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

1. ↑ Legal text
2. ↑ 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
3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of February 3, 1953 p. 1
4. ^ New Germany of November 22, 1953, p. 3

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