Departments of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany
The approximately 40 departments of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany were the center of the policymaking of East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic.
The departments were assigned to around ten Central Committee Secretaries. Each department was headed by a department head and his deputy. Each department was in turn divided into sectors with sector heads, employees and instructors. While the departments had around 1,000 employees in 1970, by 1987 there were already 2,000 employees.
Only the Central Committee Secretaries had the authority to issue legally binding orders to the respective Ministry, but in practice, the department and sector heads made the decisions.
During the Peaceful Revolution, the Presidium of the Party Executive of the SED-PDS dissolved the departments of the Central Committee of the SED, effective 31 December 1989.
Policy departments
Agriculture
The Agriculture Department set agricultural policy. It controlled the Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food, which in turn oversaw the country's agricultural production cooperatives, the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR in Berlin and the mass organizations Peasants Mutual Aid Association and Association of Gardeners, Settlers, and Animal Breeders, all of which were led by SED cadres. It was one of the most powerful departments, as the SED made substantial changes to East Germany's agricultural sector, namely expropriating landowners, the forced collectivization and the separation of animal and plant production. By the mid-1950s, the department already employed 45 political and 7 technical staff.The Agriculture Department was already set up in August 1945 in the Central Committee of the KPD and existed almost continuously with the exception of 1950 to 1951, when it was a sector of the Economic Policy Department.
Deputy department heads include Karl-Heinz Bartsch, Erich Rübensam, Heinz Besser, Wolfgang Mühlstädt, Christoph Ostmann and Heinz Drescher.
Agitation
The [|Agitation Department] was mainly tasked with aligning East German press with the political line of the SED.Most large newspapers were under direct ownership of the party as Zentralorgan of the Central Committee or the Bezirk party leaderships, or were published by SED-dominated mass organizations but the Agitation Department also oversaw the Association of Journalists of the GDR, the Deutscher Fernsehfunk, the Rundfunk der DDR, and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Nachrichtendienst, the later often directly publishing Central Committee statements.
The Neues Deutschland was, however, directly subordinate to the General Secretary since 1971, holding department rank itself.
The most important way the Agitation Department controlled and censored the press was with the so-called "argumentation sessions", held every Thursday morning in the Central Committee building, where 60 to 80 press representatives were instructed in detail on how to report. These "Donnerstag-Argus" were first introduced by department head Hans Modrow, editors-in-chief previously getting instructions via telegram. The bloc parties' newspapers were controlled indirectly through the Council of Ministers' Press Office, a representative of which was a permanent Argus guest.
Another important avenue of the Agitation Department's control over East German press was that it assigned graduates of the journalism section at the Karl Marx University, the only university course for training as a journalist in the GDR, to the different newspapers.
By the 1980s, the SED's control over East German press had increased to a point where Erich Honecker and Agitation Secretary Joachim Herrmann regularly edited East German press in minute detail, rewording headlines and rearranging pictures in Neues Deutschland, writing anonymous opinion columns and rearranging news segments in Aktuelle Kamera, the flagship television newscast. The most famous example of this is came on the brink of the Peaceful Revolution, when Honecker personally added "One should therefore not shed a tear for them" to an ADN opinion column on the wave of refugees in the summer of 1989.
The Agitation Department was originally created in 1946 as Press, Broadcasting and Information Department, renamed Advertising, Press and Radio Department the next year. In March 1949, the department was split into the Mass Agitation Department and the Press and Radio Department. These departments were merged and separated several times throughout the early 1950s, ultimately forming the [|Agitation, Press and Radio Department] in 1955. It was merged with the [|Propaganda Department] in 1957, but reverted to being a separate Agitation Department in 1961.
Deputy department heads include future State Broadcasting Committee chairman Reginald Grimmer, Frank-Joachim Herrmann, and Eberhard Fensch, both as deputy heads responsible for the Rundfunk der DDR and the Deutscher Fernsehfunk, Günter Fischer, Hans-Joachim Kobert, Herbert Malcherek, future ADN general director Günter Pötschke, Klaus Raddatz, thereafter deputy chairman of the State Broadcasting Committee, Volkmar Stanke, and Dieter Langguth.
Otto Reinhold and, briefly in 1961, Kurt Tiedke were deputy heads of the Agitation and Propaganda Department, Tiedke becoming head of the demerged Propaganda Department later that year.
Peaceful Revolution
After Egon Krenz came to power during the Peaceful Revolution, Günter Schabowski, the new Central Committee Secretary responsible for Agitation, instituted a new media policy, ending the party's control over the media. The last Argus was held on 26 October 1989, and the Agitation Department was set to be dissolved in favor of an Information Policy Office, but this did not come to pass before the Central Committee's collective resignation in December 1989.In late January 1990, many former high-ranking Agitation Department officials, including department head Geggel and deputy department head Fensch, were expelled from the Association of Journalists of the GDR as the people responsible for "abuse of the media".
Cadre Affairs
The Department for Cadre Affairs was responsible for the selection, development and training of the roughly 92,000 nomenklatura cadres. This included all SED cadres from the First Secretaries in the districts upwards, including other department heads, as well as the chairmen of the bloc parties, university and institute heads, the head of ADN and so on.This made it one of the most powerful departments, though the department's personnel choices hinged on a security check by the Stasi, which could reject appointments based on something as simple as having family in the West.
The department additionally was responsible for selecting who gets the GDR's awards, which were not awarded based on merit but on seniority and fulfilling quotas. In the early years, an important focus additionally was the review of the political activities of SED members in the period before 1945.
The department's work was strongly shaped by longtime department head Fritz Müller, known as "Kadermüller" among employees of the Central Committee, a former Nazi of austere and servile demeanor. Müller's influence was strengthened by the fact that, since April 1979, he additionally was the First Secretary of the Central Committee party organization.
In addition to the department, there was a Cadre Commission of the Central Committee Secretariat from June 1952 to 1989, which was responsible for the deployment and dismissal of political employees in the party apparatus and their delegation to educational institutions of the SED.
The Cadre Affairs Department was originally created in 1946 as Personnel Policy Department. It was briefly part of the newly created [|LOPMO Department] as cadre registry sector from January 1953 to early 1957, when it was reinstated as an independent department.
Deputy department heads include Gerhard Heidenreich, Horst Wagner, former department head Heinz Wieland, and Horst Conrad.
Church Affairs
The Church Affairs Working Group was tasked with implementing the SED's church policy of State atheism, gathering information about the stances and finances of and potential oppositional movements in the GDR's churches. The GDR's churches were only allowed to interact with the government through the State Secretary for Church Affairs.The working group originated as the Churches and Religious Sects Sector in the State Administration Department and became its own department in November 1954. Despite being renamed to "Church Affairs Working Group" in 1957, it retained full department rank.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Willi Barth | 1954–1977 |
| Rudi Bellmann | 1977–1988 |
| Peter Kraußner | 1988–1989 |
Culture
The [|Culture Department] formulated the SED's cultural policy and controlled their implementation through the Ministry of Culture, the mass organization Cultural Association of the GDR and publishers. It had the aim of developing a "socialist intelligentsia", promoting socialist cultural creation and pushing back against what the SED perceived as "bourgeois art" and ideology.The Culture Department was originally created in 1946 as [|Culture and Education Department]. This department was merged with the [|Party Training Department] to form the Party Training, Culture and Education Department in 1950, which in turn was split again in 1952. Despite its name, the resulting Culture Department was still responsible for education. In November 1952, the Fine Literature and Art Department was formed, which from September 1953 was called the Art, Literature and Cultural Mass Work Department. That department briefly merged with the [|General Education Department] in March 1957 to again form a Culture and Education Department, splitting again at the end of the year.
The resulting department, again simply named Culture Department, consisted of the sectors art and literature, film and "cultural mass work" by 1965.
Deputy department heads include Karl Strohbusch, Hans Schlösser, future DEFA general director Joachim Mückenberger, Günter Schröder, Heinz Kimmel, Arno Röder, Gerd Rossow, Kurt Löffler, Ursula Ragwitz, Rudolf Raupach and Franz Hentschel.
Foreign Information
The so-called Foreign Information Department was primarily responsible for the promotion of the GDR abroad.Until the mid-1970s, the department mainly agitated for the GDR's international recognition. After that, the focus shifted to the peace movement, as well as foreign agitation and propaganda, which aimed, among other things, at distancing itself from the West Germany. The department also oversaw the League for Peoples' Friendship of the GDR and the foreign editorial office of ADN.
"foreign information" was originally the responsibility of a sector of the Agitation Department. It was spun off as [|an independent working group] on 27 March 1963 and was elevated to a department on 29 March 1967.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Werner Lamberz | 1963–1966 |
| Manfred Feist | 1966–1989 |
| Reiner Kalisch | 1989 |
Ernst-Otto Schwabe served as deputy head of the Foreign Information Working Group from 1963 to 1965; the department did not have any known deputy heads thereafter.
Friendly Parties
The so-called [|Friendly Parties Department] controlled the National Front and its constituent bloc parties, working to ensure the "leading role of the party".The department originated in the State Administration Department, before becoming a sector of the newly created LOPMO Department in 1953. In March 1955, the sector was spun off as a working group under the Politburo, getting full department status in 1972.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Irene Köhler | 1952–1969 |
| Waldemar Pilz | 1969–1985 |
| Karl Vogel | 1985–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Horst Schütze, who concurrently sat on the National Front's presidium.
General Department (1946–1984)
The General Department was the SED's liaison office to the CPSU, primarily providing translation and interpreter services for the party. All of its heads were Soviet emigrants.After being demoted to the "General Department Working Group" in 1981, the General Working Group was abolished in 1984 and integrated into the [|International Relations Department] as interpreter/translator sector. This was preceded by working group head and chief interpreter Ilse Stephan being dismissed by Erich Honecker for allegedly being at fault for tensions with the Soviets. Stephan hanged herself shortly afterwards.
The department should not be confused with the General Department at the Party Executive of the SED-PDS, which existed briefly in December 1989 and was set up to dissolve the [|Office of the Politburo].
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Else Richter | 1946–1949 |
| Martha Golke | 1949–1972 |
| Werner Albrecht | 1972–1981 |
| Ilse Stephan | 1981–1984 |
Werner Albrecht briefly served as deputy department head from 1971 to 1972, when he was made department head.
Health Policy
The [|Health Policy Department] was concerned with development of the health care system, the training and further education of medical personnel and the medical care of the population. In cooperation with the Ministry of Health led by Ludwig Mecklinger, the department was complicit in pharmaceutical companies, especially West German ones, testing drugs on GDR citizens without their informed consent and selling their blood, gathering foreign exchange currency for the KoKo.The Health Policy Department was originally created in 1946 and integrated into the Economic Policy Department in 1950. In 1952, the responsibility for health policy went into the [|Labor, Social Security, and Health Department], which in turn became the Trade Unions, Social and Health Services Department in 1955. The Health Policy Department was spun off again as an independent department in 1959.
Deputy department heads include Rudolf Weber, and Christian Münter.
International Politics and Economics
The [|International Politics and Economics Department] was mainly tasked with influencing West German politics. It controlled the SED's West German affiliates, namely the Communist Party of Germany and, after its 1956 ban, the German Communist Party as well as the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin. Additionally, it coordinated with the West German SPD, especially on issues of disarmament.By June 1980, the department had about 20 political and 5 technical employees, down from 38 political and 13 technical employees in the 1970s. 5 political employees were assigned to the independent work area "Analysis, information and elaboration", 7 to the independent work area "Political-operational work and coordination", additionally, one political employee each was responsible for the areas of cadres, agitation, press/archive and instructing the Institute for International Politics and Economics.
For the longest time, the [|West Department] existed alongside several other, often short-lived West-focused institutions in the Central Committee apparatus, for example a transient [|KPD Work Office], the clandestine [|Trafficking Department] and the Politburo West Commission, which led to disputes over jurisdiction. In 1965, the Politburo West Commission was converted to a purely advisory board, making the West Department the deciding institution on issues concerning West German politics.
The Institute for International Politics and Economics, founded in July 1971 as the main successor of the State Secretariat for West German Affairs and meant to research supposed imperialism in West Germany, was also controlled by the West Department despite nominally being an institution under the Council of Ministers' Presidium. Its directors were Herbert Häber and Max Schmidt, both former deputy heads of the West Department.
Deputy department heads include future department head Herbert Häber, Max Schmidt, Günter Pötschke, Dieter Kerschek, Reinhard Klassen, Karl Wildberger, future department head Gunter Rettner, Hans-Georg Schuster, and Harry Morgenstern.
International Relations
The International Relations Department was, together with the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo, concerned with coordinating the SED's foreign policy, especially the relations with the 140 communist, socialist and social democratic parties.All fundamental foreign policy and foreign economic policy questions went through the department, as did personnel issues including ambassadors and embassy party secretaries as well as the granting of government loans.
In addition to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the department also oversaw the Institute for International Relations in Potsdam and the officially non-state Solidarity Committee of the GDR, the country's main vehicle for development aid. By the 1980s, it had about 100 employees.
Within the Central Committee apparatus, the department's employees held a particularly privileged position in regards to travel and access to foreign literature. The department's employees had a higher educational background than most party functionaries and were regarded as rather hostile to Erich Honecker. The department was additionally unique in that its employees were not allowed to be recruited by the Stasi as IMs.
An overview of the department's work is given in the 1993 book Die zweite Etage: Funktionsweise eines Machtapparates by Manfred Uschner, who originally joined the department as an instructor, later serving as personal assistant to Hermann Axen, the Central Committee Secretary responsible for the department, and as secretary of the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo.
The department was originally created in 1949 as a merger of the International Cooperation Department and the Foreign Policy Department. It was named Foreign Policy Issues Department from 1952 to 1953 and Foreign Policy and International Relations Department from September 1953 to 1963, when it reverted to its original name.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Grete Keilson | 1948–1952 |
| Peter Florin | 1953–1966 |
| Paul Markowski | 1966–1978† |
| Egon Winkelmann | 1978–1980 |
| Günter Sieber | 1980–1989 |
| Bruno Mahlow | 1989 |
Deputy department heads include future department heads Peter Florin, Paul Markowski and Egon Winkelmann, as well as Harry Ott, Rudolf Guttmann, Gerd König, former ambassador to Chile Friedel Trappen, Hans-Joachim Kobert, formerly a deputy head of the Agitation Department, Bruno Mahlow, Alfred Marter, Heinz Lehmann, Edgar Fries, and Joachim Böhm.
KPD (1951–1971)
The KPD Work Office was responsible for controlling the West German KPD, keeping track of the meetings of its Central Committee and Politburo as well as organizational, ideological and cadre issues.The KPD Work Office was created in January 1951 from the dissolved West Commission at the Politburo. It should not be confused with the SED-KPD Working Group in the SED Party Executive Committee, a working group existing from 1947 to 1949 tasked with establishing the SED in the western occupation zones.
Though the Politburo decided to dissolve it in November 1960, it only formerly ceased to exist in February 1971, to a lesser extent still directing the illegal KPD and the founding of the DKP in the meantime. The office's responsibilities overlapped with the several other West-focused institutions in the Central Committee apparatus such as the West Department, leading to disputes over jurisdiction.
Party Organs
The [|Party Organs Department] was primarily responsible for keeping records of the party membership and party cadres, receiving party information and, most importantly, controlling the lower Bezirk, district, workplace and local party organizations. It had a full-time political employee, an instructor, assigned to every one of the 15 Bezirke, among other things responsible for elections. The department played an important role in the SED's Stalinization in the 1950s. In the 1980s, the department was notably the only one located on the same floor as the Politburo.The department was originally created in 1946 as Organization Department and renamed [|Organization Instructor Department] in 1950.
On 15 January 1952, the department was merged with several others to form the Leading Organs of the Party and Mass Organizations Department . This "super department" was responsible for the SED's party organs and cadres, all bloc parties and all mass organizations, including the one for women, youth and the Free German Trade Union Federation.
All of these responsibilities were spun off again on 26 January 1957 and the department was again renamed to Organization Department, briefly Leading Party Organs Department in February 1960 and eventually Party Organs Department from 1961 onwards.
Deputy department heads include Johann Raskop, who also served as acting department head after Kurt Schneidewind moved to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in December 1958, future Politburo member Werner Eberlein, Karl-Heinz Steuer, and future department head Heinz Mirtschin.
Propaganda
As "propaganda" in communist terminology mostly meant "elite education", the Propaganda Department had the aim of "cultivating a socialist consciousness" and was primarily responsible for training cadres through the SED's broad network of party schools from the "Karl Marx" Party Academy in Berlin and the 15 Bezirk party schools to 255 district and 478 workplace schools. The department additionally oversaw the Propaganda Commission and the Urania.The Propaganda Department was originally created in 1946 as Recruitment and Training Department, from which the Party Training Department emerged in January 1947, which in October of that year was merged into the Party Training, Culture and Education Department. In 1949, the departments were separated. The [|Party Propaganda Department] was created, which was merged with the [|Science and Universities Department] in 1954 to form the Science and Propaganda Department. Separated again, from 1957 to 1960, it formed the Agitation and Propaganda Department together with the Agitation, Press and Radio Department.
Deputy department heads include future acting department head Kurt Schneidewind, future ADN deputy general director Günter Siemund, Heinz Puder, and future department head Klaus Gäbler. Otto Reinhold and, briefly in 1961, Kurt Tiedke were deputy heads of the Agitation and Propaganda Department, Tiedke becoming head of the demerged Propaganda Department later that year.
Public Education
The Public Education Department was responsible for the entirety of the GDR's education system, from preschool to vocational training, and the controversial Jugendwerkhof system, special reorientation camps for disorderly youth that were accused of widespread abuse.The Public Education Department was originally created in 1946 as Culture and Education Department, but near the end of 1957, the cultural policy tasks were separated again and transferred to the Culture Department.
From the 1970s onward, the Public Education Department was unique in the sense that it was the only department where the responsible Central Committee Secretary could not issue legally binding orders to the respective Ministry as the minister Margot Honecker was the wife of General Secretary Erich Honecker. This effectively neutered the department.
Deputy department heads include Isolde Oschmann, Sonja Müller, Hermann Apel, and Rudolf Oelschlägel.
Trafficking
The Trafficking Department was a clandestine department, organizing courier services and secretly transferring money appropriated by the Department for Financial Management and Party Businesses to the SED's West German affiliates in particular, the German Communist Party as well as the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin. The SEW received about 15 million DM yearly, the DKP 70 million DM. Between the 1956 KPD ban and the 1968 DKP founding, the department set up the Deutscher Freiheitssender 904, a clandestine radio station. The department had about 256 employees in 1968, not including the roughly 36 employees of the Phönix print shop. Since autumn 1953, the department's employees were armed.The department's relationship with the Stasi varied over time. The Stasi supported the department's work, for example providing its operatives with NVA passes to allow them to freely cross the inner-German border. However, it also exerted significant control over the department, to the dismay of early leading department officials in particular, who the Stasi found to be "uncooperative".
Since 1971, the department answered directly to the General Secretary of the SED.
The department was originally created in September 1948 as "Department Stahlmann" and had a more general intelligence focus. In the mid-1960s, the department consisted of the sectors cadres, assistance, shipment, carpool, guest houses, border and the Phönix print shop. The largest change in responsibility occurred in 1966, when the department was made responsible for overseeing the SED's secret companies in West Germany. The department's documents were destroyed during the Peaceful Revolution.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Richard Stahlmann | 1948–1954 |
| Adolf Baier | 1954–1965 |
| Josef Steidl | 1965–1986 |
| Julius Cebulla | 1986–1989 |
| Gunter Rettner | 1989 |
Deputy department heads include future department head Julius Cebulla, Wilhelm Knigge, Friedel Trappen, formerly a deputy head of the International Relations Department, and Jochen Bernhardt.
Science
The Science Department formulated the SED's policy on science and higher education policy and controlled their implementation through the party organizations at universities and scientific institutions. It oversaw the Ministry for Higher and Technical Education, the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED. By the 1980s, it had about 27 political employees.From 1946 to 1949, responsibility for the SED's science policy was split between the Recruitment and Training Department and the Culture and Education Department. The latter ended up solely responsible for science policy from 1950 onward despite being renamed to Culture Department. In December 1952, the Central Committee Secretariat confirmed the structural plan for an independent Science and University Department. After being merged with the Party Propaganda Department from 1954 to 1957 as the Science and Propaganda Department, the department was reinstated, now simply named Science Department.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Kurt Hager | 1952–1955 |
| Johannes Hörnig | 1955–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Werner Hering, Arwed Kempke, Siegfried Förster, Edwin Schwertner, Gregor Schirmer, and Kurt Rätz.
Security Affairs
The Department for Security Affairs set the SED's military policy and military doctrine. It controlled the GDR's so-called "armed organs", the Ministry of National Defence, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry for State Security.Additionally, the department oversaw the mass organization Gesellschaft für Sport und Technik. The department's control over the Ministry of National Defence and Stasi was, however, curtailed by the fact that their respective ministers were members of the Politburo. The paramilitary Combat Groups of the Working Class, while formally under the Central Committee of the SED, actually received their orders from the First Secretaries of the Bezirk party leaderships. The department also edited the list of citizens who were allowed to emigrate before being given to the General Secretary for final approval.
One of the most powerful, the department answered directly to the General Secretary of the SED for most of its existence. For a time, the department worked under the Security Commission at the Politburo, which was replaced by the National Defence Council in March 1960, of which department heads Herbert Scheibe and Wolfgang Herger were members.
The department was originally created in May 1949 as Head Office for the Protection of the National Economy at the Central Committee of the SED. An office of the same name was established within the Ministry of the Interior upon the GDR's founding in October 1949; it was spun off as the Stasi a few months later. The central committee department was later renamed to M-Department and later Department 202 VW in 1950. The [|Security Affairs Department] was then created in 1953.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Generalmajor Gustav Röbelen | 1949–1956 |
| Walter Borning | 1956–1959 |
| Fregattenkapitän Bruno Wansierski | 1959–1960 |
| Generalleutnant Walter Borning | 1960–1972 |
| Generaloberst Herbert Scheibe | 1972–1985 |
| Wolfgang Herger | 1985–1989 |
| Konteradmiral Peter Miethe | 1989 |
Deputy department heads were Walter Borning, who took over as acting department head in November 1956 before even being made deputy department head, Vizeadmiral Bruno Wansierski, who served as acting department head when Walter Borning attended the Friedrich Engels Military Academy for a one-year course from December 1959 to October 1960, Generalmajor Fritz Renckwitz, Siegfried Otto, and Konteradmiral Peter Miethe.
Sports
The Sports Department was the SED's instrument for directing and controlling the areas of physical culture and sports.It controlled the party organizations of sports associations, the Council of Ministers' State Secretariat for Physical Culture and Sport, the National Olympic Committee of the German Democratic Republic and the Deutscher Turn- und Sportbund, the central mass organization for all sports. After the Peaceful Revolution, longtime department head Rudolf Hellmann was convicted of 137 counts of complicity to cause bodily harm for his involvement in the widespread doping of East German athletes.
Despite sport's growing importance for the GDR's international recognition, the department was fairly small compared to others, even after being elevated from a working group, with only 5 political and 2 technical employees in the 1980s. It thus had to rely more on cordial relationships with the DTSB and others to assert its positions, helped by overlapping personnel.
In 1946, a part of the Culture and Education Department was initially responsible for sport. In 1952, it was incorporated into the newly created LOPMO Department as the Sports Sector. In August 1955, the Secretariat of the Central Committee decided to separate the sports area from this department and create a sports sector in the Security Affairs Department. An independent sports working group with six employees was created for the first time in 1961, which was given the status of a department in the mid-1960s.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Franz Rydz | 1953–1959 |
| Rudolf Hellmann | 1959–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Walter Gröger and Rudolf Kühnel.
State and Legal Affairs
The [|State and Legal Affairs Department] was primarily responsible for establishing, then controlling the GDR's judiciary system, additionally overseeing the Volkskammer's legislative work, as well as the Council of Ministers' apparatus, including its Secretariat.Under its longtime head Klaus Sorgenicht, the department was chiefly responsible for preparing and carrying out trials against political opponents of the GDR, including show trials.
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, Sorgenicht often proposed death penalties in his trial drafts, which became legally binding to the courts after approval by the Politburo. Among others, Sorgenicht originally proposed for dissident Gerhard Benkowitz to be executed. In December 1961, two peasants were sentenced to death on the proposal of Sorgenicht for opposing forced collectivization.
Sorgenicht was additionally complicit in preparing the electoral fraud in the 1989 local elections. He was later tried for manslaughter and deprivation of liberty, but was unable to stand trial for health reasons.
The department was originally created in June 1950 as a merger of the Municipal Politics Department, the State and Provincial Politics Department and the Judiciary Department. In the spring of 1955, the resulting State Administration Department was reorganized into the State Organs Department, restructured again in 1959 to form the State and Legal Affairs Department.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Anton Plenikowski | 1950–1954 |
| Klaus Sorgenicht | 1954–1989 |
| Günter Böhme | 1989 |
Deputy department heads include Willi Barth, thereafter head of the spun off [|Church Affairs Department], Rudolf Rost, Waldemar Pilz, thereafter head of the Friendly Parties Department, Günther Witteck, Julius Leymann, and Günter Böhme.
Women
The Women Department formulated the SED's policy on women's issues, oversaw the work of the Women's Commission at the Politburo and controlled the Democratic Women's League of Germany, the GDR's mass organization for women. The DFD received the smallest budget of all mass organizations and was largely insignificant, even compared to other mass organizations. The Women Department, women furthermore being mostly excluded from the SED's most powerful positions, was thus one of the least influential.The Women Department was originally created in 1946 and briefly was part of the newly created LOPMO Department from 1952 to 1955. From 1956 to 1966, it only held the rank of a working group.
Elli Glöckner served as deputy department head from at least 1970 to 1987, also sitting on the DFD's presidium and the Central Auditing Commission.
Youth
The Youth Department formulated the SED's policy on youth issues and controlled their implementation, especially working with the Free German Youth. It was involved in the organization of the World Festival of Youth and Students in 1951 and 1973 and the all-German Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend, later the Pfingsttreffen der FDJ. By the 1980s, it had about 18 political employees.The department was originally created in 1946, but became part of the Organization Instructor Department in November 1949. The responsibility, combined with sports as sector Youth and Sports from 1953 to 1955, became an independent working group in January 1957, getting back its department rank in January 1961.
Deputy department heads include Harry Morgenstern, later deputy head of the International Politics and Economics Department, and Dietmar Börnert.
Economics departments
Basic Industries
The [|Basic Industries Department] was primarily responsible for the parts of the GDR's economy that had to provide important inputs for intermediate and final production, including ore mining, raw materials, fuel and energy, additionally overseeing the core areas of the chemical industry and water management.The department originated in the Economic Policy Department, created in 1946, where it was formally organized as heavy industry sector from November 1951 to January 1953, when it was established as an independent department. The department was initially created as Metallurgy, Mining, Chemistry and Energy Department, short "Basic Industries Department".
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Eberhard Arlt | 1951–1953 |
| Paul Kraszon | 1953–1954 |
| Hans Zimmermann | 1954–1955 |
| Berthold Handwerker | 1955–1959 |
| Günter Wyschofsky | 1959–1962 |
| Karl-Heinz Schäfer | 1962–1965 |
| Hilmar Tröger | 1965–1969 |
| Horst Wambutt | 1969–1989 |
Deputy department heads were Hans Zimmermann and Karl Heinz Schäfer, Günther Wyschofsky, Berthold Handwerker, Heinz Meyer, Hilmar Tröger, Helmut Kreher, Wolfgang Teichmann and Manfred Mühlbach.
Comecon (1974–1985)
The COMECON Working Group was responsible for the GDR's economic involvement with other states in Comecon, additionally overseeing the working group of the same name at the Office of the Council of Ministers.The working group was originally created on 22 October 1974 from the International Economic Relations sector of the [|Planning and Finance Department], the sector head since December 1971, Horst Tschanter, continuing as working group head. It reverted to being a sector of the department in June 1985.
| Working Group Head | Tenure |
| Horst Tschanter | 1974–1985 |
Gerhard Grüner, formerly a deputy minister in the Ministry of Materials Management, served as deputy head of the working group from 13 June 1975.
Construction
The Construction Department was primarily responsible for the construction and construction materials industry and supervised the Ministry for Construction, the Construction Academy of the GDR in Berlin and the colleges of construction. The department's importance grew significantly from 1973 onward due to the massive housing programme by new SED leader Erich Honecker, aiming to eliminate the GDR's housing shortage by 1990 by building 3 million apartments. The department additionally oversaw the FDJ's "Druschba-Trasse" construction project, a section of the Soviet gas pipeline Soyuz.The department was created in January 1953 as a spin-off of the Economic Policy Department. It was very briefly abolished to again form a "super department" for economic policy in for a few months in 1957 and 1958.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Ernst Scholz | 1953 |
| Alfred Schwanz | 1954–1959 |
| Gerhard Trölitzsch | 1959–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Gerhard Schütze, and Rolf Kühnert.
Light, Food and Bezirk-led Industry
The Light, Food and Bezirk-led Industry Department was primarily responsible for the consumer goods industry as well as the parts of the GDR's economy that were managed by local authorities. The department consequently had importance for alleviating supply shortages.The department originated in the Economic Policy Department. In November 1952, the responsibilities went into the [|Trade, Supply and Light Industry Department] as light industry sector and food industry sector, local industry went into the Planning and Finance Department as local industry and craft sector. In March 1955, all of these responsibilities were spun off into a new Light, Food and Locally Managed Industry Department, very briefly abolished to again form a "super department" for economic policy in for a few months in 1957 and 1958 and renamed to Light, Food and Bezirk-led Industry Department in 1966.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Paul Sonnenburg | 1955–1961 |
| Gerhard Briksa | 1961–1972 |
| Hans-Joachim Rüscher | 1972–1986 |
| Manfred Voigt | 1986–1989 |
Deputy department heads include future department head Hans-Joachim Rüscher, future Minister for Light Industry Werner Buschmann, Herbert Hofmann, and Otto Bohne.
Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy
The Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy Department was responsible for the areas of mechanical engineering, metallurgy and electrical engineering, covering the responsibilities of five industrial ministries. It had more than thirty employees.The department was one of the most important owing to the importance of vehicle construction and particularly mechanical engineering to the GDR's economy. The department's importance only grew in the second half of the 1980s due to the massive investments aimed at establishing a semiconductor industry.
The department was established in January 1953 as Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy, Mining, Chemistry and Energy Department and for a few year was a sector of the Industry Department. In May 1958, the department was reestablished as Mechanical Engineering and Metallurgy Department, the sectors of mining, chemical and energy forming a recreated, smaller Basic Industries Department.
Deputy department heads include Hermann Pöschel, thereafter head of the Research, Technical Development and Investment Policy Working Group, Fritz Brock, Werner Liebig, and Siegfried Leiterer.
Planning and Finance
The Planning and Finance Department managed national economic planning, including five-year plans, state budgets, financial policies, and economic analyses.It had broad responsibilities covering all sectors of the East German economy, making it by far the most important and powerful economic department. It increasingly acted as "general staff" for Central Committee Secretary for economics Günter Mittag, preparing all important economic decisions. With 35 employees, it was also the largest economic department and its employees held privileged access to economic data. In relation to other departments, it effectively acted as a "main department", other department heads having to get approval for their policy drafts from the Planning and Finance Department.
The department was created in 1951 as a spin-off of the Economic Policy Department and existed continuously since then with minor changes to its structure. The sectors for research and technology were spun off into a new [|Working Group, later Department for Research and Technical Development] in 1958 and the sector responsible for Comecon became an independent working group in 1974.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Wolfgang Berger | 1951–1953 |
| Helmut Sandig | 1954–1955 |
| Fritz Müller | 1955–1960 |
| Gerhard Schürer | 1960–1962 |
| Siegfried Böhm | 1963–1966 |
| Karl Hengst | 1966–1969 |
| Erich Wappler | 1969–1974 |
| Günter Ehrensperger | 1974–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Walter Halbritter, future department heads Gerhard Schürer, Siegfried Böhm, Karl Hengst, Erich Wappler, and Günter Ehrensperger, as well as Heinz Wildenhain, future head of the [|Financial Management and Party Businesses Department]. Other important party officials such as Günther Jahn and Carl-Heinz Janson also served as employees of the department early on in their careers.
Research and Technical Development
The Research and Technical Development Department oversaw basic industrial research, invention, patenting, standardization, technical monitoring, information, documentation, and guided subordinate party bodies in scientific and technical institutions, covering all technical offices and institutions in East Germany. It had about twenty employees.The department was originally created in 1958 as Research, Technical Development and Investment Policy Working Group as a spin-off of the Planning and Finance Department. The working group got full department rank in 1967.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Hermann Pöschel | 1958–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Karl-Heinz Kuntsche.
Socialist Economic Management
The Socialist Economic Management Department was responsible for the training future economic cadres, especially VEB and combine directors.The department closely worked with the Central Institute for Socialist Economic Management at the Central Committee of the SED, founded in November 1965 and given promotion rights shortly afterward, for this purpose. Longtime Central Committee Secretary for economics Günter Mittag also came to delegate various other miscellaneous tasks to the department. Throughout its existence, the department had eight political and two technical employees.
The department was originally created in 1965 as a working group, receiving full department rank in 1967.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Günther Jahn | 1965–1966 |
| Carl-Heinz Janson | 1966–1989 |
Heinz Klempke, simultaneously a deputy head of the [|Transport and Communications Department], served as deputy department head for most of the department's history, from at least March 1970 to 1989.
Trade, Supply and Foreign Trade
The Trade, Supply and Foreign Trade Department oversaw and set prices for domestic trade in consumer goods and services as well as foreign trade, closely working with the State Planning Commission.The department was unique in that, since November 1961, it was the only economic department not overseen by the Central Committee Secretary for economics, though he still held a great deal of influence over its work. The exception were questions about basic services, tariffs, rents and consumer prices.
The department was created on 5 November 1951 as Trade and Transport Department as a spin-off of the Economic Policy Department. In November 1952, it was reorganized as Trade, Supply and Light Industry Department, before the responsibility for light industry went to the [|Light, Food and Local Industry Department] in March 1955.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Karl Gaile | 1951–1953 |
| Ernst Lange | 1953–1966 |
| Hilmar Weiß | 1967–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Karl Gaile, Herbert Bäger, Harry Schindler, future Minister for Foreign Trade Horst Sölle, Rudolf Murgott, Degenhard Albrecht, Robert Habermann, and Günter Ballauf.
Trade Unions and Social Policy
The Trade Unions and Social Policy Department was responsible for controlling the work and staffing of the mass organization Free German Trade Union Federation and its constituent trade unions, labor law and occupational safety, the social security system and for formulating the SED's social policy, in particular regarding wages and pensions. The department did not, however, have control over the FDGB's day-to-day operations as both chairmen Herbert Warnke and Harry Tisch were members of the Politburo.The department was already set up in June 1945 in the Central Committee of the KPD as Labor and Social Welfare Department. It was abolished in June 1950 and integrated into the Economic Policy Department as labor and trade union sector, which was later transferred to the newly created LOPMO Department. In November 1952, the Politburo created a Labor, Social and Health Services Department, which absorbed the labor and trade union sector in January 1957, creating the Trade Unions, Social and Health Services Department. In 1959, this department was split into the Health Policy Department and the Trade Unions and Social Policy Department.
Deputy department heads include future department head Fritz Schellhorn, and Erhard Schulze.
Transport and Communications
The Transport and Communications Department was responsible for areas of transport, traffic, postal services and telecommunications and was responsible for their implementation together with the central state institutions.The department originated in the Economic Policy Department. In November 1952, the Transport and Communications Department was created from the former Transport Sector in the Trade and Transport Department. It was renamed to Railway, Transport and Communications Department. It was very briefly abolished to again form a "super department" for economic policy in for a few months in 1957 and 1958. After further renaming, the department was again called Transport and Communications Department since 1972.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Günter Mittag | 1953–1958 |
| Volkmar Winkler | 1958–1962 |
| Hubert Egemann | 1962–1987 |
| Dieter Wösterfeld | 1987–1989 |
Deputy department heads include Heinz Klempke, future department heads Volkmar Winkler, and Hubert Egemann, as well as Manfred Calov and Dieter Zobel.
Internal departments
Management of Party Enterprises
The [|Management of Party Enterprises Department] mainly provided services for the Central Committee such as property management, catering, guest houses, the polyclinic, the childcare facilities and the transport service. The department was also responsible for the procurement of office materials and the provisioning of office spaces.The department answered to the head of the Politburo's Office.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Eleonore Pieck | 1946–1949 |
| Emil Scheweleit | 1950–1958 |
| Walter Heibich | 1958–1963 |
| Günter Glende | 1964–1989 |
Deputy department heads include future department heads Walter Heibich, and Günter Glende, as well as Heinz Simon.
Financial Management and Party Businesses
The Financial Management and Party Businesses Department oversaw the party's finances and, together with the KoKo, controlled the vast amount of commercial venues of the SED.The SED was one of the richest party in Europe at the time, operating the printing house VOB Zentrag, which had a near-monopoly on printing, the film studio DEFA, the small exports company Genex, the real estate company OEB Fundament and many others, employing 40.000 in 1989. The department answered to the head of the Politburo's Office and it was additionally controlled by the Central Auditing Commission.
In 1989, the department consisted of the sectors financial planning and accounting, management and facilities, material planning and accounting, party operations and Fundament.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Rudolf Appelt | 1946–1947 |
| Walter Beling | 1947–1950 |
| Karl Raab | 1950–1981 |
| Heinz Wildenhain | 1981–1989 |
| Wolfgang Langnitschke | 1989 |
Deputy department heads include Paul Hockarth, Karl Brauer, Walter Heibich, and Wolfgang Langnitschke.
Telecommunications (1957–1986)
The Telecommunications Department was responsible for the Central Committee's telecommunications and telex centers as well as encryption and news operations service. The department answered to the head of the Politburo's Office. Longtime department head Heinz Lübbe was a Major in the Stasi.The department originated in the May 1949 merger of the Telex station in the Office of the Small Secretariat and the Telephone switchboard in the [|Enterprise Department]. In September 1957, the resulting Telecommunications control center became its own department, reverting to a sector of the Office of the Politburo in 1986.
| Department Head | Tenure |
| Heinz Zumpe | 1967–1975 |
| Heinz Lübbe | 1975–1986 |
Office of the Politburo
The Office of the Politburo supported the Politburo's work by preparing and keeping minutes of its meetings. The Office additionally prepared party conferences, meetings of the Central Committee and foreign trips of the General Secretary of the SED and held control over access to foreign literature, travel, classified documents, the Central Committee building and services associated with the Central Committee such as the government hospital in Berlin-Buch and the government's Transport Aviation Squadron 44.All of these organizational tasks, in particular its control over the Politburo's agenda and information flow, made it one of the most powerful Central Committee offices, further supported by the fact that longtime head Gisela Glende was married to Günter Glende, longtime head of the Management of Party Enterprises Department, another powerful internal department.
The Office of the Politburo was originally created in September 1953, when the Office of the Secretariat, previously the Office of the Central Secretariat and the Office of the Small Secretariat, was restructured. The General Department at the Party Executive of the SED-PDS existed briefly in December 1989 to dissolve the Office of the Politburo.
Deputy heads include future head Gisela Glende, and Tilo Fischer.
Department-level institutions
Dietz
The Dietz Publishing House was the central party publishing house of the SED. The publications primarily included works by the classics of Marxism–Leninism, as well as speeches and essays by leading SED officials, publications on philosophical, economic and party history topics and propaganda pamphlets. Fiction was also published. It had around 200 employees before the Peaceful Revolution.The Dietz Publishing House was founded on 18 June 1946 through the merger of the KPD publishing house "Neuer Weg" and SPD publishing house "Vorwärts". It was named after Karl Dietz, head of a small publishing house in Rudolstadt, the name deliberately being similar to the otherwise unrelated J.H.W. Dietz Publishing House, the SPD's publishing house with a tradition dating back to the 19th century.
The publishing house, which since 1965 was legally incorporated as an organization-owned business of the SED, had department rank for most of its existence, but was controlled to a significant degree by other departments: The Propaganda Department exercised ideological control and the Financial Management and Party Businesses Department handled Dietz's economic affairs. From 1957 to 1960, it was organized as a sector of the Agitation and Propaganda Department.
After the Peaceful Revolution, the publishing house was converted to the "Dietz-Verlag Berlin GmbH", which was taken over by the Treuhandanstalt, who wanted to liquidate it, on 24 July 1991. It was given back to the SED's successor, the Party of Democratic Socialism, in January 1994 as part of its settlement with the Treuhandanstalt's successor in regards to the former SED's assets. It continues to exist to this day, now controlled by the The Left's Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, named Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin since 1999 as part of a settlement with the J.H.W. Dietz Publishing House.
Einheit
The Einheit editorial team published Einheit, the theoretical journal of the SED, its topics ranging from the history of the German and international workers' movement to philosophical and economic problems. It was largely written by leading SED officials and senior staff members of central party institutes.Einheit was generally published monthly and at special social events. Its circulation fluctuated between 96,000 and 250,000 copies over the years. It ceased publication at the end of 1989.
Einheit was first published in February 1946, as a joint publication of the KPD and SPD, the journal's subheading at the time being "Monthly magazine for the preparation of the Socialist Unity Party".
Neuer Weg
The Neuer Weg editorial team published Neuer Weg, a biweekly journal for party functionaries of the SED, covering "party life". It provided functionaries with suggestions, arguments and support for their party work. Additionally, it published articles on the work of various party organizations as well as policy materials, such as selected documents from meetings of the Central Committee and resolutions of the Politburo and Secretariat. Its circulation fluctuated between 100,000 and 360,000 copies over the years. It ceased publication at the end of 1989.Neuer Weg was first published in January 1946 with the subheading "Monthly magazine for current issues of the labor movement" by the Central Committee of the KPD.
Throughout its existence, the editorial office largely had the status of a department of the Central Committee, but was always closely linked to the Party Organs Department, the editorial office generally receiving information on party life from the department's Party Information Sector. For a time in the 1960s, it was even organizationally subordinate to this department.
| Editor-in-chief | Tenure |
| Emmi Dölling | 1946–1949 |
| Rudolf Mießner | 1949–1956 |
| Fritz Geißler | 1956–1960 |
| Rudolf Wettengel | 1960–1973 |
| Werner Scholz | 1973–1989 |