Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development and establishment of the German Democratic Republic. As the First Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 to 1971, he was the chief decision-maker in East Germany. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 on, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973. As the leader of a significant Communist satellite, Ulbricht had a degree of bargaining power with the Kremlin that he used effectively. For example, he demanded the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 when the Kremlin was reluctant.
Ulbricht in 1960
Ulbricht (standing in the background) speaking at a joint event of the KPD and NSDAP on 22 January 1931. Joseph Goebbels is visible on the left in the foreground.
"Help with the Search for the Red Murderers": Ulbricht (bottom left) on a wanted poster for the killing of Anlauf and Lenck, 1933
Mao Zedong, Stalin, Ulbricht and Tsedenbal at Stalin's 70th birthday celebrations in Moscow, December 1949
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Germany during the postwar period until it was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956.
Karl-Liebknecht-Haus, the KPD's headquarters from 1926 to 1933. The Antifaschistische Aktion (abbr. "Antifa") logo can be seen prominently displayed on the front of the building.
KPD in Essen, 1925
Reichswehr soldiers marching toward the federal parliament in Dresden, Saxony, to depose the state government led by a KPD-SPD coalition.
KPD election poster, 1932. The caption at the bottom reads: "An end to this system!"
