Georg Ewald

Georg Ewald
Ewald (right) in 1972
Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food[a]
In office
9 February 1963 – 14 September 1973
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
Preceded byKarl-Heinz Bartsch
Succeeded byHeinz Kuhrig
First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party
in Bezirk Neubrandenburg
In office
October 1960 – 16 February 1963
Second Secretary
  • Hans Gerlach
Preceded byMax Steffen
Succeeded byJohannes Chemnitzer
Volkskammer
Member of the Volkskammer
for Wolgast, Greifswald, Rügen, Grimmen, Stralsund-Land
In office
13 November 1963 – 14 September 1973
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byGuido Thoms
Personal details
Born
Georg Ewald

(1926-10-30)30 October 1926
Buchholz, Province of Pomerania, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Gremersdorf-Buchholz, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany)
Died14 September 1973(1973-09-14) (aged 46)
near Gotha, Bezirk Erfurt, East Germany
Resting placeMemorial of the Socialists, Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery
Political partySocialist Unity Party
(1946–1973)
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Party Functionary
  • Farmworker
Awards
Central institution membership
Other offices held

Georg Ewald (30 October 1926 – 14 September 1973) was an East German politician and high-ranking party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Ewald briefly served as the First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Neubrandenburg and, most notably, as the longtime Agriculture Minister of East Germany and as a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED. He died in a car accident in 1973.

Life and career

Early career

Georg Ewald was born on 30 October 1926 in Buchholz (now a part of Gremersdorf-Buchholz) in the Prussian Province of Pomerania.[1][2][3] He attended agricultural school and then worked at his parents' farm until being drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943. After the war, he was a farmworker. Ewald, who had joined the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1946, was made the mayor of his hometown in 1949. After only a year, he was promoted to the local government of the district of Stralsund with responsibility for agriculture.[1][2]

From 1953 to 1954, Ewald attended a one-year course at the SED's "Karl Marx" Party Academy in Berlin, after which he was made First Secretary of the SED in the district of Bad Doberan for a year, transferring to the more populous district of Rügen in 1955.[1][2]

In October 1960, he succeeded Max Steffen as First Secretary of the Bezirk Neubrandenburg SED.[1][2][4][5] Steffen was demoted to party secretary in the Lübbenau coal power plant,[6] having been reprimanded.[7]

In January 1963 (VI. Party Congress), he was made a full member of the SED Central Committee and a candidate member of its Politburo,[1][2][8] the de facto highest leadership body in East Germany.

Agriculture Minister

In February 1963, the GDR's Ministry of Agriculture was abolished and replaced by the Agricultural Council, later renamed Council for Agricultural Production and Food Economy, its chairman retaining minister rank.[9] Karl-Heinz Bartsch, appointed on 7 February, was forced to resign only two days later, on 9 February, after West German media revealed that he had concealed his membership in the Waffen-SS.[10][11]

Ewald (center) visiting farmers in Löwenberg in August 1972

Ewald replaced him, additionally becoming a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers and a member of the Volkskammer later that year,[1][2][5][9][12] nominally representing a constituency in northeastern Bezirk Rostock.[13] Ewald remained minister when the Ministry was reestablished as Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food.[9]

His ten-year tenure was marked by further collectivization efforts. During his leadership, he frequently clashed with SED Agriculture Secretary Gerhard Grüneberg, who implemented many ideas aimed at industrializing the collectively managed agriculture in the 1960s. The most significant aspect of these reforms was the gradual separation of animal and plant production, which Ewald opposed and which were eventually reversed in the 1980s.[14]

Death

Ewald's grave in 2016

Ewald died in a car accident on the morning of 14 September 1973, near Gotha.[1][2][3][15] Two other SED functionaries, members of the Bezirk Erfurt SED leadership, also died in the accident.[15]

Immediately afterwards, the Stasi confiscated documents relating to his activities as candidate member of the Politburo of the SED Central Committee and his ministerial office from the work rooms.[5]

He was given a state funeral and was interred at the Memorial of the Socialists of the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg.[1]

In Gotha's local vernacular, the stretch of road where Ewald died, a long curve of the B 247 between the A4 motorway exit and the entrance to Gotha,[3] is still known today as Minister's Curve (German: Ministerkurve).[15]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Kuntsche, Siegfried (2010). "Ewald, Georg". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Baumgartner, Gabriele; Hebig, Dieter (1996). Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ,DDR: 1945-1990 (in German). Vol. 1. München New Providence Paris [etc]: K. G. Saur. p. 167. ISBN 978-3-598-11130-3.
  3. ^ a b c "Genosse Georg Ewald tödlich verunglückt". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin: Berlin State Library. 1973-09-15. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  4. ^ "Bezirksleitung Neubrandenburg der SED (1952 - 1990)". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. 2006. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  5. ^ a b c "Sekretariat des Ministers für Staatssicherheit - Sicherstellung von politisch brisantem Schriftgut [= SdM]". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Berlin: German Federal Archives. 2017. Retrieved 2024-05-19. Nach dem tödlichen Unfall des Ministers am 14.09.1973 wurden in den Arbeitsräumen Unterlagen seiner Tätigkeit als Kandidat und Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED und seines Ministeramts beschlagnahmt.
  6. ^ Müller-Enbergs, Helmut (2010). "Steffen, Max". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-05-19. 1961 – 80 1. Sekr. der SED-BPO im VEB Kraftwerk Lübbenau
  7. ^ Gräfe, Sylvia, ed. (2006). "11. Tagung des Zentralkomitees vom 15. bis 17. Dezember 1960". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Berlin: German Federal Archives. Retrieved 2024-08-20. Begründung der Parteistrafe für Max Steffen
  8. ^ "Übersicht über die Mitglieder und Kandidaten des Politbüros des ZK der SED (1949-1989)". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. 2006. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  9. ^ a b c Boissier, Doris; Friedrich, Beate, eds. (2010). "1. Organisation, Aufgaben und Entwicklung der zentralen staatlichen Organe der Land- und Forstwirtschaft 1945-1990". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). Berlin: German Federal Archives. Retrieved 2024-05-28.
  10. ^ "Reue statt Treue". Der Spiegel (in German). 1963-02-19. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  11. ^ Kuntsche, Siegfried; Otto, Wilfriede (2010). "Bartsch, Karl-Heinz". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-05-19. 21.1.1963 Mitgl. des ZK der SED, als Kand. für das PB des ZK der SED vorgesehen […] 7. – 9.2.1963 Vors. des Landw.-Rats beim Min.-Rat; nach einer westl. Medienmeldung über die verschwiegene Mitgliedschaft in der Waffen-SS am 9.2.1963 aus dem ZK der SED ausgeschl. u. Enthebung der Funktion als Stellv. des Min.
  12. ^ "Georg Ewald zum Minister berufen". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin State Library. 1963-02-14. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-07-19.
  13. ^ Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1967-1971 (PDF) (in German). Berlin: VEB Staatsverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. 1967. p. 76. Retrieved 2024-07-10.
  14. ^ Heinz, Michael (2013-01-01), "Gerhard Grüneberg und Georg Ewald - ein ungleiches Führungspaar der SED-Agrarpolitik", Die DDR - eine deutsche Geschichte (in German), Brill Schöningh, pp. 219–238, doi:10.30965/9783657771950_012, ISBN 978-3-657-77195-0, retrieved 2024-05-19
  15. ^ a b c Wenzel, Matthias (2023-09-02). "Die "Ministerkurve" erhält ihren Spitznamen". www.thueringer-allgemeine.de (in German). Thüringer Allgemeine. Retrieved 2024-05-19.

Notes

  1. ^ as Chairman of the Agricultural Council from 1963 to 1968 and the Council for Agricultural Production and Food Economy from 1968 to 1971

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