Walter Ulbricht

Ulbricht, Walter (1893–1973), leader of post-World War II East Germany. A founding member (1918) of the German Communist Party, he spent 1933–45 in exile in the USSR. He became first deputy premier (1949) and head of state (1960–73) of the German Democratic Republic. An uncompromising Stalinist, he headed the Socialist Unity Party from 1950 until his replacement (1971) by Erich Honecker. He ordered the building of the Berlin Wall (1961) and had Eastern German troops participate in the invasion of Czechoslovakia, in 1968.

See also: Germany.