Talk:Walter Ulbricht
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[edit] Expand, please?
This article is not written in a neutral style, it needs to look more like an encyclopedia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.146.120.32 (talk) 20:22, August 29, 2007 (UTC)
This article could really do with some expansion. Ulbricht was head of the DDR for 22 years! He's a major historical figure and worthy of a much longer article -- compare the length of this one with the one on Erich Honecker -- Palthrow 06:56, 13 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Did some expansion, but more is needed
I added quite a lot of text, some drawn from my own work, some translated from the German Wikipedia, but much needs further expansion, particularly about the significant years 1965-1971. -- ilja.nieuwland
[edit] missing?
Did he fight in the Spanish Civil War? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 67.110.221.182 (talk) 22:03, 23 April 2007 (UTC).
- Interestingly enough, although the German Wikipedia entry does not say that he did, the Encyclopedia Britannica does say this. Further investigation reveals that, although he was awarded the Hans Beimler Medal for service in the war, he actually made only a very small contribution - one aggrieved veteran described this as "he never had a gun, he only spoke on the radio" (Anti-Fascism and Memory in East Germany: Remembering the International Brigades, 1945-1989 By Josie McLellan, p67). It seems he was briefly a political commissar before being ordered home.Rbreen 09:31, 24 April 2007 (UTC)
[edit] International Lenin School
the article states "Ulbricht attended the International Lenin School of the Comintern in Moscow in 1924/1925" but that school was founded in 1926 (according to the link). Can someone fix the inconsistency? The article in German is silent on the period. Incidentally, can anyone say whether & where Ulbricht met Lenin? (as he later bragged to Brezhnev). Coughinink 15:21, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
- In answer to the first question, the sources seem to contradict each other. It seems clear that the Lenin School was not opened until late in 1926, and indeed one source says Ulbricht was one of the personnel (ie staff, not student) when it opened. (Jane Degras, The Communist International, 1919-1943 (1971): Documents, p272, as a GDR period source, this may well be unreliable) Matthew Worley, In Search of Revolution: International Communist Parties in the Third Period, I.B. Tauris (2004) says Ulbricht was trained at the school but gives no dates. Hope Millard Harrison, Driving the Soviets Up the Wall: Soviet-East German Relations, 1953-1961, (Princeton, 2003) says Ulbricht was trained at the school and appears to date this in 1923-24. Peter Grieder, The East German Leadership, 1946-73 (Manchester University 1999), says he was at the school and does not give dates but it seems to be some time between 1923 and 1926. Perhaps the school existed in an earlier form under a different name, or Ulbricht attended later. A number of German sources refer to him visiting the school, so perhaps it was only a brief visit in the late 20s.
- In answer, possibly, to the second question, Hope Millard Harrison says in 1922 Ulbricht was a delegate to the Fourth World Congress of the Comintern, where he met Lenin. I think this all needs a bit more research. Rbreen 19:54, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
Many thanks for all the pointers; I wish someone more informed than I would update the article on this and other areas. Coughinink 11:23, 15 September 2007 (UTC)