Waldemar Verner

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Verner at the 8th delegates' conference of the party organization of the SED in the NVA on May 22, 1971
Verner in front of NVA soldiers in September 1961

Waldemar Verner (born August 27, 1914 in Chemnitz , † February 15, 1982 in Berlin ) was Chief of the People's Navy and Deputy Minister for National Defense and Chief of the Political Headquarters of the National People's Army .

family

Waldemar Verner was born as the son of Wenzel Verner (1887–1938), a metal worker and co-founder of the KPD in Chemnitz , and his wife Anna, who was also a communist. His older brother was Paul Verner (1911–1986), a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED in the GDR and deputy chairman of the State Council of the GDR .

Career

Waldemar Verner learned the trade of window dresser after attending eight-year elementary school. He joined the Jungspartakusbund in 1923 and the KJVD in 1929 . Since 1930 he was a member of the KPD . Verner was arrested for his illegal activities for the KPD and imprisoned by the National Socialists for a few months in the Colditz concentration camp in 1933 , after which he went into exile in the Soviet Union . There he took part in 1935 on VI. World Congress of the Communist Youth International. Then he attended the International Lenin School . From 1938 Verner was active in the illegally operating Danish Communist Party .

He returned to Germany at the end of 1945 and, after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED, worked in the SED as district chairman in Hagenow . In May 1947 he was appointed to the Stralsund district board at the suggestion of the SED state board of the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and was elected district chairman alongside Ernst Guth. He took part in September 1947 as a delegate at the Second Party Congress of the SED and on 6/7. December 1947 at the 1st German People's Congress in Berlin . After Adolf Hennecke's top performance, the SED district executive in Stralsund also endeavored to create a similar example. Waldemar Verner succeeded in motivating the Stralsund bricklayer Paul Sack to do a comparable job.

Verner was elected in the elections for the 3rd German People's Congress in May 1949 together with Paul Sack (for the FDGB ), Kurt Krönng ( LDPD ) and Hartwig Stender ( CDU ) with 74.9% of the votes cast in Stralsund. In the same year Verner left the SED district executive in Stralsund.

Waldemar Verner began his career as an officer on June 15, 1950 at the Maritime Police Headquarters in the Ministry of the Interior , of which he was Inspector General and Head until 1952. From 1952 to 1955 Verner held the position of chief of the People's Police See , based in Stralsund, with the rank of Vice Admiral (since October 1, 1952). From 1955 to 1956 he graduated from the Naval War Academy of the Soviet Union. From 1957 to 1959 Waldemar Verner was chief of the naval forces. He then became deputy minister for national defense of the GDR and head of the main political administration of the National People's Army. Until he retired from active service on December 31, 1978, Verner performed these functions. On March 1, 1961, he was promoted to admiral as first officer in the People's Navy .

The city of Stralsund granted him honorary citizenship on May 8, 1980 , which was revoked after reunification. From 1985 to 1990 the Coastal Missile Regiment 18 was named after Verner.

literature

Web links

Commons : Waldemar Verner  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Weber , Andreas Herbst (ed.): German communists . Biographisches Handbuch 1918 to 1945. 2nd, revised and greatly expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-320-02130-6 ( Wenzel Verner ).
  2. ↑ Comrade General !: the military elite of the GDR in biographical sketches , Hans Gotthard Ehlert, Armin Wagner, p. 306, Christoph Links Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-86153-312-X
  3. ↑ Scandinavian experience desirable ?, Nachexil and re-migration , Michael F. Scholz, S. 109, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3-515-07651-4


personal data
SURNAME Verner, Waldemar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer of the People's Navy and politician (SED), MdV
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 1982
Place of death Berlin