Walter Ulbricht

Walter Ulbricht was a German communist politician who 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 (GDR), also known as East Germany. He was the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) from 1950 to 1971 and the Chairman of the State Council from 1960 to 1973. Ulbricht was born in Leipzig, Saxony, into a working-class family. He joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1912 and served in the German Army during World War I, deserting twice. After the war, he became a member of the newly formed KPD and rose through the ranks of the party hierarchy. He was elected to the Reichstag in 1928 and became a prominent leader of the Berlin KPD. He was a loyal supporter of Joseph Stalin and helped to bolshevize the German party and organize it on a cell basis. After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Ulbricht fled Germany and lived in exile in various countries, working as an agent of both the KPD and the Comintern. He participated in the Spanish Civil War as a political commissar and was involved in purging Trotskyists and other dissidents. He returned to Moscow in 1941 and was assigned to propagandize German prisoners of war and process information from the German army. Ulbricht returned to Germany in April 1945, after the end of World War II, and helped to reestablish the KPD in the Soviet-occupied zone. He was instrumental in engineering the merger of the KPD and the SPD into the SED in April 1946, which became the ruling party of East Germany. He became the deputy prime minister of the newly formed GDR in October 1949 and added the post of general secretary of the SED in 1950. He consolidated his power by eliminating his rivals within the party and securing Soviet backing. Ulbricht pursued a hard-line Stalinist policy of building socialism in East Germany, implementing collectivization, nationalization, industrialization, and militarization. He also suppressed any opposition or dissent, using the secret police (Stasi) and show trials to silence his critics. He advocated for a separate East German identity and culture, rejecting any attempts at reunification with West Germany. He also supported Soviet foreign policy and aligned East Germany with other communist states. Ulbricht's most controversial decision was to authorize the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961, which divided Berlin into two parts and prevented East Germans from fleeing to the West. The wall became a symbol of the Cold War and a source of international condemnation. Ulbricht defended the wall as a necessary measure to protect East Germany from Western aggression and subversion. Ulbricht's economic policies failed to improve the living standards of East Germans and led to growing discontent among the population. He faced increasing challenges from within his own party, especially from younger reformers who advocated for more openness and dialogue with West Germany. His failures also eroded his support from Moscow, which saw him as an obstacle to détente. In May 1971, he was forced to resign as First Secretary by his protégé Erich Honecker, who replaced him with Soviet approval. Ulbricht remained as Chairman of the State Council until his death in August 1973. He suffered a stroke at his holiday home in Templin and died at a hospital in East Berlin. He was buried at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery, where many other communist leaders are also interred. He was praised by the East German regime as a hero of the working class and a pioneer of socialism, but he was also widely criticized for his authoritarianism and repression. His legacy remains controversial in Germany and beyond.