Georg Ewald

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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
In office
14 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 a German politician and high-ranking party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

In the German Democratic Republic, he briefly served as the First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Neubrandenburg and, most notably, as the longtime GDR Agriculture Minister and as a candidate member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED.

Ewald died in a car accident in 1973.

Life and career[edit]

Early career[edit]

After attending agricultural school, Ewald worked in his parents' farm until he was drafted into the Wehrmacht in 1943.[1][2]

From 1946 to 1949, Ewald was a farmworker and joined the Free German Youth (FDJ) and the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1946. In 1949/1950, he was the mayor of his hometown and from 1950 to 1953, he was the district councilor for agriculture, a member of the district council of Stralsund, and a member of the SED district leadership.[1][2]

From 1953 to 1954, Ewald attended the "Karl Marx" Party Academy and then served as First Secretary of the SED in the districts of Bad Doberan and Rügen.[1][2]

Bezirk Neubrandenburg SED career[edit]

In October 1960, he succeeded Max Steffen as First Secretary of the Bezirk Neubrandenburg SED leadership.[1][2][3][4] Steffen was demoted to First Secretary of the SED in the Lübbenau coal power plant.[5]

From January 1963 (VI. Party Congress) until his death, he was a full member of the Central Committee of the SED and a candidate member of its Politburo,[1][2][6] the de facto highest leadership body in East Germany.

Agriculture Minister[edit]

Ewald (center) visiting farmers in Löwenberg in August 1972

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 holding ministerial rank.[7]

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.[8][9]

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][4][7][10] In 1971, the Ministry of Agriculture was reestablished as Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food, Ewald becoming Minister.[7]

His 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 became the gradual separation of animal and plant production, which was a failure.[11]

Ewald was awarded the Medal of Merit of the GDR, and the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver in 1960 and 1964 and the Banner of Labor in 1969.[1][2]

Death[edit]

Ewald's grave in 2016

Ewald died in a car accident on the morning of 14 September 1973, near Gotha.[1][2][12][13]

Two other SED functionaries, members of the Bezirk Erfurt SED leadership, also died in the accident.[13]

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.[4]

He was interred at the Memorial of the Socialists at 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) is still known today as Minister's Curve (German: Ministerkurve).[13]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Ewald, Georg". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. 2009. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. ^ "Bezirksleitung Neubrandenburg der SED (1952 - 1990)". www.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. 2006. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  4. ^ a b c "Sekretariat des Ministers für Staatssicherheit - Sicherstellung von politisch brisantem Schriftgut [= SdM]". www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de (in German). German Federal Archives. 2017. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  5. ^ "Steffen, Max". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. 2009. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  6. ^ "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.
  7. ^ 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.
  8. ^ "Reue statt Treue". Der Spiegel (in German). 1963-02-19. ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  9. ^ "Bartsch, Karl-Heinz". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship. 2009. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  10. ^ "Georg Ewald zum Minister berufen". www.nd-archiv.de (in German). Neues Deutschland. 1963-02-14. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ "Genosse Georg Ewald tödlich verunglückt". www.nd-archiv.de (in German). Neues Deutschland. 1973-09-15. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
  13. ^ 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.
  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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