Gerhard Stauch

Gerhard Stauch (r.) 1972

Gerhard Stauch (born May 21, 1924 in Halle an der Saale ; † April 5, 2017 ) was an officer in the special service of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR from 1954 to 1989 and in this capacity from 1963 to 1989 chief inspector and head of the customs administration of the GDR .

Life

Gerhard Stauch came from a working-class family, his father was a locksmith in Halle an der Saale. From 1931 to 1939 he was a student at the elementary school . He finished elementary school with the 8th grade and learned the profession of lathe operator at the company Weise and Sons in Halle an der Saale . From 1938 to 1942 he was a member of the Hitler Youth and achieved the rank of senior comrade leader . In April 1942 he had finished his training and was still working as a lathe operator for about six months.

In the same year Stauch was drafted into the German Wehrmacht and was initially deployed as a soldier in France and later on the Eastern Front in the Soviet Union . Stauch managed to escape captivity towards the end of the war and to return to his hometown Halle in 1945.

Initially without a job, after joining the KPD in August 1945 , he was able to find a job as an unskilled worker for the general health insurance company . Shortly afterwards he was employed by the Halle City Council as a youth officer. Afterwards Stauch was youth secretary of the FDJ district committee in Halle. From October 1946 to February 1949 he was secretary of the SED district committee in Halle, after which he began studying at the party college “Karl Marx” in Kleinmachnow , which he finished in 1950.

On January 1, 1951, he became head of the agitation and propaganda department in the political culture department of the Ministry for State Security in Berlin . From around 1954 Gerhard Stauch was first active as an officer in special operations (OibE) when he became head of the political department of the transport police of the GDR . In 1957 Stauch was transferred to the Ministry of the Interior , where he took on the role of instructor for political culture.

Still obliged as an officer on special assignments, he was initially appointed deputy to the head of the customs administration in the GDR in 1959. After Anton Ruh , the previous head of the GDR customs administration, became the GDR's ambassador to Romania in 1963 , Stauch was appointed head of the customs administration. He held this position until the end of 1989, when the GDR collapsed . In 1979 he was promoted to colonel in the MfS .

The official farewell to Gerhard Stauch took place on January 15, 1990 by the Minister for Foreign Trade Gerhard Beil , after his dismissal had previously been decided by the GDR Council of Ministers .

Gerhard Stauch was an honored employee of the State Security , since 1973 holder of the Kampford "For Merit for People and Fatherland" , since 1977 holder of the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold of the GDR and since 1984 hero of work . He was also a member of the executive committee of the central management of the Dynamo sports association , whose first chairman was Erich Mielke .

Stauch's successor as head of the customs administration in the GDR was Günther Arndt in 1990 .

After his release, Gerhard Stauch became involved in the initiative group for the protection of the social rights of former members of armed organs and the customs administration of the GDR e. V. (ISOR). This registered association is at least suspected of engaging in historical revisionism .

literature

• Jörn-Michael Goll: Controlled Controllers: The Importance of the Customs Administration for the Politically Operational Work of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR. Göttingen 2011, pages 33, 415 and 431.

Web links

• Biographical information from the handbook Who was who in the GDR?
• BStU officer on a special mission (OibE)