant attitude”
Related historical events
- 1945–1949East Germany: from Soviet military administration to the German Democratic RepublicDeputy chairman of the German Economic CommissionServed as deputy to chairman Heinrich Rau alongside Leuschner.
- 1952.07–1953.07The East German uprising of 1953Minister of Heavy IndustryOn 16 June faced the crowd outside the House of Ministries in place of Ulbricht and Grotewohl, and was shouted down.