Council of Ministers of the GDR (1950–1954)
At the constituent meeting of the People's Chamber on November 8, 1950, Otto Grotewohl was elected Prime Minister. At the same time, the law on the government of the German Democratic Republic was passed, giving it a structure. Grotewohl presented his government at the 2nd session of the People's Chamber on November 15, 1950. These included 4 state secretaries with their own business area, whose secretariats were set up by resolution at the 1st government meeting, which took place before the 2nd People's Chamber meeting. At the 2nd government meeting on November 16, 1950, the respective state secretaries of the ministries were appointed by resolution. Among the 21 ministers and almost 30 state secretaries were 13 candidates and members of the Central Committee of the SED, including 4 members of the Politburo. The bloc parties were represented by a total of 9 ministers and 8 state secretaries, with the CDU alone providing 4 ministers. As the only bloc party, the DBD did not have a deputy prime minister at the beginning of the government period. The following overview lists the ministers and state secretaries of the GDR government at the beginning of the government period.
Members of the Government of the GDR (on November 16, 1950)
minister
function | Official | State Secretary | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Surname | Political party | Surname | Political party | |
Prime Minister | Otto Grotewohl | SED |
Fritz Geyer Fritz Lange |
SED SED |
Deputy Prime Minister | Walter Ulbricht | SED | ||
Otto Nuschke | CDU | |||
Heinrich Rau | SED | |||
Hans Loch | LDPD | |||
Lothar Bolz | NDPD | |||
Chairman of the State Planning Commission | Heinrich Rau | SED |
Bruno Leuschner Paul Straßenberger Erwin Kerber |
SED SED SED |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | Georg Dertinger | CDU | Anton Ackermann | SED |
Minister for Foreign Trade and Internal German Trade | Georg Handke | SED | Hans-Paul Ganter-Gilmans | CDU |
Minister of the Interior | Karl Steinhoff | SED | Hans Warnke | SED |
Minister of Finance | Hans Loch | LDPD | Willi Georgino | SED |
Minister for Popular Education | Paul change | SED |
Elisabeth Zaisser Ruth Fabisch |
SED LDPD |
Minister for State Security | Wilhelm Zaisser | SED | Erich Mielke | SED |
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry | Paul Scholz | DBD | Kurt Siegmund | SED |
Minister for Trade and Supply | Karl Hamann | LDPD |
Paul Baender Lisa Krause from October 1, 1952 Friedrich Schneiderheinze from February 2, 1953 |
SED SED SED |
Minister of Health | Luitpold Steidle | CDU | Jenny Matern | SED |
Minister of Transport | Hans Reingruber | independent |
Ernst Wollweber Erich Wächter |
SED CDU |
Minister of Post and Telecommunications | Friedrich Burmeister | CDU | Wilhelm Schröder | SED |
Minister for Construction | Lothar Bolz | NDPD | Hans Wermund | LDPD |
Minister for Heavy Industry | Fritz Selbmann | SED | Kurt Gregor | SED |
Minister of Justice | Max Fechner | SED | Heinrich Toeplitz | CDU |
Minister of Mechanical Engineering | Gerhart Ziller | SED | Alfred Wunderlich | NDPD |
Minister for Light Industry | Wilhelm Feldmann | NDPD | Willi-Peter Konzok | LDPD |
Minister of Labor | Roman Chwalek | SED | Friedel Malter | SED |
State secretaries with their own portfolio
By law on the government of the GDR of November 8, 1950 (Law Gazette of the GDR p. 1135), the government was authorized under Section 5 to set up state secretariats. These had their own business area. Their state secretaries took part in government meetings with a decision-making vote.
function | Official | annotation | |
---|---|---|---|
Surname | Political party | ||
State Secretary for Registration and Buying | Hermann Streit | SED | appointed by government decision of November 15, 1950 |
State Secretary for the Food and Beverage Industry | Rudolf Albrecht | DBD | appointed by government resolution of November 15, 1950, the State Secretariat was converted into a ministry by government resolution of June 11, 1953 |
State Secretary for Vocational Training | Rudolf Wießner | SED | appointed by government decision of November 15, 1950 |
State Secretary for the coordination of the entire financial sector | Willy hull | SED | Appointed by government decision of November 15, 1950, formed in the Ministry of Finance, Rumpf was also Deputy Minister |
State Secretary for Coal and Energy | Max Fritsch | SED | from November 5, 1951 after division of the Ministry of Heavy Industry |
State Secretary for Chemistry, Stones and Earths | Dirk van Rickelen | SED | from November 5, 1951 after division of the Ministry of Heavy Industry |
Temporary ministries
In order to better coordinate the structure of the CIP and to be able to solve problems in the field of mechanical engineering, it was decided at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the GDR on December 19, 1952 to dissolve the Ministry of Mechanical Engineering and to divide it into 3 individual departments. On February 4, 1953, the People's Chamber approved the appointment of the respective ministers.
function | Official | function | Official | State Secretary |
---|---|---|---|---|
Minister of Mechanical Engineering | Gerhart Ziller | Minister for Heavy Machinery | Gerhart Ziller | Ernst Lungewitz |
Minister of Transport and Agricultural Machinery | Bernd Weinberger | Ernst Wolf | ||
Minister for General Mechanical Engineering | Helmut Wunderlich | Friedrich Schneider |
At the 33rd meeting of the GDR Council of Ministers on November 16, 1953, it was decided again to dissolve the 3 ministries and to form a ministry for mechanical engineering. Heinrich Rau became the new minister .
Members of the government of the GDR at the end of the electoral term
At the last government meeting on November 18, 1954, only 6 out of 18 specialist ministers managed the department that they had taken over in 1950. However, it must be taken into account that Paul Scholz, as Minister of Agriculture, did not lead this department in the meantime and Fritz Selbmann, as Minister for Heavy Industry, was now in charge of the slightly differently structured Ministry of Metallurgy and Ore Mining. Thus only 4 ministers ran their ministry continuously. The Ministry of State Security was downgraded to the State Secretariat as a result of the events around June 17th, and the Ministry of Transport was transformed into a Ministry of Railways with two additional State Secretariats. The only real new addition to the ministries was the Ministry of Culture, which from January 1954 united various committees and commissions. In addition, the State Secretariat for Trade and Supply has been upgraded to a ministry. There were also 7 new state secretariats, 2 each in the area of transport and home affairs.
minister
function | Official | State Secretary | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Surname | Political party | Surname | Political party | |
Prime Minister | Otto Grotewohl | SED | Fritz Geyer | SED |
Deputy Prime Minister | Walter Ulbricht | SED | ||
Otto Nuschke | CDU | |||
Heinrich Rau | SED | |||
Hans Loch | LDPD | |||
Lothar Bolz | NDPD | |||
Paul Scholz | DBD | |||
Chairman of the State Planning Commission | Bruno Leuschner | SED | Willy Sägebrecht | SED |
Minister for Foreign Affairs | Lothar Bolz | NDPD | Georg Handke | SED |
Minister for Foreign Trade and Internal German Trade | Kurt Gregor | SED |
Willy Hüttenrauch Josef Orlopp |
SED SED |
Minister of the Interior | Willi Stoph | SED | 2 State Secretariats with their own business area | |
Minister of Finance | Hans Loch | LDPD | Willi Georgino | SED |
Minister for Popular Education | Hans-Joachim Laabs | SED | Gertrud Bobek | SED |
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry | Paul Scholz | DBD | Kurt Siegmund | SED |
Minister for Trade and Supply | Curt Wach | SED | Gerda Wachowius from August 16, 1954 | SED |
Minister of Health | Luitpold Steidle | CDU | Jenny Matern | SED |
Minister of Post and Telecommunications | Friedrich Burmeister | CDU | Kurt Gebhardt | SED |
Minister for Construction | Heinz Winkler | SED | Josef Hafrang from January 1, 1953 | SED |
Minister for Heavy Industry | Fritz Selbmann | SED | Richard Goschütz | SED |
Minister of Justice | Hilde Benjamin | SED | Heinrich Toeplitz | CDU |
Minister of Mechanical Engineering | Heinrich Rau | SED | Friedrich Schneider | SED |
Minister for Light Industry | Wilhelm Feldmann | NDPD | Rudolf Teichmann | SED |
Minister of Labor | Friedrich Macher | SED | Friedel Malter | SED |
Minister for the Food Industry | Kurt Westphal | SED | Ruth Fabisch | LDPD |
Minister of Culture | Johannes R. Becher | SED | Fritz Apelt | SED |
Minister of Railways | Roman Chwalek | SED | 2 State Secretariats with their own business area |
State secretaries with their own portfolio
function | Official | annotation | |
---|---|---|---|
Surname | Political party | ||
State Secretary for Energy (April 30, 1953 until dissolution in December 1953) | Rolf Jeczmionka | SED | from July 23, 1953 |
State Secretary for Chemistry | Werner Winkler | SED | from April 23, 1953 |
State Secretary for Registration and Buying | Hermann Streit | SED | |
State Secretary for Vocational Training | Rudolf Wießner | SED | |
State Secretary for the coordination of the entire financial sector | Willy hull | SED | |
State Secretary for Higher Education and Technical Education | Gerhard Harig | SED | |
State Secretary for Shipping | Ernst Wollweber | SED | from April 30, 1953, after his appointment as State Secretary for State Security on July 23, 1953, no new State Secretary was appointed until the end of the electoral term |
State Secretary for Motor Transport and Roads | Heino Weiprecht | SED | |
State Secretary for Local Economy | Karl Kasten | SED | |
Chairman of the State Committee on Physical Culture and Sports | Manfred Ewald | SED | |
State Secretary for Internal Affairs in the Ministry of the Interior | Josef Hegen | SED | |
State Secretary for State Security in the Ministry of the Interior | Ernst Wollweber | SED | from July 23, 1953, also Deputy Minister of the Interior |
Remarks
- ↑ Legal text
- ↑ as chairman of the Central Commission for State Control reporting directly to the Prime Minister and member of the government with a decision-making vote
- ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 3, 1953 p. 1
- ^ New Germany of November 22, 1953, p. 3
swell
- BArch DC 20-I / 3 / [36] to BArch DC 20-I / 3 / [239]