Werner Krolikowski

Werner Krolikowski (1985)

Krolikowski (left) on a visit to LPG Niederkaina , June 14, 1989

Werner Krolikowski (born March 12, 1928 in Oels / Silesia ) is a former German politician ( SED ). He was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED , the National Defense Council of the GDR and one of the first two deputies to the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the GDR from 1976 to 1988.

Life

The son of a worker and younger brother of Herbert Krolikowski completed an apprenticeship as an administrative clerk in the district administration of Oels after attending elementary school from 1942 to 1944. From October 1944 to May 1945 he served as an air force helper in the Wehrmacht .

From May to October 1945 he was a worker in Oels. In October 1945 he was expelled to Dargun in Mecklenburg . He was active again as a worker and participated in the anti-fascist youth committee. In 1946 he was one of the founders of the FDJ in Dargun. In October 1946 Krolikowski joined the SED. From 1946 to 1950 he worked as an administrative clerk at the Malchin County Council . After attending the Mecklenburg State Party School, from 1950 to December 1951 he was a political employee and at times personal advisor to Kurt Bürger, the 1st Secretary of the Mecklenburg SED State Management . From January to June 1952 he was head of the department "Agitation and Propaganda" of the Ministry for State Security and from July to December 1952 first secretary of the SED district leadership Ribnitz-Damgarten . In December 1952 he was released from this position “for gross violation of the party statutes” and was given a reprimand. He had decided "party disciplinary measures" against the VP chief of the district, "without hearing him himself".

From January 1953 he was secretary for agitation and propaganda , from October to December 1953 second secretary and from December 1953 to June 1958 first secretary of the Greifswald SED district leadership . From June 1958 to March 1960 he acted as secretary for agitation and propaganda and from April to May 1960 as acting second secretary of the SED district leadership in Rostock . At the same time he was a member of the Rostock district assembly.

From May 1960 to October 1973 he was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Dresden . From January 1963 (VI. Party congress) he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED, from November 1963 a member of the Dresden District Assembly and a member of the People's Chamber . From November 1971 to 1973 he was a member of the Committee for National Defense of the People's Chamber, from 1973 to 1976 chairman of the Committee for Industry, Construction and Transport. At the Eighth Party Congress in June 1971 he was elected a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED. From October 1973 to October 1976 he was secretary of the Central Committee of the SED and from 1976 to 1989 a member of the Economic Commission and the Working Group on Balance of Payments and the Federal Republic of Germany at the Politburo of the SED Central Committee. From November 1976 to November 1988 he was first deputy chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers. In 1988, after Werner Felfe's death, he became Central Committee Secretary for Agriculture again. From 1988 to November 1989 he was also a member of the State Council of the GDR.

In November 1989 he resigned and was expelled from the SED on December 3rd. Of 7 December 1989 to 12 March 1990 he was in custody . A trial for “misappropriation of state funds” was not carried out because of Krolikowski's health.

Awards

• 1964, 1970 and 1980 Patriotic Order of Merit
• 1970 battle request "For services to the people and fatherland"
• 1978 Karl Marx Order

Others

Vyacheslav Kotschemassow , ambassador of the Soviet Union to the GDR from 1983 to 1990, said in an interview in 1992, among other things, that Krolikowski had told him confidentially in 1986 that the situation in the SED Politburo had become “unbearable”; In politics there is a total dogmatism, there is no longer any discussion, a centralization driven into the absurd, an absolutely implausible information policy. You have to do something about it: change the leadership.

He lived in the von Arnim family's hunting lodge in Mahlendorf, Boitzenburger Land .

Publications

• On some questions about the leadership activities of the district leaderships of the SED , Berlin 1972
• The struggle for the realization of the main task decided by the 8th Party Congress and the importance of scientific and technical progress , Berlin 1974
• On some basic questions of the economic policy of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany from the special focus of the 13th meeting of the Central Committee of the SED , Berlin 1975
• For growing and more effective solidarity services , Berlin 1976
• The IX. Party congress of the SED on the continuation of the political course of the main task. The unity of economic and social policy , Berlin 1976
• The intensification of social production. Main route of economic development in the GDR , Leipzig 1977
• The responsibility of the socialist state power in the implementation of the economic strategy of the 10th party congress of the SED , Potsdam 1983
• GDR. Bulwark of socialism and haven of peace , Potsdam 1984
• The stronger the socialism - the more certain the peace. Selected speeches and essays. , Berlin 1988

literature

• Helmut Müller-Enbergs , Andreas Herbst :  Krolikowski, Werner . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Mario Niemann , Andreas Herbst (Ed.): SED-Kader The middle level. Biographical Lexicon 1946 to 1989 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76977-0 , pp. 289f.

Web links

Commons : Werner Krolikowski  - Collection of Images

• Literature by and about Werner Krolikowski in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Der Spiegel 47/1992