Werner Walde | |||||||||||||
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.jpg.webp) Walde in 1989 | |||||||||||||
| First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party in Bezirk Cottbus | |||||||||||||
| In office 1 June 1969 – 10 November 1989 | |||||||||||||
| Second Secretary |
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| Preceded by | Albert Stief | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Wolfgang Thiel | ||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | Werner Walde 12 February 1926 Döbeln, Free State of Saxony, Weimar Republic | ||||||||||||
| Died | 26 June 2010 (aged 84) Cottbus, Brandenburg, Germany | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Socialist Unity Party (1946–1989) | ||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Social Democratic Party (1946) | ||||||||||||
| Alma mater |
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| Occupation |
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| Awards |
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Central institution membership
Other offices held
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Werner Walde (12 February 1926 – 26 June 2010) was a German politician and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
In the German Democratic Republic, he served as the longtime First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Cottbus and was a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED.
Life and career
Walde came from a working-class family.[1] After attending elementary school in Döbeln-Großbauchlitz, he completed training as an administrative employee from 1940 to 1943. He held leadership positions in the German Youth and the Hitler Youth. From June 1943 to April 1945, he was deployed in the Reich Labor Service in Poland, France, and the Netherlands, ultimately as the head foreman. In April 1945, he was conscripted into the Wehrmacht as a soldier and was captured in early May 1945 in Hagenow, initially by American forces and later by British captivity, which he experienced from June to July 1945 in Eutin.[2]
After his release, he worked as a farm laborer for a farmer in Westerode until August 1945. From August 1945 to December 1950, he worked as an employee of the Social Security Fund in Döbeln.[2]
After the Wende, Walde retired, dying in Cottbus on 26 June 2010.[2]
Political career
Early career
In 1945, he became a member of the FDGB (Free German Trade Union Federation) and was a member of the factory trade union leadership from 1946 to 1950. In February 1946, he joined the SPD (later SED), and in 1948, he joined the FDJ (Free German Youth).
In 1950, he attended the local SED Party School in Meißen, where he worked as an assistant and teacher until 1953. Afterward, from 1953 to 1955, he served as the deputy and acting principal of the SED Bezirk Cottbus Party School.[2]
Bezirk Cottbus SED career
From 1954 to 1960, he pursued a distance learning program to obtain a diploma in Social Sciences at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy. From 1955 to 1961, he worked as a staff member and department head of the SED in Bezirk Cottbus. From August 1961 to February 1964, he served as the First Secretary of the SED in Senftenberg and as a district council delegate.[1]
From 1964 to 1966, he studied at the University of Economics in Berlin, earning a degree in economics. Subsequently, from April 1966 to June 1969, he was the Secretary for Organization and Cadre Work and the Second Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Cottbus.[2]
On 1 June 1969, Walde rose to the position of the First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Cottbus, Albert Stief being seriously ill.[3]
Walde's tenure was viewed ambivalently. While he lived a modest lifestyle for a top SED functionary and was viewed as sticking up for the districts in his Bezirk, he was known for being a hardliner when it came to military service and those refusing to do so. When it came to art and culture, he was orthodox and clueless, something he later admitted.[3]
SED Central Committee
From 19 June 1971 (VIII. Party Congress) to December 1989, he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED. From November 1971 to 1989, Walde was a delegate of the Bezirk Cottbus Council and a member of the Volkskammer. From 22 May 1976 (IX. Party Congress) until his removal from this position in November 1989, he was a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED,[2] the Bezirk Cottbus being an important centre for coal and energy.[3]
On 20 January 1990, he was expelled from the now-renamed SED-PDS party, the party Central Arbitration Commission citing his energy policy mismanagement.[4]
References
- 1 2 "Chronik-Biographie: Werner Walde". www.chronikderwende.de. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Walde, Werner | Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-11-04.
- 1 2 3 "Aufstieg und Fall eines Parteisoldaten - Cottbuser Geschichten - Themen - WochenKurier". www.wochenkurier.info (in German). 2019-07-15. Retrieved 2023-11-04.
- ↑ Werner Walde, retrieved 2023-11-04