Walter Ulbricht

Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (30 June 1893 – 1 August 1973) was a German communist politician. He was appointed leader of East Germany aka the German Democratic Republic in 1950 by Joseph Stalin and was leader until 1971 just 18 years after Stalin’s death in 1953. Walter Ulbricht worked for Joseph Stalin (leader 1924-1953),Nikita Khrushchev (leader 1953/1955-1964), and Leonid Brezhnev (leader 1964-1982) from 1950-1971. The Berlin Wall was built under his leadership.

Walter Ulbricht
File:Opvolger van Pieck, Walter Ulbricht, Bestanddeelnr 911-5926 (cropped).jpg Walter Ulbricht in 1960 just 7 year’s after Stalin died in 1953
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
In office 25 July 1950 – 3 May 1971
Preceded by	Post jointly held by Wilhelm Pieck and Otto Grotewohl
Succeeded by	Erich Honecker
Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic
In office 12 September 1960 – 1 August 1973
Preceded by	Wilhelm Pieck As State President
Succeeded by	Willi Stoph
Personal details
Born	(1893-06-30)30 June 1893 Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire
Died	1 August 1973(1973-08-01) (aged 80) Groß Dölln, Templin, East Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	SPD (1912-1917) USPD (1917-1920) KPD (1920-1946) SED (1946-1973)
Spouse(s)	Martha Schmellinsky (1920 -?) Lotte Kühn (1953-1973)
Profession	Politician

Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was a member of both the Landtag of Saxony and the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic.

Some time after Hitler's rise to power Ulbricht fled to France and later to the Soviet Union. As leader of the communist Ulbricht Group he returned to Berlin on April 30, 1945. He was the first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), and leading East Germany from 1950 to 1971. Following President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973.

As well as being a sports fanatic, Ulbricht considered himself an expert on architecture and urban planning, and was therefore responsible for the destruction of several ancient buildings in East Germany.

He was also involved in intellectual activities by writing a series of books about the history of the German labour movement.

Walter Ulbricht Media

• Ulbricht 1907 cropped.jpg

  Ulbricht, age 14, at the beginning of his joinery apprenticeship

• Walter Ulbricht 1930.jpg

  Ulbricht's official Reichstag portrait, 1930

• Goebbels und Ulbricht.jpg

  Ulbricht (standing in the background) speaking at a debate between himself and Joseph Goebbels in the Friedrichshain. Goebbels is visible on the left in the foreground. The debate ended in a massive brawl between Nazis and the KPD.

• "Help with the Search for the Red Murderers": Ulbricht (bottom left) on a wanted poster for the killing of Anlauf and Lenck, 1933

• Mao, Bulganin, Stalin, Ulbricht Tsedenbal.jpeg

  Mao Zedong, Stalin, Ulbricht, Bulganin and Tsedenbal at Stalin's 70th birthday celebrations in Moscow, December 1949

• Bundesarchiv Bild 183-08618-0005, Berlin, 2. Volkskammersitzung, Bildung DDR-Regierung.jpg

  Ulbricht addresses the People's Chamber in 1950. His modeling of his beard on that of Lenin did not go unremarked by contemporaries.

• Walter Ulbricht-TIME-1953.jpg

  Walter Ulbricht on the cover of Time- 13 July 1953

• Bundesarchiv Bild 183-18231-0003, LPG Trinwillershagen, Besuch durch Walter Ulbricht.jpg

  Ulbricht visiting a collective farm in Trinwillershagen in January 1953

• East German construction workers building the Berlin Wall in November 1961

• Walter-Ulbricht-TIME-1961.jpg

  Walter Ulbricht's second appearance on the cover of Time magazine- 25 August 1961

Other websites

• Extracts from Walter Ulbricht — A Life for Germany, an illustrated 1968 book on Ulbricht Archived 2011-05-14 at the Wayback Machine
• RFE/RL East German Subject Files: Communist Party Archived 2009-02-21 at the Wayback Machine Open Society Archives, Budapest

Ulbricht (with tie) participating in sporting activities