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Willi Stoph

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Army General
Willi Stoph
Stoph in 1976
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
In office
29 October 1976 – 13 November 1989
PresidentErich Honecker
Egon Krenz
General SecretaryErich Honecker
First Deputy
Preceded byHorst Sindermann
Succeeded byHans Modrow
In office[a]
1 November 1960 – 3 October 1973
PresidentWalter Ulbricht
Friedrich Ebert Jr. (Acting)
General SecretaryWalter Ulbricht
Erich Honecker
First Deputy
  • Alfred Neumann
  • Horst Sindermann
Preceded byOtto Grotewohl
Succeeded byHorst Sindermann
Chairman of the State Council
In office
3 October 1973 – 29 October 1976
Preceded byFriedrich Ebert Jr. (acting)
Succeeded byErich Honecker
Secretary for Economic Policy of the
Central Committee Secretariat
In office
25 July 1950 – 26 July 1953
First Secretary
Preceded byWalter Ulbricht
Succeeded byGerhart Ziller (Economy)
Grotewohl
Council of Ministers
First Deputy Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
In office
4 July 1962 – 24 September 1964
Chairman
Preceded byWalter Ulbricht (1960)
Succeeded byAlfred Neumann (1968)
Minister of National Defence
In office
1 March 1956 – 14 July 1960
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHeinz Hoffmann
Minister of the Interior
In office
6 May 1952 – 1 July 1955
Minister-President
  • Otto Grotewohl
Preceded byKarl Steinhoff
Succeeded byKarl Maron
Volkskammer
Member of the Volkskammer
for Dresden-Nord, Dresden-Ost[1]
In office
22 February 1950 – 16 November 1989
Preceded byWilhelm Pieck
Succeeded byHorst Buder
Personal details
BornWilhelm Stoph
(1914-07-09)9 July 1914
Schöneberg, Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Germany)
Died13 April 1999(1999-04-13) (aged 84)
Berlin, Germany
PartySED (1946–1989)
Other political
affiliations
KPD (1928–1946)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Engineer
  • Bricklayer
Awards
Order of Karl Marx
Military service
Allegiance East Germany
Branch/service Land Forces of the National People's Army
Years of service
1950–1960
Rank Army General
Central institution membership
Other offices held

Wilhelm Stoph (9 July 1914 – 13 April 1999) was a German politician. He served as Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1964 to 1973, and again from 1976 until 1989. He also served as chairman of the State Council from 1973 to 1976.

Early life

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Stoph was born in Berlin in 1914.[2] His father died the following year in World War I. In 1928, Stoph joined the Young Communist League of Germany (Kommunistischer Jugendverband Deutschlands; KJVD) and in 1931 he joined the Communist Party of Germany. He was active in the party's intelligence service, the Antimilitärischer Apparat, before being conscripted into the Wehrmacht from 1935 to 1937.[3]

Stoph was drafted on February 17, 1940. He was assigned to the 293rd Infantry Division's artillery regiment,[4] That same year, he was promoted to private first class. In 1941, he was transferred from Brittany to the Eastern Front. In 1942, while serving as a corporal, he contracted dysentery and jaundice. In 1943, he became a staff private and fell ill with jaundice again, which is why he was deemed unfit for front-line duty and transferred to a reserve unit in Frankfurt (Oder), where he remained until 1944 due to a diagnosed case of heart failure. In 1944–45, he completed a noncommissioned officer training course lasting several weeks. In February 1945, he became a noncommissioned officer (Unteroffizier). He was awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class.[5]

On April 21, 1945, he deserted and allowed himself to be arrested by Red Army soldiers, who released him in mid-July after a brief period of captivity in the Wriezen and Küstrin camps.[6]

Then, Stoph worked with the Communist-dominated Socialist Unity party and served on the party's executive committee from 1947.[7]

Career

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Stoph (far right) in NVA colonel-general uniform, 1957

Following the establishment of the GDR in 1949, Stoph became a member of the Socialist Unity Party's Central Committee and member of the Volkskammer in 1950. He was named to the Politbüro in 1953. He served as Interior Minister from 9 May 1952 to 1 July 1955, and as East Germany's first Defense Minister from 18 January 1956 to 14 July 1960.[8][9] As defense minister, he was awarded the rank of Armeegeneral.

Stoph delivering New Year's Eve address to the East German people, 1974

After having served as first deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers (first Deputy Prime Minister) from 1960 to 1964, he was named Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Ministerrat), or Prime Minister, in 1964 after the death of Otto Grotewohl. De facto, he had been serving as acting chairman of the council since October 1960 due to Grotewohl's poor health. He was initially thought to be the heir apparent to longtime party leader Walter Ulbricht, but his ascendancy was checked by Erich Honecker.[9][10] After Ulbricht's death in 1973, Stoph became Chairman of the Council of State—a post equivalent in rank to president of the GDR. After the Volkskammer election in october 1976, Honecker re-arranged the state and party leadership structure. Believing that Stoph's successor as prime minister, Horst Sindermann, was too liberal on economic matters, Honecker replaced him with Stoph.

Stoph with West German Chancellor Willy Brandt (on his right), 1970

During his first stint as Prime Minister, Stoph began a series of negotiations with West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in 1970. It marked the first ever meeting between the leaders of East and West Germany.

Stoph was known as a man who could be trusted to carry out the directives of the SED's Politburo; indeed, Honecker tapped him for his second stint in the premiership for this reason.[9] Although he nominally held the highest state post in the GDR, in practice he was outranked by Honecker, who derived most of his power from his post as general secretary of the SED.
For the most part, Stoph was a loyal supporter of Honecker. However, Stoph joined the plot to remove Honecker in October 1989. At the Politburo meeting at which Honecker was voted out, Stoph made the motion to "release" Honecker and replace him with Egon Krenz.[11]
On 9 November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Four days later, Stoph and his entire 44-member cabinet resigned in response to public pressure. Stoph was arrested for corruption in December 1989. Despite his role in pushing Honecker out, the SED expelled Stoph on December 3, the same day it expelled Honecker. He was later spared detention on grounds of ill health. On 10 October 1994, the Verwaltungsgericht Berlin decided that his seized savings of 200,000 Deutsche Mark would not be returned to him.[12]

Death

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Stoph died in Berlin at the age of 84 on 13 April 1999.[9] He was buried in Wildau.

Trivia

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A study published in 2026 suggests that Stoph assumed a false identity during World War II and kept it until his death. He was actually SA Obertruppführer and Wehrmacht Lieutenant Walter Blume, husband of the artist Gwendolyn Liselotte Blume (1914–1983).[13] [14]

Notes

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  1. ↑ Acting until 21 September 1964.

References

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  1. ↑ Schmidt, Arthur. "Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1986-1990, Seite 29" (PDF). gvoon.de. Retrieved 23 July 2023.
  2. ↑ "Obituary: Willi Stoph". The Independent. 21 April 1999.
  3. ↑ on May 22, 1935, the Nazi regime had introduced compulsory military service in the 'Military Service Act' (Wehrgesetz)
  4. ↑ Rogers, Steven (2014). "Stoph, Willi (1914–1999)". In Zabecki, David T. (ed.). Germany at War: 400 Years of Military History. Vol. 3. ABC Clio. pp. 1244–1245. ISBN 9781598849806.
  5. ↑ Ulrich Mählert: Willi Stoph – Ein Fußsoldat der KPD als Verteidigungsminister der DDR. In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (ed.): Genosse General! Die Militärelite der DDR in biografischen Skizzen. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-312-X, p 279–303, here p 280, 284, 289.
  6. ↑ Ulrich Mählert: Willi Stoph – Ein Fußsoldat der KPD als Verteidigungsminister der DDR. In: Hans Ehlert, Armin Wagner (Ed.): Genosse General! Die Militärelite der DDR in biografischen Skizzen. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-86153-312-X, p 279–303, here p 287.
  7. ↑ Harris M. Lentz (2014). Heads of States and Governments Since 1945. Routledge. p. 305. ISBN 9781134264902.
  8. ↑ "East German ministries". Rulers. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Saxon, Wolfang (22 April 1999). "Willi Stoph, 84, Premier, Twice, in East Germany". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 April 2013.
  10. ↑ Hoffman, Dierk [de]. Otto Grotewohl 1894-1964 : Eine politische Biographie (in German). Publications of the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR-Institute of Contemporary History (Munich). 2009. pp. 466–468.
  11. ↑ Sebestyen, Victor (2009). Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire. New York City: Pantheon Books. ISBN 978-0-375-42532-5.
  12. ↑ Haus der Geschichte online: biography
  13. ↑ Ewald Hülk, Dirk Weber: Der DDR-Staatschef – ein Nazi vom Niederrhein?, Rheinische Post 'Sonntag' , 27. September 2026, p 1.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Posten, Matthias Schrör: Zwei Namen für ein Leben. Die Akte Willi Stoph. Vergangenheitsverlag Berlin 2026. ISBN 978-3-86408-373-0 www.vergangenheitsverlag.de
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