Wolfgang Junker

Wolfgang Junker (5th from left) at the opening of the Palace of the Republic, Berlin 1976

Wolfgang Junker (born February 23, 1929 in Quedlinburg ; † April 9, 1990 in Berlin ) was the GDR's Minister of Construction .

Junker was a member of the Jungvolks and the Hitler Youth from 1939 to 1945 . After attending elementary and middle school, he completed an apprenticeship as a bricklayer in 1945 and worked as a bricklayer in Quedlinburg until 1949.

In 1949 he joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and studied at the engineering school for construction in Osterwieck until 1952 . From 1952 to 1953 he was construction manager for the construction of Stalinallee in Berlin and until 1954 for the Bau-Union Nord in Glowe . Then he was director of state- owned companies : from 1955 to 1957 at VEB Bagger- und Förderarbeiten Berlin and from 1958 to 1961 at VEB Industriebau Brandenburg . From 1961 to 1963 he was deputy and from 1963 to 1989 Minister for Construction of the GDR.

Since 1967 he was a candidate and since 1971 a member of the Central Committee of the SED and from 1976 to 1989 a member of the People's Chamber . From 1972 to 1989 he was chairman of the East German delegation, from 1973 also chairman of the Standing Committee of the CMEA for cooperation in construction.

In October 1979 Junker was the first official member of the GDR government to visit the Federal Republic and to hold talks with Federal Building Minister Dieter Haack and State Minister Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski .

In November 1989 he resigned with the Willi Stoph government . In January and February 1990, he was on suspicion of abuse of office in custody . On April 9, 1990, he committed suicide .

In 1969, Junker was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold, in 1979 with the clasp for this medal, in 1976 with the Karl Marx Order and in 1984 with the Star of Friendship of Nations in Gold and in 1989 with the Great Star of Friendship of Nations.

Fonts

• New economic system in construction and implementation of investment policy . Berlin 1965.
• The housing construction program of the GDR for the years 1976–90 . Berlin 1973.
• Current development problems of the building industry in the GDR . Berlin 1976.

literature

• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Junker, Wolfgang . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Junker in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography on Chronicle of the Wende