Wilhelm Zaisser
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Wilhelm Zaisser (June 20, 1893-March 3, 1958) was head of the East German Ministry for State Security or Stasi from 1950 to 1953.
Born in Gelsenkirchen, Zaisser studied to become a teacher from 1910 to 1913 in Essen. When World War I began a year later, Zaisser entered the German Army. Upon leaving the service in 1918, Zaisser joined the USPD and in 1919 returned to Essen, where he became a school teacher. During this time period, Zaisser became an active Communist and after the Kapp Putsch took place in 1920, a military leader of the fledgling Red Ruhr Army. Zaisser’s activities in the Red Ruhr Army led to his arrest and dismissal as a teacher in 1921. After his release, Zaisser worked for the KPD as a propagandist. From 1921 to 1922, Zaisser edited the “Ruhr Echo” and the “Bergischen Voice of the People.” In 1923, Zaisser entered the KPD intelligence service and worked actively against the French occupation forces in the Ruhr. Zaisser’s efficient work caused him to be sent to Moscow a year later, where he received political and military training.
After returning to Germany in 1924, Zaisser became one of the leading intelligence officials of the KPD, working directly for its Central Committee. Throughout the 1920s, Zaisser was a military-political leader and instructor for the KPD in such areas as the Rhine, Westphalia, and Berlin. He also worked abroad for the Red Army and USSR Intelligence Service from 1925 to 1926 as a military advisor to Syria and North Africa. Starting in 1927, Zaisser worked almost exclusively for the Executive Committee of the Comintern, serving as a military advisor to China (1927-1930) and the Czech Army (1930-1932). His work earned him membership in the Russian Communist Party in 1932 and Soviet citizenship in 1940. In 1936, Zaisser traveled to Spain and assumed the name “Gomez,” where on behalf of the Russians he became a military advisor to the Spanish People’s Army. Zaisser quickly achieved the rank of brigadier general and in 1937, he became leader of all the pro-Republican international forces operating in Spain. Following the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1938, Zaisser returned to Moscow and resumed working for the Comintern. During and after World War II, Zaisser taught anti-fascist training courses to German Prisoners of War.
In 1947, Zaisser returned to Germany and joined the Socialist Unity Party. Zaisser’s career took off rapidly soon afterwards, and by 1948 he was Minister of the Interior and Deputy Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt. From 1949 to 1954, Zaisser served as a representative in the Volkskammer and in 1950 worked on military and tactical issues at the Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin Institute, a facility to which very few non-Soviets had access. In 1950, Zaisser gained membership in East Germany’s Politburo and the Central Committee of the SED, thus becoming one of the most powerful men in the country. In the same year, Zaisser was awarded the Karl Marx Medal and appointed Director of the Ministry of State Security (better known as the Stasi). Using his vast knowledge of intelligence work, Zaisser built the Stasi into a powerful organization. Zaisser controlled the ministry until July 1953, at which time he was dismissed. Zaisser’s removal came as a result of differences he had with Walter Ulbricht, who plotted to consolidate his power and remove Zaisser and others who posed a threat to his career from national prominence. Zaisser’s downfall was also hastened by his power hungry deputy, Erich Mielke, who actively worked to tarnish Zaisser’s standing in the party. Ultimately, Zaisser and others in the Politburo and the Central Committee were accused of being hostile to the party and removed from their positions. Ulbricht also accused Zaisser of not using the repressive power of the Stasi to a sufficient extent during a rebellion against the East German government on July 17, 1953. At any rate, Zaisser was stripped of all his posts and classified as an enemy of the party. Zaisser subsequently spent his final years working as a translator at the Dietz Publishing House and serving at the Institute of Marxism and Leninism in Berlin. He died in obscurity in Berlin in 1958, and was posthumously rehabilitated by the Left Party in 1993.
