Vilhelm Pieck

Vilhelm Pieck

First president of the GDR
Date of Birth: 03.01.1876
Country: Germany

Biography of Wilhelm Pieck

Wilhelm Pieck was a German communist and one of the founders of the German Communist Party. He played a key role in leading the German Bolsheviks. Born into a working-class family, Pieck started his career as a carpenter. In 1894, he joined the Woodworking Union and in 1895, he became a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Pieck held various leadership positions within the SPD, including chairman of the district from 1899 to 1906 and secretary of the city organization in Bremen from 1906 to 1910. In April 1910, he was elected as the second secretary of the Central Educational Committee and secretary of the Central Party School in Berlin. He aligned himself with the left-wing faction of the SPD, led by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Franz Mehring, and Clara Zetkin, with whom he was closely associated.

During World War I (1914-1918), Pieck actively opposed the annexationist policies of German imperialism and the "civil peace" policy advocated by the right-wing leaders of the SPD. He faced multiple arrests for his political activities. Alongside Liebknecht and Luxemburg, Pieck made significant contributions to the consolidation of the left-wing social democrats.

After the successful October Revolution in Russia, Pieck called on the German working class to learn from its experience. In November 1918, he became a member of the central leadership of the Spartacus League and actively participated in the preparation and implementation of the November Revolution in Germany. Pieck was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was elected as a member of the Central Committee of the KPD at its Founding Congress in December 1918 and remained on the committee until the formation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany.

From 1921 onwards, Pieck was repeatedly elected to the Prussian Landtag, and from 1928, he served in the German Reichstag. He also held positions in the Berlin Municipal Council and the Prussian State Council from 1929. Pieck used the parliamentary platform of the bourgeois state to propagate the political program of the KPD.

In 1928, Pieck was elected to the Executive Committee of the Communist International (Comintern) at its 6th Congress, and in 1931, he became a member of the Presidium and Secretariat of the Comintern. After the establishment of fascist dictatorship in Germany in 1933, Pieck actively worked towards creating a united front against fascism. As per the decision of the Central Committee of the KPD in May 1933, he left Germany and formed the exile leadership of the KPD in Paris, along with Ernst Dallmann and Walter Florin. At the 7th Congress of the Comintern in 1935, Pieck delivered a report on behalf of the Comintern Executive Committee. He fought for the implementation of the People's Front policy and the development of a broad anti-fascist movement.

At the KPD conference in Brussels in 1935, Pieck was elected as the chairman of the KPD Central Committee. In his report at the Bern Conference of the KPD in January 1939, Pieck called for the consolidation of all patriotic forces to save the German people from the threat of war and outlined a program for a new democratic republic in Germany. During World War II (1939-1945), Pieck exposed the ambitions of German imperialism for global domination and called on the German people to overthrow fascist dictatorship and take control of their own destiny. As one of the leaders of the National Committee for a Free Germany, established in the USSR in 1943, Pieck conducted extensive educational work among German prisoners of war, particularly among high-ranking officers and generals.

After the liberation of Germany from fascism, Pieck actively participated in the work of democratizing and denazifying the country and addressing the consequences of fascist rule. He played a significant role in the reunification of the KPD and SPD in the eastern part of Germany and the formation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in April 1946. From 1946 to 1954, he served as one of the two chairmen of the SED, alongside Otto Grotewohl. He was a member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the SED from 1949 to 1960.

Since the formation of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in October 1949, Pieck served as its President. He tirelessly fought against war, for peace and the security of nations, for the construction of socialism in the GDR, and for the strengthening of friendship and cooperation between the SED and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, as well as between the people of the GDR and the USSR.

Pieck was awarded the title of Hero of Labour in 1951. He received various honors, including the Order of Karl Marx, the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" (in gold), the Order of the Banner of Labor, and others.

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