Heinrich Winkler (General)

Heinrich Winkler (born March 5, 1929 in Leipzig ; † December 16, 2019 ) was a major general of the National People's Army (NVA) of the GDR .

Life

As the son of a bricklayer, he completed a commercial apprenticeship from 1943 to 1946 after attending school.

After the Second World War he worked as an employee until 1948. In 1945 he joined the KPD and in 1946 the SED . In August 1948 he went to the German People's Police in Leipzig , attended the VP School in Döbeln , and became an employee of the political administration of the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) . After attending the Treptow Political School in 1955/56, he switched to the NVA and took part in the first military attaché course in Berlin until 1957. He then went to Hungary as a military attaché in 1959 . From 1959 to 1960 he was acting, then until 1965 deputy head of the foreign department of the Ministry for National Defense of the GDR. From 1965 to 1967 he graduated from the Dresden Military Academy with a degree in political science. From 1967 to 1971 he acted as deputy head of the International Relations Department of the MfNV and from 1971 to 1990 as head of this department (successor to Colonel Josef Schütz ). In October 1978 he was named major general. On March 31, 1990 he was released from the NVA.

Awards

• Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
• Battle medals "For services to people and fatherland" in gold
• 1984 Order of the Red Star of the Soviet Union

literature

• Klaus Froh, Rüdiger Wenzke : The generals and admirals of the NVA. A biographical manual. 5th revised edition. Links, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-86153-438-9 , p. 204.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ obituary Major General Henry Winkler. Association to maintain the traditions of the National People's Army and the border troops of the GDR, accessed on March 5, 2020 . 
2. ↑ Neues Deutschland , March 22, 1984, p. 1.