Heinz Klopfer

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Heinz Klopfer (born November 15, 1919 in Werdau ) is a former German politician ( SED ). He was deputy chairman of the State Planning Commission and a member of the GDR Council of Ministers .

Life

Youth and time up to the Second World War

Klopfer was born in 1919 in Werdau, Saxony. After attending primary and secondary school from 1925 to 1934, he completed an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk in his hometown by 1937 . Like almost all young people at that time, Klopfer belonged to the Hitler Youth . From 1937 to 1939 he held the position of comradeship leader. After completing his professional training, Klopfer initially worked in the traditional Schumann works in Werdau as a commercial employee until 1939 . Before being drafted into military service, he served his mandatory six months in the Reich Labor Service in the winter of 1939/1940 .

World War II and captivity

Then Klopfer began his military service in the Wehrmacht . He last served as a sergeant in the artillery and was captured by the Soviets in 1945. He spent these in the prison camps in Izhevsk, Hlinka and Glazov. In August 1947, the 27-year-old Klopfer was released to Germany.

Activity in the economy and beginning of the party career

He returned to his Saxon homeland and initially worked as a so-called new teacher in the 1947/48 school year . He also joined the SED in 1948 . In the same year he found another job with the successor to Schumannwerke, VEB Waggonbau Werdau, a LOWA company . At first he worked there as purchasing manager, from 1949 as commercial manager. By 1951 at the latest, Klopfer was sent to another LOWA company on behalf of the party, the much larger VEB Waggonbau Görlitz , where he also worked as a commercial manager until 1953. Side effects of this stay in Upper Lusatia was a three-month short course from October to December 1951 at the district party school in Oybin and, due to its importance within the Görlitz company, co-opting as a member of the SED district leadership in Görlitz in 1952. At the same time, from 1952 Klopfer began a distance learning course in economics at the University of Leipzig , which he completed in 1957 with a degree in economics.

Short phase in the ministry and promotion to general director

In the course of the formation of a ministry for the construction of means of transport and agricultural machinery at the beginning of 1953 under Minister Bernd Weinberger , Klopfer received a call to Berlin, where he was hired as the main department head for materials management at the ministry. Since this ministry was only granted a short duration, it was dissolved again in November of the same year, at the beginning of 1954 Klopfer moved to the combine harvester plant there in Weimar , where he worked as commercial director until 1958. He then switched to VVB equipment for heavy industry and gear manufacturing, where he worked his way up from employee to manager and planning manager to general director in 1963. This VVB brought together major heavy industry operations across the country at the Leipzig and Magdeburg locations. In terms of this function, Klopfer was a member of the Senate of the Technical University and the SED district leadership in Magdeburg from 1964 to 1966 .

At the center of GDR economic policy

At the wedding of the NÖSPL , the new chairman of the State Planning Commission, Gerhard Schürer, brought Klopfer into his office at the beginning of 1966, and in February 1966 he was appointed deputy chairman of the State Planning Commission for annual planning as the successor to Karl Grünheid . In 1969 he was appointed State Secretary of the State Planning Commission, in 1974 Klopfer became a member of the GDR Council of Ministers in this capacity . At the 10th  party congress of the SED , Klopfer was elected as a candidate to the central committee of the SED and was again confirmed as a candidate at the two following party conventions. Klopfer was a member of the Council of Ministers until the political turnaround and, alongside Günter Mittag and Gerhard Schürer, was one of the most influential economic functionaries in the GDR's last two decades.

Honors

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland from December 16, 1969 p. 2
  2. ↑ Neues Deutschland from October 6, 1971 p. 6
  3. ^ New Germany of October 3, 1974 p. 5
  4. ↑ Neues Deutschland, December 4, 1975 p. 5
  5. ↑ Neues Deutschland, October 5, 1984 p. 4
  6. ^ New Germany of October 6, 1989 p. 2
personal data
SURNAME Knockers, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SED), economic functionary of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH November 15, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Werdau