Otto Winzer

Otto Winzer
Winzer in 1972
Minister for Foreign Affairs
In office
29 June 1965 – 20 January 1975
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
First DeputyErnst Scholz
Preceded byLothar Bolz
Succeeded byOskar Fischer
Personal details
Born(1902-04-03)3 April 1902
Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died3 March 1975(1975-03-03) (aged 72)
East Berlin, German Democratic Republic
NationalityGerman
Political partySocialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
ProfessionTypesetter

Otto Winzer (3 April 1902 – 3 March 1975) was an East German diplomat who served as East Germany's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965 to 1975.

Biography

Winzer was born in Berlin in 1902.[1] He was a son of worker. Otto Winzer learned the typesetter craft.[1]

In 1919, he became a member of the Communist Party of Germany.[1] Then he became the head of Communist Youth publication. He was involved in underground activities against Adolf Hitler's regime from 1933 to 1935.[1] In 1935, Winzer went to the Soviet Union, and he stayed there until the end of World War II. During World War II, he used the code name Lorenz.[1] He returned from exile in the Soviet Union as part of the Ulbricht Group, charged with setting up the Soviet Military Administration in Germany after World War II in April 1945.[2]

Winzer joined the Socialist Unity Party, the East German communist party, in 1946, and he became a member of its central committee in 1946.[3] He was named the deputy editor of the party's official paper Neues Deutschland in 1949.[4] Winzer was Secretary of State from 1949 to 1956 and First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1956 to 1965.[3] He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1965 to 1975. He was removed from his post due to ill health[5] and died at age 72 on 3 March 1975.[6]

Awards and decorations

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Otto Winzer". Die Zeit. 13 December 1963. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  2. ^ "Die Tätigkeit der "Gruppe Ulbricht" in Berlin von April bis Juni 1945" German Federal Archives. Retrieved 22 November 2011 (in German)
  3. ^ a b "Winzer, Otto". The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
  4. ^ "Ex-E. Diplomat dies". The Telegraph. Berlin. United Press International. 4 March 1975. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  5. ^ "E. German Post Goes to Fischer". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Berlin. NYT. 21 January 1975. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
  6. ^ "Dies at 73". The Tuscaloosa News. 4 March 1975. Retrieved 3 September 2012.
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