Friedrich Zeiler

Friedrich Zeiler (born September 9, 1920 in Munich ) is a former officer of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic . Most recently he held the rank of lieutenant general .

Military career

The son of a driver learned the profession of a plumber after attending eighth grade from 1934 to 1939 . During the Second World War he served from 1939 to 1945 within the Wehrmacht in the Air Force , where he was taken prisoner by the US at the end of the war with the rank of non-commissioned officer .

After his release in the same year, he moved to the Soviet occupation zone, became a member of the KPD and worked in the profession he had learned until 1946. In 1946 he joined the SED . From 1946 to 1947 Zeiler acted as first secretary of the FDJ district leadership in Eisleben and from 1947 to 1949 as secretary for economics of the SED district leadership in Eisleben. In 1949 he became department head of the SED district leadership in Halle .

On November 1, 1951, he joined the armed organs of the GDR , became a member of the DVP and worked as an instructor in the economic policy department of the Central Committee of the SED . From 1953 to 1955 he was deputy head or head of the mechanical engineering department (successor to Heinz Thiele). As such, he held talks in Moscow from May 18 to 21, 1954 about the repatriation of the German specialists, to which the Soviet side brought in Prof. Brunolf Baade , who later became the leading aircraft designer in the GDR. From 1955 to 1957 he was head of the technology department of the Central Committee of the SED. In October 1955 he was involved with Willi Stoph and Kurt Hager in drawing up an action plan to prepare for nuclear research and nuclear technology in the GDR, and from November 5, 1955 he was secretary of the "Party Commission for Nuclear Physics". 1957/58 he acted as head of the industry department and from May 1958 to November 1961 again as head of the mechanical engineering department of the Central Committee of the SED (successor to Heinrich Müller). On December 1, 1961, he was appointed acting head of Department I of the State Planning Commission on behalf of the sick Erwin Freyer . On July 15, 1962, HA I was converted into a military division and Zeiler was confirmed by the Politburo of the SED Central Committee as Deputy Chairman and Head of the SPK's military division. Like his predecessor Freyer, Zeiler received a high military rank for political reasons without any major military training and was appointed major general by Walter Ulbricht on October 7, 1969 . After studying at the Berlin School of Economics , he was awarded a Dr. rer. oec. PhD. On October 7, 1979, Zeiler was promoted to Lieutenant General by Erich Honecker and released from military service on January 31, 1982.

Awards

• 1970 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
• 1975 Friedrich Engels Prize
• 1980 Scharnhorst Order

literature

• Günther Buch: names and dates. Biographies of important people in the GDR. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973, ISBN 3-8012-0020-5 , p. 328.
• Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke : The generals and admirals of the NVA. A biographical manual. Christoph-Links Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-86153-209-3 , p. 209
• Wilfriede Otto , Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Zeiler, Friedrich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Armin Wagner : Walter Ulbricht and the secret security policy of the SED: The National Defense Council of the GDR and its prehistory (1953-1971). Links Verlag Berlin, 2002, ISBN 3-86153-280-8 , p. 374.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.hait.tu-dresden.de/dok/bst/Heft_01_Barkleit.pdf p. 10
2. ↑ http://www.hait.tu-dresden.de/dok/bst/Heft_10_Hampe.pdf p. 27