Otto Grotewohl
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Otto Grotewohl | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Head of state | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
First Deputy |
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Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Willi Stoph | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chairman of the Socialist Unity Party | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 22 April 1946 – 25 July 1950 Serving with Wilhelm Pieck | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Deputy |
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Preceded by | himself (as Co-Chairman of the Central Committee of the SPD) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Walter Ulbricht (as General Secretary) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chairman of the Central Committee of the SPD | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In office 15 June 1945 – 22 April 1946 Serving with Erich Gniffke, Max Fechner | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Hans Vogel (as Chairman of the Sopade) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | himself (as Co-Chairman of the Socialist Unity Party) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Otto Emil Franz Grotewohl 11 March 1894 Army | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unit | 137th Infantry Regiment | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Battles/wars | World War I | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Central institution membership
Other offices held
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Otto Emil Franz Grotewohl (German pronunciation: [ˈɔtoː ˈɡʁoːtəvoːl]; 11 March 1894 – 21 September 1964) was a German politician who served as the first prime minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) from its foundation in October 1949 until his death in September 1964.
Grotewohl was a
Biography
Early years
Grotewohl was born on 11 March 1894 in
In 1922, Grotewohl and the majority of the USPD members joined the Social Democratic Party, and on 31 October 1925 he became a member of parliament in the national Reichstag to replace the SPD representative Elise Bartels after her death. Grotewohl was elected to the Reichstag in his own right in the September 1930 election and re-elected in the July 1932, November 1932, and March 1933 elections.
Nazi era
Grotewohl was eventually dismissed as a representative in the Reichstag after the
Formation of the Socialist Unity Party
After German defeat in World War II in May 1945, the country was occupied by the Allied forces and divided into four zones governed by the United States, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, and France, respectively. Grotewohl and several other former SPD politicians founded a branch of the re-established Social Democratic Party of Germany in the
In April 1946, the KPD and the eastern branch of the SPD merged as the Socialist Unity Party (SED), with Pieck and Grotewohl serving as co-chairmen. Grotewohl's hand appeared alongside Pieck's on the SED's "handshake" logo derived from the SPD-KPD congress establishing the party where he symbolically shook hands with Pieck. Grotewohl's position allowed him to avoid the systematic sidelining and exclusion of former SPD members that began soon after the merger. The few recalcitrant SPD supporters were condemned as "Agents of Schumacher" and shunted aside, accelerating a process that left the SED as essentially the KPD under a new name. Eventually, Grotewohl was one of the few holdovers from the SPD half of the merger to have a prominent post in the merged party.
In 1948, Grotewohl became Chairman of the constitutional committee of the German People's Council, the predecessor of the Volkskammer.
Prime Minister
On 12 October 1949, Grotewohl became the first prime minister (Ministerpräsident) of the German Democratic Republic (commonly known as East Germany or the GDR), five days after its establishment from the Soviet Occupation Zone with the SED as the ruling party. Grotewohl was appointed Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Ministerrat), the de jure government of the GDR, while Pieck served as State President. Although Grotewohl and Pieck were officially on equal footing, Grotewohl wielded far more real political power in state affairs than Pieck. In the East German political hierarchy, the prime minister was the highest state official, with the president nominally ranking second. Thus, for the GDR's first year of existence, Grotewohl was the most powerful politician in the country.
Grotewohl's power was significantly reduced in July 1950, when the SED restructured along more orthodox Soviet lines. Ulbricht became First Secretary of the SED's Central Committee, the de facto power center of the GDR, and thus the de facto leader of East Germany. Grotewohl remained as Chairman of the Council of Ministers and the official head of government without challenge from the SED. However, the Council of Ministers, despite being officially defined as the "government" of East Germany, was reduced to a transmission belt for policies made by the SED's Politburo. Grotewohl was this left as mostly a figurehead without any real influence on state affairs. Grotewohl was a member of the delegation that signed the
Unlike Ulbricht and most of his other SED colleagues, Grotewohl was known to openly favour a more humane way of governing. He condemned abuses in the legal system in a major speech at the SED party conference on 28 March 1956. He also denounced illegal arrests, called for more respect for civil rights, and even called for lively debate in the Volkskammer. Grotewohl also made a veiled criticism of Justice Minister Hilde Benjamin's notoriously high-handed handling of political trials. Despite his open criticism of the SED's increasingly heavy-handed rule, Grotewohl retained his posts without reprisal because the Kremlin maintained its trust in him.
Last years and death
Grotewohl, who was 55 years old upon coming to power, faced rapidly declining health during his premiership. Grotewohl was repeatedly taken to a government hospital during the 1950s, typically minor examinations in which he was released on the same day, but also multi-day stays. However, Grotewohl was not only examined by specialist physicians in the GDR, who identified arteriosclerosis and incipient calcification of the coronary system in his heart in 1953, but also took advantage of the medical care of top Soviet politicians in Moscow. On 12 November 1953, Grotewohl visited the Kremlin Polyclinic in Moscow. Afterwards, Grotewohl completed a three-and-a-half-week cure on the Black Sea. He reportedly took advantage of these unofficial stays in Moscow to conduct political talks with the Kremlin, but there are no official records. From 1955, Grotewohl's doctors were worried about the condition of his cardiovascular system. In 1959, they finally diagnosed incipient heart failure and pushed for a reduction in workload. Due to the persistent high blood pressure and the chronic arrhythmia, the physicians feared a heart attack.
In 1960, Grotewohl was diagnosed with leukemia, and the course of the year saw his health deteriorate rapidly to the point he was barely able to participate in daily political business.
Grotewohl died on 21 September 1964, at 12:35 noon, in the
Legacy
After his death, the Wilhelmstrasse in East Berlin was renamed Otto-Grotewohl-Straße in his honor; the street retained this name until 1991, following German reunification. On 15 April 1986, the present-day Mohrenstraße U-Bahn station in eastern Berlin, then known as the Thälmannplatz station, was also renamed Otto-Grotewohl-Straße. The Third German School in Chapayesky Lane, Moscow, was named the Otto Grotewohl School.
Personal life
Grotewohl was married to Marie Martha Louise (née Ohst) from 1919 until 1949. The couple had two children, a son Hans and daughter Dorle.[9] Hans Grotewohl (1924–1999), was an architect who was sent by his father to lead a German Work Team for rebuilding Hamhung, North Korea, in 1954 after the Korean War. Grotewohl married his secretary, Johanna Schumann (née Danielzik) the same year as his divorce from Ohst.[10]
He was an avid painter and amateur filmmaker.[11]
Further reading
- Roth, Gary. "Review of Hoffmann, Dierk, Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): Eine politische Biographie" H-German, H-Net Reviews. November 2010. online
- Loeding, Matthias: Der Handlungsspielraum des Zentralausschusses (ZA) der SPD in Berlin im Jahre 1945. Dissertation, Hannover 2002.
- Loeding, Matthias: Führungsanspruch und Einheitsdrang. Der Zentralausschuss der SPD in Berlin im Jahre 1945. Kovac, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-8300-0770-1.
- Loeding, Matthias: Otto Grotewohl kontra Kurt Schumacher. Die Wennigsener Konferenz im Oktober 1945. Kovac, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8300-1391-4.
- Loeding, Matthias: Wie Phönix aus der Asche: Zur Rolle Otto Grotewohls bei der Gründung des Zentralausschusses der SPD in Berlin im Frühjahr/Sommer 1945. Grin-Verlag, München 2008, ISBN 978-3-638-94173-0. (Online Resource).
- Hoffmann, Dierk: Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964). Eine politische Biographie. Oldenbourg, München 2009, ISBN 978-3-486-59032-6 (Veröffentlichungen zur SBZ-/DDR-Forschung im Institut für Zeitgeschichte).[12]
References
- ISBN 9780199569137.
- U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 706.
- ^ Dierk Hoffmann: Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): eine politische Biographie, S. 148 ff. (online bei google books)
- ^ Dierk Hoffmann (2009), Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): eine politische Biographie, S. 158 ff. (online)
- ^ a b Dierk Hoffmann: Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964): eine politische Biographie, Oldenbourg 2009, S. 189 ff. (online)
- ^ Dierk Hoffmann: Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964). Eine politische Biographie. Oldenbourg, 2009, S. 192 ff.
- ^ a b c Dierk Hoffmann (2009). Otto Grotewohl 1894-1964 : Eine politische Biographie. Veröffentlichungen zur SBZ-/DDR-Forschung im Institut für Zeitgeschicht. pp. 466–468.
- ^ Heinz Voßke: Otto Grotewohl. Biographischer Abriß. Dietz, Berlin 1979, S. 316.
- ^ Dierk Hoffmann: Otto Grotewohl (1894–1964). Oldenbourg, München 2009, S. 36 (online).
- ^ Heinz Voßke: Otto Grotewohl. Biographischer Abriß. Dietz, Berlin 1979, S. 298 (Ausschnitt).
- ^ Begräbnisse und Ehrungen für Parteiveteranen bei argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de
- H-Soz-u-Kult, 4. Dezember 2009.
- ^ Party Executive Committee until 1950