Herbert Richard Wehner was a German politician. A former member of the Communist Party, he joined the Social Democrats (SPD) after World War II. He served as Federal Minister of Intra-German Relations from 1966 to 1969 and thereafter as chairman of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag until 1983.
Iconic portrait of Minister Herbert Wehner in 1966, with his pipe
Wehner (left), Brandt and Schmidt (right) at a SPD convention in Hanover, 1973
Minister of Intra-German Relations
The Federal Minister of Intra-German Relations was a federal cabinet minister of the Federal Republic of Germany. The office was created under the title of Federal Minister of All-German Affairs in 1949, being also in charge of the German lands east of the Oder–Neisse line which had been put under Polish or Soviet administration. In 1951, the first Minister of All-German Affairs Jakob Kaiser openly raised claim to even greater territories including Austria, parts of Switzerland, the Saar area and Alsace-Lorraine.
Minister of Intra-German Relations
Image: Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild P001516, Jakob Kaiser
Image: Bundesarchiv Bild 146 2007 0100, Ernst Lemmer
Image: Rainer Barzel