Siegfried Wagner (politician)

Siegfried Wagner (born March 3, 1925 in Hildesheim , † August 2, 2002 in Berlin ) was a German cultural politician and SED functionary.

Life

Siegfried Wagner was born in Hildesheim in 1925 as the son of an orchestra musician and his wife and housewife. From 1936 to 1942 he was a member of the Hitler Youth . After attending elementary school and graduating from high school in 1943, he was drafted into the German armed forces in 1943 during World War II . In September 1944 he was taken prisoner by the Americans in France. In 1946 he was released from captivity. This was followed by the move to the SBZ in Greiz (Thuringia). After a brief activity as a construction worker, he became first secretary of the district management of the FDJ in Greiz in 1946 . From 1947 to 1949 he studied social sciences in Leipzig . 1950 to 1952 he was an instructor in the department of popular education in the department of culture and head of the teaching a. Active education, 1952 to 1957 as secretary for culture of the district leadership of the SED in Leipzig .

politics

From 1957 to 1966 he headed the culture department of the SED Central Committee in Berlin. At the 11th Plenum of the Central Committee of the SED in December 1965, after which numerous films from GDR production prohibited, as well as many artists as Wolf Biermann with performance bans were occupied, Siegfried Wagner appeared as a keynote speaker. He attacked the DEFA production The Rabbit Am I , which was subsequently banned for performance, as a “distortion of our socialist reality and the role of the party”. The "works" of Biermann and Bieler as well as the "omissions" by Stefan Heym are "in contradiction to the serious work of our artists and many artistic institutions in the development of our socialist national culture." a. in front of the Politburo members Paul Verner and Erich Honecker who were present for not correctly assessing the situation and should have prevented this and other films ( e.g. don't think I'm crying ). One of the reasons he cited was the “overemployment” of the cultural department of the Central Committee of the SED, “because a whole series of leading comrades and responsible artists in the management have gradually pushed everything, but also everything, to the bottleneck for which I am responsible ". Wagner went on to say that "opposing forces" like the dissident Robert Havemann are now starting the open fight. Wagner described the measures taken by the SED against the songwriter Wolf Biermann as "the party's long overdue response". Nevertheless, in spite of his hasty obedience in the speech at the 11th plenum , Wagner was released from his position shortly afterwards because of his "liberal attitude towards artists".

In autumn 1966 he was appointed Deputy Minister of Culture of the GDR. “With the appointment of 41-year-old Wagner, a total of four positions in the East Berlin Ministry of Culture have been replaced or filled since the eleventh plenary session of the SED Central Committee in December 1965, which initiated the tougher cultural policy course. In January 1966, Hans Bentzien was relieved and replaced by the former communist Klaus Gysi , ”commented the western news agency UPI on November 1, 1966, on the change in personnel.

In 1973 Wagner also became president of the committee for entertainment arts , which he had set up at his instigation and which he chaired until his retirement in 1984. This committee served the SED as an instrument to implement the SED's cultural policy in the field of entertainment art. Later, however, it was also used to represent the interests of entertainers vis-à-vis the state, especially in the procurement of privileges, technology and practical work opportunities for entertainers. In his function as president of the committee and deputy minister of culture, Wagner held a key position in the SED's important field of entertainment for almost two decades. In 1979 he received the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver. The aim of the SED's cultural policy in the field of entertainment art was to keep the artists known in the GDR, but often also in the West, under control with a system of privileges and sanctions. In addition to Wagner on the part of the SED, the main department XX / 7 of the Ministry for State Security was also responsible for this. On November 30, 1988, a report from this department XX / 7 about Wagner said that GDR entertainment was in a desolate state. "These circumstances began with the practices of the former deputy minister for culture, Siegfried Wagner, and his wife, who granted entertainers special rights for gifts or certain favors". After his retirement in 1984, Wagner was a member of the cabaret work group at the Ministry of Culture from 1987 to 1989 (together with Gisela Oechelhaeuser , Otto Stark and Mathias Wedel ). From 1984 to 1989 Wagner was chairman of the Wartburg Foundation . In November 1989 Wagner left the SED.

Inheritance dispute

Siegfried Wagner died on August 2, 2002 in Berlin. Six years after his death, a dispute over Siegfried Wagner's legacy made headlines in 2009, in which a Berlin hairdresser and pop singer Dagmar Frederic were involved. The latter stated that she was close friends with Siegfried Wagner and his wife Brunhilde († 2009). The dispute was about the legacy of Wagner and his wife. In October 2011 Dagmar Frederic suffered a defeat in court on this matter and was sentenced to repay 60,000 euros she had received from Brunhilde Wagner.

literature

• Robert Winter: Closed society: GDR rock music between loyal to the line and non-conformism. 1st edition. Grin Verlag, February 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-48806-3 .
• Bernd-Rainer Barth :  Wagner, Siegfried . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Bernd-Rainer Barth: Federal Foundation work-up . In: Federal Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship, accessed on April 15, 2018 .
2. ↑ Presentation by Siegfried Wagner to the 11th plenum, SAPMO, signature DY 30 / IV 2/1/337 (Politbüro), S 328 .: Here in full text the minutes as a facsimile, including interjections from Honecker and Verner  ( page no longer available , Search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ^ UPI domestic notification January 1, 1966, 12:20 a.m.
4. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , September 29, 1979, p. 6
5. ↑ BSTU 14620/92, p. 56, report of HA XX / 7, Berlin, November 30, 1988
6. ↑ Lost inheritance dispute. TV star Dagmar Frederic has to pay. In: image. dated October 18, 2011 ( online , accessed April 23, 2012).