Walter Ulbricht

Born: 1893-06-30

Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (30 June 1893 – 1 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in exile in France and the Soviet Union) in the early development and establishment of the German Democratic Republic in East Germany. As the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971, he was the chief decision-maker in East Germany. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 on, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973. As the firm leader of the strongest and most important Soviet satellite, Ulbricht had a degree of bargaining power with the Kremlin that he used effectively. For example he demanded the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 when the Kremlin was reluctant. Description above from the Wikipedia article Walter Ulbricht, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.


Placeholder

State Funeral

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2019-10-22

The enigma of the personality cult is revealed in the grand spectacle of Stalin’s funeral. The...

Movie page

Schutzwall

as Self
Released: 1965-01-01

The 5th anniversary of the inner-German wall to West Germany and West Berlin is on the agenda....

Movie page

Tunnel to Freedom

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2021-07-22

13 August 1961: the GDR closes the sector borders in Berlin. The city is divided overnight....

Movie page

Wilhelm Pieck - Das Leben unseres Präsidenten

as Self
Released: 1952-01-02

Basing his work on documentary material, Andrew Thorndike tells the life story of Wilhelm Pieck:...

Movie page

Stasi, un État contre son peuple

as Self (archive footage)
Released: 2021-10-03

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, thousands of documents were hastily shredded by the dreaded...

Movie page

DDR: Der Aufstand vom 17. Juni 1953

as Self
Released: 1990-10-07

"GDR The uprising of June 17, 1953" - : Since its founding, the German Democratic Republic (GDR)...

Movie page

Builder of socialism Walter Ulbricht

as Self
Released: 1953-06-16

After the workers’ revolt on June 17th, 1953 this film disappeared in the archives until 1997.

Movie page

Brecht

as Himself (archive footage)
First aired: 2019-03-22

East Berlin, 1956. Bertolt Brecht, revolutionary of the theater and poet of the state, looks...

TV Show page