Paul Wessel
Paul Wessel ( born April 9, 1904 in Plauen, † January 20, 1967 in Berlin) was a member of the small secretariat of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED in the GDR.
Life
As the son of a laborer, he completed after attending the elementary school trained as a metal worker. He joined in 1918 the Socialist Working Youth and was from 1921 to 1932 and member of the SPD 1926-1927 Correspondent of the SPD parliamentary group of Saxony. 1929-1938 he was a worker or master in the Chemical Works Wolfen. 1932/33, he was a member of the SAP. In 1938, he worked as a foreman of a rayon plant in Athens and stayed then in Switzerland and Italy. From 1939 to 1946 he worked as a master in the Agfa- Wolfen film factory.
Since July 1945, he was Chairman of the SPD local group Wolfen, from the beginning of 1946 Head of the Economic Section of the SPD for the province of Saxony in Halle ( Saale), after the forced merger of the SPD and KPD, together with Otto Herbert of the Communist Party head of the Economic Department of the SED national Association of Saxony- Anhalt and since November 1946 Member of the Landtag of Saxony- Anhalt. On December 14, 1948, he was elected together with Walter Ulbricht by Parliament in the German Economic Commission of the Soviet occupation zone. He was, until 1949, Secretary of the SED state association in Halle ( Saale). Since 1948 a member of the People's Council of the SBZ, he 1949 member of the Provisional People's Chamber and in November 1949 was elected to the newly formed Economic Committee of the People's Chamber after the founding of the GDR in October. 1949 to 1951 he was, together with Fred Oelßner and Edith Baumann member of the Little Secretariat of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the SED.
After visiting the Party School he was from 1951 to 1960 deputy director of the German Trade Center ( DHZ ) Chemistry and Deputy Director General and Head of the Trade Policy Department of foreign trade operation mining trade. From 1961 to 1965 he was Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of the German Democratic Republic in Pyongyang and then staff at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Intra- German trade.