Talk:Leaders of East Germany

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[edit] Head of State in 89/early 90

I'm writing because there seems to be confusion about who the East German head of state actually was, between December 89, and March 90 - during the hubris of the political transition after the fall of the wall. By head of state, I mean what one would think of as 'President', or in this case 'Chairman of the Council of State'. I have read in several books that Gregor Gysi was such, as head of the Central Committee of the SED/PDS - which meant that he was the successor of Krenz, and Honecker, but Wiki lists Manfred Gerlach, instead. Which is right?? (RM21 08:33, 19 July 2006 (UTC))

The picture is quite clear:

The Head of State from 1960 to March 1990 was the Chairman of the Council of State. This office was held by Ulbricht, Stoph, Honecker, Krenz (all SED) and finally Gerlach (LDPD), who was elected after the fall of Krenz and the dissolution of the SED's power monopoly. As a sign of good will, the still SED-controlled Volkskammer chose a member of one of the Block-parties.

Gysi was elected chairman of the SED/PDS at that time. As such he succeeded Krenz as party leader, though Gysi was not head of the Central Commitee, as this was abolished. Before 1989 the General (or First) Secretary as party leader (Ulbricht, Honecker, Krenz) had always been the most powerful man in the GDR but he was not the Head of State (first the President, then the Chairman of the Council of State) or Head of Government (the Prime Minister or Chairman of the Council of Ministers) unless he held these offices as well (as Ulbricht 1960-73, Honecker 1976-1989 and Krenz 1989 did). After his election as chairman, Gysi was the second most important SED politician just behind prime minister Hans Modrow, and the most important after the elections of March 1990.

Hope that clears up things. Str1977 ^{(smile back)} 12:09, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] SED translation

In my point of view is the translation of Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) with "Socialist Unity Party of Germany" misleading - the German name has its origin in the forced union between the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) and the SPD (Social Democratic Party) in East Germany - a better translation would be: United Socialist Party of Germany

Citius Altius Fortius 20:58, 04 Jul 2005 (CEST)

That is indeed one possible and actually the originally intended meaning. However, the current translation conveys it as well, is closer to the German and also contains various connotations. Str1977 ^{(smile back)} 12:09, 22 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] President of East Germany

The article President of East Germany was for a long time head of the "Most Wanted articles" list. In a effort to perhaps reduced the most wanted list, someone redirected that article here. Firstly, is the redirect appropriate? If not, is there any interest in writing a standalone article? Next "President of East Germany" isn't mentioned here - but Chairman of the Council of Ministers is - which is the equivalent role? What is the best thing to do? Mention the word president somewhere here? Or fix all those links to "President" (which incidentially are all in the "List of heads of state in 19xx" series of articles. Pcb21| Pete 13:38, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

As far as I know East Germany didn't actually have a position called president. Secretlondon 15:26, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Ok, I will go ahead and change the links of form [[President of East Germany|Chairman of the Council of Ministers]] to a simple [[Chairman of the Councils of Ministers]] (or [[[[Chairman of the Councils of Ministers (East Germany)]] if disambiguation is necessary) and then redirect that page here for the time being. THanks for the help. ~~~~

It had a post called 'Staatspräsident' and 'Präsident der DDR', although only until 1960. Bizarrely, in List of state leaders in 1990, 'President of the People's Chamber' is being linked to as [[President of East Germany|President of the People's Chamber]] - ie President of the Volkskammer - and in List of state leaders in 1989, President of East Germany is linked to with the caption 'Chairman of the Council of State'. Somebody has got very confused. Morwen - Talk 21:41, 11 Jun 2004 (UTC)