Walter Ulbricht

Walter Ulbricht
Ulbricht in 1960
First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party[a]
In office 25 July 1950 – 3 May 1971
Deputy	Karl Schirdewan Erich Honecker
Preceded by	Wilhelm Pieck Otto Grotewohl
Succeeded by	Erich Honecker
Chairman of the State Council
In office 12 September 1960 – 1 August 1973
Preceded by	Wilhelm Pieck (as President of East Germany)
Succeeded by	Friedrich Ebert Jr. (acting)
Chairman of the National Defense Council
In office 11 February 1960 – 3 May 1971
Secretary	Erich Honecker
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Erich Honecker
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers[b]
In office 7 October 1949 – 12 September 1960
Chairman	Otto Grotewohl
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Willi Stoph (1962)
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Volkskammer for Leipzig - Stadtbezirk Südwest, Stadtbezirk West, Stadtbezirk Nord, Stadtbezirk Nordost In office 18 March 1948 – 1 August 1973 Preceded by Constituency established Succeeded by Margot Weilert Member of the Reichstag for Westfalen Süd In office 1 July 1928 – 28 February 1933 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Constituency abolished Member of the Landtag of Saxony In office 25 November 1926 – 21 March 1929 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by multi-member district
Central Committee Secretariat[c] responsibilities
1952–1966	International Relations
1949–1957	Church Affairs
1949–1956	Cadre Affairs
1946–1958	State and Legal Affairs
1946–1956	Security Affairs
1946–1950	Economics
Personal details
Born	Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (1893-06-30)30 June 1893 Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire (now Saxony, Germany)
Died	1 August 1973(1973-08-01) (aged 80) Templin, Bezirk Neubrandenburg, East Germany
Resting place	Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde
Nationality	East German
Political party	Socialist Unity Party (1946–1973)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of Germany (1920–1946) Independent Social Democratic Party (1917–1920) Social Democratic Party (1912–1917)
Spouse(s)	Martha Schmellinsky (1920 – 1940s) Lotte Kühn (1953–1973)
Children	Beate Ulbricht
Occupation	Politician Joiner
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Branch/service	German Army
Years of service	1915–1918
Rank	Gefreiter
Battles/wars	World War I Eastern Front Macedonian front Western Front German Revolution
Central institution membership 1949–1973: Full member, Politburo of the Central Committee 1946–1973: Full member, Central Committee[note 1] 1930–1937: Full member, KPD Politburo Other offices held 1960–1973: Member, State Council 1960–1973: Member, National Defence Council 1954–1960: Member, Security Commission at the Politburo 1946–1951: Member, Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt 1946–1950: Deputy Chairman, Socialist Unity Party
Leader of East Germany ← First holder Honecker→

Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (German: [ˈvaltɐ ˈʔʊlbʁɪçt]; 30 June 1893 – 1 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development and establishment of the German Democratic Republic. As the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971, he was the chief decision-maker in East Germany. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 on, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973. As the leader of a significant Communist satellite, Ulbricht had a degree of bargaining power with the Kremlin that he used effectively. For example, he demanded the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 when the Kremlin was reluctant.^[1]

Ulbricht began his political life during the German Empire, when he joined first the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1912 later joining the anti-World War I Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) in 1917. The following year, he deserted the Imperial German Army and took part in the German Revolution of 1918. He joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1920 and became a leading party functionary, serving in its Central Committee from 1923 onward. After the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933 and the Nazi-led investigation into his role in ordering the 1931 murder of police captains Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck, Ulbricht lived in Paris and Prague from 1933 to 1937 and in the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1945.

After the end of World War II, Ulbricht re-organized the German Communist Party in the Soviet occupation zone along Stalinist lines. He played a key role in the forcible merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1946. He became the First Secretary of the SED and effective leader of the recently established East Germany in 1950. The Soviet Army occupation force violently suppressed the uprising of 1953 in East Germany on 17 June 1953, while Ulbricht hid in the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin-Karlshorst. East Germany joined the Soviet-controlled Warsaw Pact upon its founding in 1955. Ulbricht presided over the total suppression of civil and political rights in the East German state, which functioned as a communist-ruled dictatorship from its founding in 1949 onward.

The nationalization of East German industry under Ulbricht failed to raise the standard of living to a level comparable to that of West Germany. The result was massive emigration, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing the country to the west every year in the 1950s. When Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev gave permission for a wall to stop the outflow in Berlin, Ulbricht had the Berlin Wall built in 1961, which triggered a diplomatic crisis but succeeded in curtailing emigration. The failures of Ulbricht's New Economic System and Economic System of Socialism from 1963 to 1970 led to his forcible retirement for "health reasons" and replacement as First Secretary in 1971 by Erich Honecker with Soviet approval. Ulbricht suffered a stroke and died in 1973.

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