Alfred Neumann (East Germany)

Alfred " Ali " Neumann (* December 15 1909 in Schoeneberg, † January 4, 2001 in Berlin) was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED and 1965-1968 Minister of material economy of the GDR.

Life

Neumann served an apprenticeship as a carpenter. In 1919 he joined the workers' sports club " spruce ", which was in 1928 a member of the fighting community for Red Sport Unit (KG). Neumann was a member of the KPD in 1929 and 1930, member of the regional leadership of the KG.

From 1933 to 1934 he worked with Karl Maron illegal for KG. In 1934 he emigrated via Sweden and Finland to the USSR, where he worked as a sports teacher. In 1938 he was expelled because of a lack of Soviet citizenship of the USSR. He was able to come to Spain, where he participated as a member of the International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939 he was arrested and interned in France, in 1941 delivered to the Gestapo and sentenced in 1942 by the People's Court for high treason to eight years in prison. From Brandenburg -Gorden, he was transferred in February 1945 in the SS Dirlewanger penal battalion, where he managed to escape. He came into Soviet captivity, and was until 1947 in various prison camps.

After his return to Germany he joined the SED and was an administrative employee and SED official at the county level in Berlin. In 1949 he became secretary for propaganda of the SED - country line Berlin, 1951-1953 Vice Mayor of Berlin and from 1953 to 1957 as the successor of Hans Jendretzky first secretary of the SED district leadership Berlin.

Since 1949, Neumann was a deputy of the People's Chamber, since 1954 a member of the Central Committee and candidate for February 1958 Member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED. From 1957 to 1961 he was secretary of the SED Central Committee, 1961-1965 Chairman of the Economic Council and from 1965 to 1968 Minister of materials management. Since 1962 he was a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, since 1968 one of the first Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.

Neumann played an important role in addressing and enforcement of the New Economic System of Planning and Management ( NÖSPL ). In the wake of the overthrow of Walter Ulbricht by Erich Honecker in 1971, Neumann refused the only important at that time the Politburo member, a secret "please" to the Soviet leadership to be relieved Ulbricht to sign with, as he stood in the substantive and conceptual issues on Ulbricht's side. This was never forgotten him by Erich Honecker. Neumann remained to the end an uncomfortable opponent Honecker, however, never entered into the public against him.

In 1989 he resigned with the Council of Ministers, was expelled from the Politburo and 1990 from the SED - PDS. Since 1992, has been under investigation for " manslaughter and assault on the inner German border " against him because of his membership in the National Defense Council of the GDR, the 23 criminal division of the Berlin Landgericht presented in 1999 the procedure without positing a trial one.

Honors

Neumann received in 1956 and 1964, the Patriotic Order of Merit and in 1984 the Karl -Marx- Orden.

Works

• Confidence in the power of the working class: selected speeches. Dietz -Verlag, Berlin 1975
• Work for socialism: selected speeches. Dietz -Verlag, Berlin 1979
• The GDR strengthen - secure peace: selected speeches. Dietz -Verlag, Berlin 1984