Wolfgang Birch

Wolfgang Birke (born November 2, 1931 in Pirna , † August 12, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German department head in the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR .

Life

Birke, the son of a musician, after primary school and an apprenticeship as a baker, became a student at the news school of the Pirna People's Police in 1950 , then a commissioner for the barracked people's police force . In 1950 he joined the SED . In 1951 Birke became an officer for communications at the main training administration for the People's Police, and later with the barracked People's Police in East Berlin .

In 1956 Birke went to the Ministry for State Security (MfS) and worked in Department XI, responsible for encryption, until 1965. From 1965 to 1971 Birke completed a distance learning course at the Law School of the MfS in Potsdam-Eiche , from which he graduated as a lawyer . As a lieutenant colonel, Birke became deputy head of Department XI in 1971 and in 1974 with a simultaneous promotion to colonel. In 1984 he was appointed major general by Erich Honecker . Birke was dismissed with the dissolution of the MfS in the course of the turning point and peaceful revolution in the GDR in 1990.

Birke was a member of the Initiativgemeinschaft für Schutz der Sozialrechte eV and the Society for Legal and Humanitarian Support eV and lived in Berlin-Marzahn. Birch died at the age of 83.

literature

Jens Gieseke : Birch, Wolfgang . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
Manfred Wilke (ed.): Anatomy of the party headquarters . Studies by the SED State Research Association at the Free University of Berlin. Akademieverlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-05-003220-0 .

Individual evidence

↑ Congratulations on your 80th birthday ( memento from April 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: grh-mitteilungen 11/11 (accessed on April 5, 2015).

↑ ISOR congratulates all anniversaries, especially on their 75th birthday. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: ISORaktuell. Initiative group for the protection of the social rights of former members of armed organs and the customs administration of the GDR, November 2006, p. 5 , archived from the original on April 10, 2015 ; Retrieved on April 5, 2015 (No. 11/2006).

personal data
SURNAME	Birch, Wolfgang
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German department head of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH	November 2, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pirna
DATE OF DEATH	August 12, 2015
Place of death	Berlin

[1] Congratulations on your 80th birthday ( memento from April 5, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: grh-mitteilungen 11/11 (accessed on April 5, 2015).

[2] ISOR congratulates all anniversaries, especially on their 75th birthday. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: ISORaktuell. Initiative group for the protection of the social rights of former members of armed organs and the customs administration of the GDR, November 2006, p. 5 , archived from the original on April 10, 2015 ; Retrieved on April 5, 2015 (No. 11/2006).