Editor of Neues Deutschland who helped draft the 1953 New Course, moved against Ulbricht and was purged as a “faction”
Born into a wealthy Jewish family in Gleiwitz, he became a correspondent for the Berliner Tageblatt and an agent of Soviet military intelligence (GRU). Exiled in the Soviet Union from 1939, he edited the newspaper of the National Committee for a Free Germany. Back in Berlin in 1945 he ran the Berliner Zeitung and helped found Neues Deutschland, whose editor always followed Moscow’s line. In June 1953 he and Zaisser set themselves against Ulbricht, and he helped formulate the New Course approved by the Central Committee. After the uprising he proposed a collective leadership, but in July he was removed from the Central Committee for “anti-party factionalism” and in January 1954 expelled from the SED. He worked at the Central Archives in Merseburg, died in 1966 and was rehabilitated only in 1989.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1930Recruited as a GRU agent
- 1943Editor-in-chief of Freies Deutschland
- 1945Editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung
- 1950–1953SED Central Committee member and Politburo candidate
- 1953Removed from the Central Committee for “anti-party factionalism”
- 1954Expelled from the SED
- 1989Posthumously rehabilitated
Related historical events
- 1953–1956Eastern Europe after Stalin: the crises of 1953–1956East German oppositionistExpelled from the Politburo with Zaisser at the end of July 1953.
- 1952.07–1953.07The East German uprising of 1953Editor-in-chief of Neues DeutschlandWrote the New Course communiqué and proposed collective leadership in the July Politburo, but was purged as a “faction” linked to Beria.