Werner Wittig (politician)

Werner Wittig (born October 24, 1926 in Lüttewitz ; † January 8, 1976 in Potsdam ) was a German SED functionary and GDR politician. As first secretary of the SED district leadership in Potsdam and a member of the central committee of the SED , he was a member of the nomenklatura .

Life

As the son of a farm laborer, he attended elementary school in Luckenwalde from 1933 to 1941 and completed an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk there from 1942 to 1944. In April 1944 he was accepted into the NSDAP , from June 1944 to May 1945 he was a soldier in the Wehrmacht .

After the war he first worked as a kitchen helper in a large kitchen in Luckenwalde. In August 1945 he became a member of the SPD and, after the forced unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ), a member of the SED in 1946. After attending the state party school in Schmerwitz near Wiesenburg / Mark , he worked full-time in the SED. His first function was that of a state youth secretary of the state management in the state of Mark Brandenburg (1946/47). From 1948 he was the personal assistant to the chairman of the Brandenburg SED regional association Willy Sägebrecht and from January 1949 department head in the office of the regional chairman of the SED. From April 1952 to August 1953 he was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Potsdam-Stadt in what was then the state of Brandenburg or the Potsdam district. After attending the party college of the CPSU in Moscow from 1953 to 1956, he was employed as a department head in the SED district leadership in Potsdam. He was then from January 1961 to June 1964 1st Secretary of the SED district leadership in Brandenburg-Stadt. From June 3, 1964 until his death in 1976 he was the first secretary of the SED district leadership in Potsdam. Since April 1967 he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED and a member of the People's Chamber.

On behalf of Walter Ulbricht, Wittig was one of the main people responsible for demolishing the ruins of the garrison church , even against the resistance of a small part of the city council, allegedly also the then Mayor of Potsdam , Brunhilde Hanke . In 1970 he was proposed by Erich Honecker together with Harry Tisch as chairman of the People's Chamber Committee for National Defense and successor to the late Paul Fröhlich . However, this failed because of a calculated move by Honecker, who suggested Hermann Matern at short notice , as his actual preferred candidate Paul Verner would not have been accepted by Ulbricht, and he provided Matern as an interim solution until Ulbricht's already planned disempowerment.

Awards and honors

1965 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
1969 Order Banner of Labor
1970 Medal of the Brotherhood of Arms in gold
Battle medals "For services to people and fatherland" in gold

During the GDR era, the POS in today's Berlin district of Staaken (Spandau district) , the Potsdam Polytechnic High School 45 and a street in the Waldstadt II residential area were named after him. His grave is on a grove of honor in the New Cemetery in Potsdam .

literature

Helmut Müller-Enbergs : Werner Wittig . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. 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 , p. 528 f.

Individual evidence

↑ Handbook of the People's Chamber, 8th electoral period, 1972.
^ Friederike Sattler, Economic Order in Transition. Politics, organization and function of the KPD / SED in the state of Brandenburg in the establishment of the central planned economy in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945-52, 2 volumes , Lit-Verlag (2002), ISBN 3825863212 , pp. 863 to 864 ff.
^ SED and FDGB archives , 1st secretaries of the SED district leadership in the state of Brandenburg (1949-1952).
↑ Jann Jakobs with GDR predecessor Brunhilde Hanke in a panel discussion on April 26, 2008, accessed on October 28, 2010
^ Armin Wagner: Walter Ulbricht and the secret security policy of the SED , Ch. Links Verlag (2002), ISBN 3861532808 , p. 312.
^ Obituary in Neues Deutschland from January 9, 1976.
↑ Flowers for the District Secretary ( memento from October 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Mittelmärkische Zeitung, accessed on October 28, 2010.

personal data
SURNAME	Wittig, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German politician (SED), MdV, 1st secretary of the SED district leadership in Potsdam
DATE OF BIRTH	October 24, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lüttewitz
DATE OF DEATH	January 8, 1976
Place of death	Potsdam

[1] Handbook of the People's Chamber, 8th electoral period, 1972.

[2] Friederike Sattler, Economic Order in Transition. Politics, organization and function of the KPD / SED in the state of Brandenburg in the establishment of the central planned economy in the Soviet Zone / GDR 1945-52, 2 volumes , Lit-Verlag (2002), ISBN 3825863212 , pp. 863 to 864 ff.

[3] SED and FDGB archives , 1st secretaries of the SED district leadership in the state of Brandenburg (1949-1952).

[4] Jann Jakobs with GDR predecessor Brunhilde Hanke in a panel discussion on April 26, 2008, accessed on October 28, 2010

[5] Armin Wagner: Walter Ulbricht and the secret security policy of the SED , Ch. Links Verlag (2002), ISBN 3861532808 , p. 312.

[6] Obituary in Neues Deutschland from January 9, 1976.

[7] Flowers for the District Secretary ( memento from October 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Mittelmärkische Zeitung, accessed on October 28, 2010.