Werner Titel

Werner Titel
Titel in 1968
Deputy Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
In office
14 July 1967 – 25 December 1971
Chairman
Preceded byPaul Scholz
Succeeded byHans Reichelt
Minister for Environmental Protection and Water Management
In office
29 November 1971 – 25 December 1971
Chairman of the
Council of Ministers
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byHans Reichelt
Volkskammer
Member of the Volkskammer
for Angermünde, Eberswalde-Land, Bad Freienwalde, Seelow, Eisenhüttenstadt-Land
In office
14 July 1967 – 25 December 1971
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byMax Hüniger
Personal details
Born
Werner Titel

(1931-05-02)2 May 1931
Arnswalde, Province of Pomerania, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Choszczno, Poland)
Died25 December 1971(1971-12-25) (aged 40)
East Berlin, East Germany
Resting placeFriedrichsfelde Central Cemetery
Political partyDemocratic Farmers' Party of Germany
(1950–1971)
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Party Functionary
  • Farmworker
Awards

Werner Titel (2 May 1931 – 25 December 1971) was an East German politician and party functionary of the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (DBD).

He emerged as an early expert on environmental policy, eventually leading him to be appointed the East Germany's first Minister for the Environment. However, Titel died under unexplained circumstances shortly afterwards at the age of 40, after the Stasi discovered that Titel had concealed his father's crimes against humanity as an SS officer.

Life and career

Early career

Werner Titel was born in Arnswalde (then part of the Prussian Province of Pomerania) on 2 May 1931 to a working-class family. He attended elementary and secondary school before being forcibly resettled to the Soviet occupation zone after the war. Titel completed an agricultural apprenticeship from 1946 to 1950 and attended the agricultural school in Zossen. In 1949, while working as a farm laborer, he joined the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) and the Free German Youth (FDJ).[1]

In 1950, he moved to Frankfurt (Oder) to work as a agricultural research technician in Frankfurt (Oder), additionally joining the Democratic Farmers' Party of Germany (DBD),[1] an East German bloc party founded on the instigation of and beholden to the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED).[2] He became a full-time party functionary of the DBD the next year, working for the DBD on youth issues, from 1951 to 1953 for the Brandenburg DBD and later the party as a whole. He additionally was a member of the Central Council of the FDJ from 1953 to 1955.[1]

During this time, he began working as an unofficial collaborator (IM) of the Stasi, codenamed "Lehmann", spying on his own party.[3]

Bloc party politician

From 1956 to 1961, he attended a distance learning program at the Institute for Agricultural Economics in Bernburg (Saale), which he completed a with a degree in agricultural economics (Dipl. agr. oec.). In 1965, he earned a doctorate in economics (Dr. rer. oec.) from the Humboldt University of Berlin on the topic of agricultural problems in Comecon and the EEC.[1]

In May 1963, at the VII. Party Congress of the DBD, he was elected to the presidium of the DBD party executive committee.[1][4] From 1963 to 1966, he was chairman of the Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder) DBD, a member of the Bezirk agricultural council, a Bezirk assembly representative and from 1966 to 1967, a member of the Bezirk government. From 1966 to 1967, he also served as secretary of the DBD party executive committee.[1]

In July 1967, he was made Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of East Germany, responsible for agriculture and water management,[5] succeeding his party colleague Paul Scholz.[1][5] He additionally became member of the Volkskammer that year,[1][3] nominally representing a rural constituency in the northeast of Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder).[6]

Between October 1967 and September 1968, he led a working group of 21 researchers who presented a 118-page scientific analysis on environmental hazards in the GDR as part of the "Forecast on the Planned Development of Socialist National Culture."[1][7]: 170  The GDR subsequently groomed him as an expert in environmental policy.

Death

When he was about to be appointed the first East German Environmental Minister in 1971,[1][3][8] the Stasi discovered during the appointment process that Titel had concealed in his personnel records that his father had been sentenced to death in 1948 as a former SS officer for crimes against humanity.[3]

Shortly after the Stasi then urged the DBD leadership to take personnel actions against Titel,[3] he died under unexplained circumstances in the morning hours of 25 December 1971 at the age of 40,[1][3][5][8][9] officially succumbing to a sudden, severe heart attack.[9] According to historian Tobias Huff, who published an environmental history of East Germany in 2015, Titel died of a rare heart disease.[7]: 176 

He was buried in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin.[10] Hans Reichelt succeeded him both as Minister for Environmental Protection and Water Management and as the DBD's Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.[5][8][11]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Kuntsche, Siegfried; Müller-Enbergs, Helmut (2010). "Titel, Werner". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  2. ^ "Demokratische Bauernpartei Deutschlands (DBD)". www.jugendopposition.de (in German). Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft e.V. Retrieved 2024-07-24. 1948 direkt von der SED gegründete Partei, die in der DDR als „Bündnispartner" der SED fungiert. Ihre Aufgabe ist es, die Bauern für den Sozialismus zu gewinnen. Sie propagiert die von der SED vorgegebene Agrarpolitik.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Schlegel, Matthias (2014-10-01). "Erich Mielke und sein geheimes Dossier: Die brisanten Akten über die Spitzengenossen". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 2024-07-20. Jäh endete zum Beispiel auch die Karriere des Funktionärs der Bauernpartei DBD Werner Titel. Als IM "Lehmann" hatte er eifrig aus der Partei berichtet, war in die Volkskammer eingezogen und sollte 1971 erster Minister für Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft werden. In der Ernennungsphase entdeckte das MfS, dass Titels Vater 1948 als ehemaliger SS-Offizier wegen Verbrechen gegen die Menschlichkeit zum Tode verurteilt worden war. Titel hatte das in seinen Personalunterlagen nicht offenbart. Das MfS drängte die Parteispitze der DBD, entsprechende personelle Konsequenzen zu ziehen. Kurz darauf starb Titel unter bislang nicht geklärten Umständen - womöglich aufgrund des psychischen Druckes.
  4. ^ "Aussprachen Walter Ulbrichts mit den zentralen Leitungen der NDPD und DBD". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin: Berlin State Library. 1963-07-18. p. 3. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  5. ^ a b c d Grünspek, Evelyn; Kohn, Andreas; Salopiata, Maria, eds. (2011). "Ministerrat der DDR. - Regierungen bis November 1989. - Teil 2: Stellvertreter des Ministerpräsidenten bzw. der Vorsitzenden des MR (einschließlich Erste Stellvertreter)". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. Retrieved 2024-07-20. Werner Titel war der Nachfolger von Paul Scholz und wie dieser in erster Linie für den Bereich Landwirtschaft und Wasserwirtschaft zuständig. 1969 zeigte er sich für die erste Komplexanalyse der Regierung zur Umweltgefährdung der DDR verantwortlich. Im November 1971 wurde er der erste Minister für Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft der DDR […] Für den Ende 1971 verstorbenen Werner Titel wurde im März 1972 Hans Reichelt zum Stellvertreter des VMR berufen. Er war gleichzeitig dessen Nachfolger im Amt des Ministers für Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft bis 1989.
  6. ^ Die Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik: 5. Wahlperiode (PDF) (in German). Berlin: VEB Staatsverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. 1967. p. 79. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  7. ^ a b Huff, Tobias (2015). Natur und Industrie im Sozialismus: eine Umweltgeschichte der DDR. Umwelt und Gesellschaft (in German). Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht GmbH & Co. ISBN 978-3-525-31717-4. OCLC 900798388.
  8. ^ a b c Boissier, Doris, ed. (2005). "Ministerium für Umweltschutz und Wasserwirtschaft". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. Retrieved 2024-07-20.
  9. ^ a b "Dr. Werner Titel verstorben". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin: Berlin State Library. 1971-12-27. p. 1. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  10. ^ "Beisetzung der Urne Dr. Werner Titels". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin: Berlin State Library. 1972-01-21. p. 2. Retrieved 2025-08-03.
  11. ^ Kuntsche, Siegfried (2010). "Reichelt, Hans". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de. Wer war wer in der DDR? (in German). Berlin: Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. Retrieved 2024-07-20. März 1972 – Nov. 1989 Stellv. des Vors. des Min.-Rats u. Minister für Umweltschutz u. Wasserwirtschaft (Nachf. von Werner Titel)
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