Life
Grützner was born in Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge, so-called "Saxon Switzerland", a then prosperous mining region on the German frontier with Bohemia. His father was a steel smelter. He attended junior school in Copitz, a small town which since 1923 has been incorporated in the Pirna agglomeration. After leaving school, from 1925, without undertaking any apprenticeship or other formal training, he had a series of jobs. In 1924 he joined the youth wing of the Spartacus League, an extreme left wing political movement that had grown out of the pacifist socialism that blossomed during the First World War, war. In 1925 he joined the Young Communist League of Germany, Young Communists and the German Metal Workers' Union, which marked his first recorded involvement with the Trades Union movement. In 1932 Grützner joined the Communist Party of Germany, KPD (Communist Party). After the Nazi Party Machtergreifung, took power at the start of 1933 the Communist Party was banned, but Grützner continued to work for it, now illegally. Consequently, in 1934 he was arrested and sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for "Conspiracy to commit High Treason". On his release he appears to have remained in Germany, and between 1939 and 1945 he worked in Pirna in the Chemical Industry. Directly after the Second World War, war he became, till 1946, head of the Youth Committee for he municipality of Pirna. In 1947 he switched to the Free German Trade Union Federation, FDGB (Free German Trade Union Federation / ''Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund ''), working for it as a full-time official in Pirna till 1949. During this period he also, in 1948, attended the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, party's training school in :de:Ottendorf (Sebnitz), Ottendorf. Between 1948 and 1950 he was also a town councillor and Chairman of the Council in Pirna. In 1950 he was sent to the Free German Trade Union Federation, FDGB's "Fritz Heckert Academy" in Bernau bei Berlin, initially as a student and then, from 1954, as an instructor and department head. Grützner was then sent to Leipzig where between February 1954 and March 1959 he was chairman of the Leipzig (Bezirk), regional Free German Trade Union Federation, FDGB board. In this position he was also, from July 1955 till October 1959, also a member of the national presidium of the FDGB. He was also a member of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED (party)'s Leipzig regional leadership, a position he retained till 1989. In 1954 Grützner was "elected" to the Leipzig City Council on which he continued to sit till 1981. Between 1956 and 1963 he undertook a correspondence degree course with the Parteihochschule Karl Marx, party's Karl Marx Academy, which led to a university level degree in Social Sciences. In 1959 he became Council Chairman for the Leipzig district in succession to :de:Karl Adolphs, Karl Adolphs, retaining this position for fifteen years. The period also covered a major building programme as part of the expansion of the Leipzig University, Karl Marx University (as it was known at the time) in Leipzig. That building programme is chiefly remembered, more than four decades later, because it involved demolishing, in 1968, the iconic Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Pauliner Church. A painting of Erich Grützner that dates from this period can still be found on the first floor of the main building of the university. The painting, by the artist Werner Tübke (1929-2004), was the result of a competition undertaken on the uplifting theme "The working class and Intelligence are inseparably combined in Socialism under the Leadership of the Marxist-Leninist Party" Beside the image of Grützner, those of the regional party secretary of that time, :de:Paul Fröhlich, Paul Fröhlich, and of the contemporary Lord Mayor of Leipzig, :de:Walter Kresse, Walter Kresse, are also on display. Grützner was also active in national politics, sitting in the People's Chamber, People's Chamber (''Volkskammer'') as an Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED member from 1958 till 1989. In 1967 he was called to be a member of the "Commission to develop a socialist constitution for the German Democratic Republic" under the leadership of Walter Ulbricht. As well as that, between 1958 and 1963, and again between 1976 and 1989, he was a member of the Budget and Finance Committee. Grützner came to be seen as a member of Ulbricht's inner circle, which meant that when, in 1971, national leadership passed from Walter Ulbricht to Erich Honecker, Erich Grützner's political career ground to a conclusion. From 1960 till 1976 he was a member of the State Council of East Germany, State Council, and there he was a member of the "Strategic Work Group". In 1974 he was replaced as Chairman of the Leipzig City Council with :de:Rolf Opitz (Politiker), Rolf Opitz. His last new job came in 1974 when he was appointed Chairman of the Leipzig Regional :de:Komitee der Antifaschistischen Widerstandskämpfer, Committee of Anti-fascist resistance fighters of the German Democratic Republic. Erich Grützner died in Leipzig in 2001.Awards
* 1955 :de:Fritz-Heckert-Medaille, Fritz Heckert Medal * 1964 Banner of Labor * 1970 Patriotic Order of Merit * 1985 Order of Karl MarxReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grutzner, Erich 1910 births 2001 deaths People from Pirna People from the Kingdom of Saxony Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Members of the State Council of East Germany 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 Free German Trade Union Federation members Politicians from Saxony Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit (honor clasp) Recipients of the Banner of Labor