Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR

MfAA is a redirect to this article. See also: MFAA .

Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MfAA -
position	Ministry
Consist	1949-1990
Headquarters	East Berlin

Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Luisenstrasse, 1958

Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Marx-Engels-Platz, 1972

Facade of the Foreign Ministry and sculptures of the Marx-Engels Bridge , 1987

The Ministry for Foreign Affairs ( MfAA ) was the Foreign Ministry of the German Democratic Republic . From 1967 to 1990 it was located on the former Schinkelplatz (house address Marx-Engels-Platz  2) on Friedrichswerder in Berlin-Mitte, right next to the Friedrichswerder Church .

History of the building

The former veterinary school at Luisenstrasse 54–56 in Berlin was used as the first official building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR since the end of 1949 . The Soviet headquarters was located in this building complex after 1945. According to Ferdinand Thun , the former chief of protocol , who worked there until 1956, the room conditions in the slightly converted school complex were difficult.

So the government decided to build a completely new building in a prestigious location after a comprehensive competition for the socialist redesign of the Berlin city center . In 1964–1967, a white, 145 m long and ten storey (44 m) high skyscraper was built on the former area of ​​the Berlin Building Academy (which had initially been rebuilt to the shell) and Schinkelplatz . The plans for the three-part structure came from the architects Josef Kaiser , Heinz Aust, Gerhard Lehmann and Lothar Kwasnitza. In the vernacular it was called to the Foreign Minister Otto Winzer "Winemaker parlors" or "Winzer-castle". In publications on this new building it was said that the facade had been designed with enamelled structural elements. During the demolition, however, it turned out that the elements were made of white plastic .

Between 1995 and 1996 the building was demolished for urban planning reasons in order to make room for the reconstruction of the historical town plan with the new construction of Schinkelplatz and the reconstruction of the building of the Bauakademie. Barges brought the rubble to a recycling company in Berlin-Neukölln .

“Man designs his world” - mural by Walter Womacka in the former Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the GDR, destroyed when the building was demolished

Foreign Minister of the GDR 1949 to 1990

The Foreign Ministry was responsible for the GDR's foreign relations, the conclusion of international treaties and the management of the diplomatic service . It was represented by the Foreign Minister, several deputies to the Minister and the State Secretary. In terms of actual political influence, the Foreign Minister lagged behind the respective Central Committee Secretary for International Relations, from 1966 to 1989 Hermann Axen .

No.	Surname	Life dates	image	Beginning of the term of office	Term expires	Political party	Term of office in days
01	Georg Dertinger	(1902–1968)		Oct 12, 1949	Jan 15, 1953	CDU	01192
02	Anton Ackermann 1st	(1905–1973)		Jan 15, 1953	Oct. 1, 1953	SED	0260
03	Lothar Bolz	(1903-1986)		Oct. 1, 1953	June 24, 1965	NDPD	4285
04th	Otto winemaker	(1902–1975)		June 24, 1965	Jan. 20, 1975	SED	≈ 3 480
05	Oskar Fischer	(1923-2020)		March 3, 1975	Apr 12, 1990	SED	5520
06th	Markus Meckel	(* 1952)		Apr 12, 1990	Aug 20, 1990	SPD	0131
07th	Lothar de Maizière 2	(* 1940)		Aug 20, 1990	Oct 2, 1990	CDU	0044

¹ provisionally
² provisionally in personal union with the office of the Prime Minister after the SPD withdrew from the government

See also

• List of ambassadors of the GDR
• List of German Foreign Ministers

literature

• Alexander Muschik: The two German states and the neutral Sweden. A triangular relationship in the shadow of the open question in Germany 1949–1972. Münster 2005, ISBN 3-8258-9044-9 .
• Hermann Wentker : Foreign policy within narrow limits. The GDR in the international system (= series of the quarterly books for contemporary history ). Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-486-58345-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ministry of Foreign Affairs (GDR)  - collection of images

Individual evidence

1. ^ Before 1945, the building was owned by the Treasury : Luisenstrasse 56 . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1943, Part IV, p. 535.
2. ^ Jan Foitzik: Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD) 1945–1949 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 978-3-05-002680-0 , p. 450.
3. ↑ There as the 'acting' chief of protocol . In: Berliner Zeitung , July 29, 1989, p. 13.
4. ↑ Now giant pliers are biting the concrete . In: Berliner Zeitung , October 27, 1995.

Coordinates: 52 ° 30 '58 "  N , 13 ° 23' 53"  E