Paul Wessel

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Paul Wessel (born April 9, 1904 in Plauen , † January 20, 1967 in Berlin ) was a member of the Small Secretariat of the Politburo of the SED party executive in the GDR .

Life

As the son of a worker, after graduating from elementary school in 1918, he trained as a metal worker. He attended advanced training and trade school and worked as an accountant until 1926. He joined the Socialist Workers' Youth in 1918 and was a member of the SPD from 1921 to 1932 and a correspondent for the SPD parliamentary group in Saxony from 1926 to 1927 . In 1924 he attended the party school in Gera / Tinz. From 1929 to 1938 he was a worker or master at the Wolfen chemical works . In 1932/33 he was a member of SAP . In 1938 he worked as head master of an artificial silk mill in Athens and then stayed in Switzerland and Italy. From 1939 to 1946 he worked as a foreman in the Agfa film factory in Wolfen .

Since July 1945 he was chairman of the SPD local group Wolfen, from the beginning of 1946 head of the economic department of the SPD for the province of Saxony in Halle (Saale) , after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD together with Otto Herbert von der KPD head of the economic department of the SED State Association of Saxony-Anhalt .

In the semi-free state elections in the Soviet zone in 1946 , he was elected to the state parliament of Saxony-Anhalt in constituency II ( Burg , Magdeburg , Schönebeck , Jerichow I , Wolmirstedt , Haldensleben , Wanzleben ) . In the state parliament he was chairman of the economic committee and a member of the transport committee and the transport commission. On March 31, 1950, he resigned his state parliament mandate.

On December 14, 1948, he and Walter Ulbricht were elected to the German Economic Commission of the Soviet Zone of Occupation by the state parliament . After all, he was secretary of the SED regional association in Halle (Saale) until 1949. Since 1948 also a member of the People's Council of the Soviet Occupation Zone, after the founding of the GDR in October 1949 he became a member of the Provisional People's Chamber and in November 1949 he was elected to the newly formed Economic Committee of the People's Chamber. From 1949 to 1951 he was a member of the Small Secretariat of the Politburo of the SED party executive.

As a former SPD member, Paul Wessel was the subject of internal party purges in the early 1950s. Besides Käthe Kern , he was the only member of the state parliament who came from the former SPD and who survived these purges. The emerging state security had created the group file "Salpeter" for the fight against " social democracy ", in which the former SPD members, including Paul Wessel, were recorded and checked. Paul Wessel was confirmed as a loyal supporter of the SED in this investigation. Still, a former Social Democrat appeared in the Politburo at risk. The problem was solved while saving face: in mid-1950 Wessel attended the SED's "Karl Marx" party college. Since this prevented him from attending the SED party congress , he could not run again or be re-elected.

After attending the party college, he was deputy director of the German Chemical Center (DHZ) from 1951 to 1960, or deputy general director and head of the trade policy department of the foreign trade company mining trade.

After the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 , he was again targeted by the security authorities. The Stasi, the company secretary and the district party control commission were looking for evidence of a hostile attitude. But there were only minor misconduct. B. not worn a party badge for a week and used the word "Vopo" (for People's Policeman ), which was rated as RIAS language. The fact that Paul Wessel was uncritical about the SED regime was overshadowed by the fact that he belonged to the circle of acquaintances of the former state parliament president Bruno Böttge . After his arrest, the Ministry of State Security advised that Wessel should also be arrested. A dispute over competence between the Stasi Magdeburg and Halle saved him from this fate. However, he remained under surveillance by the Stasi.

From 1961 to 1965 he was a trade councilor at the embassy of the GDR in Pyongyang and then an employee at the Ministry for Foreign Trade and Internal German Trade .

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christina Trittel: The parliamentary groups in Saxony-Anhalt from 1946 to 1950: Analysis of state political action and the scope for action of collective actors in the emerging GDR, 2006, ISBN 9783835096684 , pp. 71, 75, 243
  2. ^ New Germany of November 11, 1949
  3. ↑ Christina Trittel: The parliamentary groups in Saxony-Anhalt from 1946 to 1950: Analysis of state political action and the scope for action of collective actors in the emerging GDR, 2006, ISBN 9783835096684 , pp. 243–245
  4. ↑ Congratulations on your 60th birthday in Neues Deutschland on April 9, 1964
personal data
SURNAME Wessel, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SED), MdV, member of the small secretariat of the Politburo of the SED party executive in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Plauen
DATE OF DEATH 20th January 1967
Place of death Berlin