biography
| name: |
Ulbricht, Walter (Ernst Karl)
|
pronunciation:
[ulbrikht]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1893–1973)
|
| biography:
| East German statesman, chairman of the Council of State (1960–73), born in Leipzig, EC Germany. At first a cabinet-maker, he entered politics in 1912, and in 1928 became Communist deputy for Potsdam. He left Germany on Hitler's rise in 1933, spending most of his exile in the Soviet Union. In 1945 he returned as head of the German Communist Party, and became deputy premier of the German Democratic Republic and general secretary of the Communist Party in 1950. He was largely responsible for the ‘sovietization’ of East Germany, and built the Berlin wall in 1961. He retired as general secretary in 1971, but retained his position as head of state until his death. |
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