Else Merke (15 June 1920 – 6 March 2005) was a member of the
State Council of East Germany, the country's collective head of state, from 1963 until 1971.
Life
Merke was born in 1920 in
Stargard
Stargard (; 1945: ''Starogród'', 1950–2016: ''Stargard Szczeciński''; formerly German language, German: ''Stargard in Pommern'', or ''Stargard an der Ihna''; csb, Stôrgard) is a city in northwestern Poland, located in the West Pomeranian V ...
, then part of
Prussia. After school she worked on her parents' farm. At the end of
World War II, Merke was
expelled and resettled in the
Soviet occupation zone. Merke and her husband became farmers in
Schenkenberg, where they founded one of the first
LPG collective farms in 1952.
In 1948 Merke joined the
Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany
The Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (german: Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands, DBD) was an East German political party. The DBD was founded in 1948. It had 52 representatives in the Volkskammer, as part of the National Front. The DBD ...
(DBD). In 1953 she was elected to the , remaining a member until 1986. Between 1963 and 1990 Merke was on her party's executive committee.
In 1950 she became a member of the
Democratic Women's League of Germany (DFD), and later its deputy chairwoman in 1964. She participated in the 1953
Women's International Democratic Federation Congress in
Copenhagen.
Merke was awarded the
Clara Zetkin Medal
The Clara Zetkin Medal was a national award in the German Democratic Republic.
It was created by the country's Council of Ministers on 18 February 1954 in order to honour the life and work of Clara Zetkin, whom the Marxist establishment regarded ...
in 1958, the
Patriotic Order of Merit in 1966, and the
Star of People's Friendship in 1985. She died in 2005 in Schenkenberg.
References
*
*
1920 births
2005 deaths
People from Stargard
People from the Province of Pomerania
Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany politicians
Democratic Women's League of Germany members
Members of the State Council of East Germany
Members of the 1st Volkskammer
Members of the 2nd Volkskammer
Members of the 3rd Volkskammer
Members of the 4th Volkskammer
Members of the 5th Volkskammer
Members of the 6th Volkskammer
Members of the 7th Volkskammer
Members of the 8th Volkskammer
Female members of the Volkskammer
Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit
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