Heinz Geggel

Heinz Geggel (born November 11, 1921 in Munich ; † November 15, 2000 in Berlin ) was a German journalist and party official ( SED ). He was head of the agitation department of the SED Central Committee .

Life

After Geggel, the son of a businessman, had attended elementary school and grammar school in Munich from 1928 to 1936 , he had to emigrate from Germany because of his Jewish descent . By 1938 he completed an apprenticeship at the commercial school in Neuchâtel in Switzerland, then switched to studying textile engineering at the technical school in Verviers in Belgium. From May 1940 to June 1941 he was interned and used for forced labor . In 1940 he was stripped of his German citizenship by the Nazi regime . In December 1941 he emigrated with his family via Casablanca to Cuba , where he worked as a diamond cutter. There he became a member of the Confederation of Cuban Workers and the Committee of German Antifascists in Cuba. In 1944 Geggel joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

In November 1947 he returned to Germany and went to Berlin via Frankfurt am Main in February 1948. He became a member of the SED in March 1948 and initially worked as an editor at the Funkhaus Grünau . From 1949 to 1956 he was editor and department head at Berliner Rundfunk . From 1956 to 1960 he was director of the German broadcaster and at the same time deputy chairman of the State Broadcasting Committee of the GDR . Then he was head of the SPD working group of the Western Commission until 1962 and from 1962 secretary of the Western Commission at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED.

From January 1963 (VI. Party Congress) to June 1971 (Eighth Party Congress) he was a candidate and from 1971 to 1989 a member of the Central Committee of the SED. In 1963 Geggel rose to become deputy head of the West Department of the SED Central Committee, of which he became head in 1965 (successor to Arne Rehahn ). In October 1973 he followed Rudi Singer , Werner Lamberz and Hans Modrow as the fourth head of the agitation department of the SED Central Committee. He stayed until the turn of 1989 in this position. From 1971 to 1990 Geggel was also a board member of the Association of Journalists of the GDR .

As head of the agitation department, it was Geggel's task to swear the GDR press to the political line of the SED. For this purpose, the editors-in-chief of the GDR press had to come to the SED party headquarters for “argumentation meetings” every week. In some cases, the wording of headings and individual formulations was given at these meetings. Because of his intransigence at these meetings, alluding to Joseph Goebbels , journalists also made him Dr. Called Geggels .

Geggel died in Berlin in 2000 at the age of 79.

Awards

• 1958 medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945
• 1959 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, 1964 in silver and 1970 in gold
• 1968, 1971 and 1981 Order Banners of Labor
• 1975 battle request "For services to the people and fatherland"
• 1981 and 1986 Karl Marx Order
• 1981 Fritz Heckert Gold Medal
• 1984 Honorary Title Hero of Labor

literature

• Ulrich Bürger: Of course we don't say that! Thursday Argus with Mr. Geggel . Dietz, Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-320-01619-9 .
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs , Andreas Herbst :  Geggel, Heinz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

See also

• List of the Central Committee departments and their department heads

Individual evidence

1. ↑ New Germany . December 27, 1956, p. 2.
2. ↑ Manfred Quiring : Russia . Ch. Links Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-86153-471-6 , p. 9 ( christoph-links-verlag.de [PDF; 73 kB ; accessed on July 8, 2010] Foreword to “Russia”).
3. ↑ Grandstand from June 18, 1981.