Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1986-0410-045, Bonn, Besuch Günter Mittag, Franz Josef Strauß

Gerhard Beil (28 May 1926,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

– 19 August 2010,

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

) was a politician for the

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed w ...

and the Minister for Foreign Trade of the GDR.

Life

After completing primary school, Beil trained as a commercial clerk. From 1943 to 1945 he was with the

Reich Labor Service The Reich Labour Service (''Reichsarbeitsdienst''; RAD) was a major organisation established in Nazi Germany as an agency to help mitigate the effects of unemployment on the German economy, militarise the workforce and indoctrinate it with Naz ...

. In April 1944 he applied for membership in the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

, but was rejected in October 1944. In 1945 he became a locksmith and worked in the sales department of I.G. Farben in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

(1946/1947), as a machinist in the brown coal plant

Espenhain Espenhain is a village and a former municipality in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. On 1 August 2015 it was merged into the town Rötha.Wismut AG

Aue Aue may refer to: * Aue (toponymy), a frequent element in German toponymy meaning "wetland; river island; river" Places * Aue, Saxony, a mining town in Saxony, Germany * Aue (Samtgemeinde), a collective municipality in Uelzen District, Lower Sax ...

(1949) and steel locksmith in Leipzig (1950 to 1952). In 1949 Beil joined the FDJ. He studied in Berlin from 1953/1954 at the Hochschule für Planökonomie and until 1957 at the

Humboldt-Universität Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

with a degree in economics. In 1953 he joined the SED. From 1954 to 1956 he worked as a department and main department head in the State Secretariat for Local Economics. After that as senior and main speaker in the Ministry for Inner German Trade, Foreign Trade and Material Supply. After a complaint about violation of party discipline, he was a research assistant at the Commercial Representation of the GDR in

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

from 1958 to 1961. From 1961 Beil worked again in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, initially as head of Western Europe (until 1965), 1969 to 1976 as State Secretary and from 1976 also as the first Deputy Minister. From 1976 he was a candidate, from 1981 to 1989 member of the Central Committee of the SED, from 1977 member of the

Council of Ministers of the GDR The Council of Ministers (German: ''Ministerrat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik'') was the cabinet and executive branch of the German Democratic Republic from November 1950 until the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.Starcevi, Nesha ...

. From 1986 to 1990 he was the successor of Horst Sölle Minister for Foreign Trade of the GDR – he accompanied

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...

on his trips to western countries.

Young World ''Young World'' is a Pakistani children's magazine, published by ''Dawn''. It has drawings, poems, and stories with illustrations that are contributed by children. It has reviews of ''books'', ''movies'', ''songs'' and ''websites''. It also has ' ...

: ''A Solitaire'', 21 August 201
wording of the article
Beil was one of the authors of the "Analysis of the Economic Situation of the GDR with Conclusions" together with

Gerhard Schürer Gerhard Schürer (14 April 1921 – 22 December 2010) was a leading politician in East Germany. Between 1963 and 1989 he was a member of the powerful Central Committee of the country's ruling SED (party). He also served, between 1965 and 198 ...

Ernst Höfner Ernst Höfner (1 October 1929 – 24 November 2009) was Finance Minister of the German Democratic Republic. Born in Berlin, Höfner graduated with a degree in business. In the 1960s, he was a secretary in the finance ministry. From 1970 to 1976 he ...

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (3 July 1932 – 21 June 2015) was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department ('Hauptverwaltungsleiter') in the ''Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Tra ...

and

Arno Donda Arno Donda (28 April 1930 – 24 November 2008) was an East German economist and statistician. Between July 1963 and October 1990 he was in charge of the East German Statistical Authority (''"Staatliche Zentralverwaltung für Statistik"''). Li ...

, as a template for the Politbüro of the SED on 30 October 1989. In this secret report, also known as " Schürer paper", the over-indebtedness and economic disruption of the GDR became clearly known for the first time. Until his retirement, Gerhard Beil was an advisor to the Government of Maizière. Beil and his wife were members of the party Die Linke. Gerhard Beil saw himself as a communist. Gerhard Beil died on 19 August 2010 of heart failure in Berlin-Karolinenhof.

Literature

* Gerhard Beil: '' Foreign trade and politics. A Minister remembers '', Berlin: Edition Ost, 2010, . * Lothar de Maizière: '' I don't want my children to have to lie anymore '', Freiburg: Herder, 2010, , pp. 98–100, 105.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beil, Gerhard 1926 births 2010 deaths Politicians from Leipzig Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Government ministers of East Germany Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Reich Labour Service members