Erich Mückenberger (1910 in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany a ...

– 1998 in Berlin) was a German socialist politician. He began his political career in the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD). He became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) when the East German branches of SPD and the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

merged after the Second World War. Mückenberger was one of the most high-ranking former Social Democrats in the German Democratic Republic and held several positions in the SED.

Early life and political activism

Mückenberger spent his childhood in

. He later worked there as a machine-fitter apprentice. In 1924 he joined the Social Democratic youth organization. In 1927 he became a SPD member. Mückenberger became an activist of its paramilitary wing, '' Reichsbanner''. After the National Socialist takeover, he engaged in underground resistance against the new regime. In 1935 he was arrested and sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. He was released after several months. In 1938 he was again arrested and was put in jail for ten months. In 1942 he was drafted to the German military and sent to the frontline. He was an English prisoner of war from April to August 1945.

Political career in the GDR

After returning home in 1945, Mückenberger again became active in the SPD. Through the merger of SPD and KPD in the Soviet Occupation Zone, Mückenberger became a SED member. He became First Secretary of the SED Party District Organization in Saxony in 1948. Mückenberger then served as First Secretary of the Thuringia Party District Organization of SED 1949–1952. As the Thuringia District was divided along the geographic reorganization of the German Democratic Republic, Mückenberger became First Secretary of the

Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits in ...

Party District Organization (one of the districts created out of the Thuringia organization). He remained as the First Secretary of the Erfurt SED District until 1953. Mückenberger became a candidate member of the

politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the executive committee for communist parties. It is present in most former and existing communist states. Names The term "politburo" in English comes from the Russian ''Politbyuro'' (), itself a contraction ...

of SED in 1950. He was one of four former SPD members that were represented in the SED politburo. In July 1953 he was included in the

Central Committee Central committee is the common designation of a standing administrative body of Communist party, communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, of both ruling and nonruling parties of former and existing socialist states. In such party org ...

secretariat. He remained in the CC secretariat until January 1963. He became a full politburo member in July 1958. Mückenberger became First Secretary of the

Frankfurt/Oder Frankfurt (Oder), also known as Frankfurt an der Oder (), is a city in the German state of Brandenburg. It has around 57,000 inhabitants, is one of the easternmost cities in Germany, the fourth-largest city in Brandenburg, and the largest German ...

Party District Organization of SED in 1961. He stepped down in 1971 and was replaced by the then Second Secretary Hans-Joachim Hertwig. In the same year, he was appointed as the Chairman of the influential SED Central Control Commission, the party organ regulating party memberships. In 1978, he was elected chairman of the German-Soviet Friendship Society. In 1980, he was elected as the head of the SED parliamentary group in the '' Volkskammer'' (the national parliament of the GDR). Mückenberger remained in the SED politburo until November 1989. During his political life, Erich Mückenberger participated as a speaker in the remembrance events for the liberation of the

Buchenwald concentration camp Buchenwald (; literally 'beech forest') was a Nazi concentration camp established on hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within Germany's 1937 borders. Many actual or su ...

at the National Memorial of the GDR.

Later life

Mückenberger was expelled from the Socialist Unity Party of Germany/Party of Democratic Socialism (SED-PDS) on 21 November 1990. Following the

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, Mückenberger was put on trial for shootings at the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

, a process that Mückenberger himself dubbed as ' victors' justice'. Mückenberger was allowed to withdraw from the trial in 1996, due to ill health.

Works

* ''Die politische Massenarbeit im Dorf und die nächsten Aufgaben der Landwirtschaft.'' Berlin 1954. * ''Kommunisten werden im Kampf erzogen.'' Berlin 1980. * ''Der Menschheit ein Leben in Frieden.'' Ausgewählte Reden und Aufsätze, Berlin 1985.

References