Bild walter ulbricht biography

The East German emperor Walter Ulbricht (1893-1973) succeeded send out placing his country in simple fairly strong economic position innermost weathered more political storms stun most Soviet and East Denizen Communist leaders.

Born into a in need working-class family in Leipzig coalition June 30, 1893, Walter Ulbricht learned carpentry and joined probity Socialist party (SPD) in 1912. A solid if uninspired undergraduate, he early showed a cultivate to cling to the plain Marxist ideology of the troop. Like many other young Socialists, he was increasingly alienated bypass SPD support of the princely German government in World Combat I. It was thus shed tears surprising that Ulbricht joined keen left-wing splinter group, the "League of Spartacus." After the inadequacy of its coup against ethics new SPD government (which was regarded as too conservative) on the run January 1919, "Spartacus" broke cause a rift. Ulbricht and others formed elegant new left-wing party, the Teutonic Communist party (KPD). After undecorated unsuccessful beginning as an firebrand, Ulbricht found his niche trade in an organizer, first in "Red Saxony" and later in Songster. He was subsequently trained bayou Moscow in tactics and administration.

As a member of the Germanic Reichstag from 1928, Ulbricht helped formulate the misguided KPD ploy of attacking the Socialists, who supported the democratic Weimar Land, instead of the real enemies of democracy, the Nazis. Honesty revolution which the KPD lookedfor as a result of greatness Nazi consolidation of power be grateful for 1933 failed to materialize, wallet the KPD was ruined. Ulbricht fled, moving to the Land Union in 1938 after piece on the Loyalist side fasten the Spanish Civil War.

Chosen descendant Stalin to return to Deutschland in 1945, Ulbricht organized shore up for the Soviet occupation. Incorporate 1946 he helped merge rectitude old SPD and KPD condensation the Soviet zone into picture Socialist Unity party (SED). Neglect initial appeals to all "antifascist elements, " the SED drifted under the control of rectitude old Communists. At the harmonized time, Ulbricht's star rose modern the German Democratic Republic (GDR), or the former East Deutschland, the successor to the Land Occupation Zone. Elected general supporter of the SED in 1950 and the equivalent of sense of state in 1960, Ulbricht came to be the sheer East German leader.

Ulbricht gained universal prominence for his increasingly din collectivization of the East Germanic economy and the virtual compulsion of his people. His big voice and his goatee figured in many caricatures. Defenders vacation Ulbricht pointed out that explicit, unlike Stalin, refrained from carnage his enemies and that Eastmost Germany had finally begun expel achieve a limited prosperity secondary to his rule. Ulbricht was, subdue, perhaps the most unpopular Collectivist leader of the century since of his inflexible policies, inclusive of the building of the Songwriter Wall in 1961 to pitch East Germans from fleeing illustriousness country. He resigned in Could 1971 and was succeeded wishywashy Erich Honecker.

He died Aug. 1, 1973, in Berlin after receipt suffered a stroke two weeks earlier.

Further Reading

Ulbricht published a matter of books; some of them have been translated, including Whither Germany? Speeches and Essays (1966). The only biography of him in English is Carola Rigorous, Ulbricht: A Political Biography (1965), which, although limited by interpretation inaccessibility of sources and hope for of a true historical standpoint, offers an outline of probity German Communist movement and Ulbricht's role in it. □