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Friedrich Dickel

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Friedrich Dickel
Minister of Interior
In office
14 November 1963 – 18 November 1989
Preceded byKarl Maron
Succeeded byLothar Ahrendt
Personal details
Born9 December 1913
Vohwinkel, today Wuppertal, Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died23 October 1993(1993-10-23) (aged 79)
Berlin, Federal Republic of Germany
NationalityGerman
Political partySocialist Unity Party of Germany
Military service
RankArmeegeneral

Friedrich Dickel (9 December 1913 – 23 October 1993) was a German politician, who served as the interior minister of East Germany for nearly twenty-six years.

Early life

Dickel was born on 9 December 1913 in Wuppertal-Vohwinkel in the Prussian Rhine Province of the German Empire.[1]

Career

Dickel joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1931.[2] He was a military officer with the rank of colonel general.[3][4] He fought in the international brigades in the civil war of Spain together with others, including future Stasi chief Erich Mielke.[2][3] Dickel commanded a platoon unit in the civil war in Spain.[5]

After the Nazi rule in Germany, he settled in the Soviet Union where he taught at the Soviet General Staff Academy.[5] He returned to East Germany in 1946[1] and served as the commander of the Officers’ School for Political Work in East Berlin from 1950.[5] He was promoted to the rank of major general in 1956.[5] Next year he was named as the deputy national defense minister.[5]

Dickel became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and of its central committee.[6] His tenure in the SED central committee was between 1967 and 1989.[5] He also served as a police chief in East Berlin.[7]

Dickel was appointed interior minister on 14 November 1963, replacing Karl Maron in the post.[8] He also led the Volkspolizei during his tenure.[6][9] Dickel's term ended on 18 November 1989 when he was dismissed as a result of the atmosphere of change and reform in the country which began leading up to German reunification.[7] He was succeeded by Lothar Ahrendt as interior minister.[9] In December 1989 Dickel retired from politics.[1]

Death

After a long illness Dickel died in Berlin on 23 October 1993.[10] He was 79.[10]

Awards

Dickel was the recipient of the Order of Karl Marx which was awarded to him in June 1985 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the German People's Police.[11]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Friedrich Dickel". Chronic der Wende. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  2. ^ a b Nessim Ghouas (2004). The Conditions, Means and Methods of the MfS in the GDR: An Analysis of the Post and Telephone Control. Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag. p. 139. ISBN 978-3-89873-988-7.
  3. ^ a b Arnold Krammer (April 2005). "Sammelrez: Internationale Brigaden in der DDR". H-Soz-u-Kult.
  4. ^ "Bonn Officials are Barred from Traveling to Berlin". St. Petersburg Times. 10 February 1969. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Arnold Krammer (2004). "The Cult of the Spanish Civil War in East Germany". Journal of Contemporary History. 39 (4): 537–539. doi:10.1177/0022009404046753.
  6. ^ a b Gareth M. Winrow (2009). The Foreign Policy of the GDR in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 124. ISBN 978-0-521-12259-7.
  7. ^ a b Andreas Glaeser (2000). Divided in Unity: Identity, Germany, and the Berlin Police. London: University of Chicago Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-0-226-29784-2.
  8. ^ Hans Herman Hertle (2001). "The Fall of the Wall: The Unintended Dissolution of East Germany's Ruling Regime". Cold War International History Project Bulletin. No. 12–13. p. 164.
  9. ^ a b Nancy Travis Wolfe (1992). Policing a Socialist Society: The German Democratic Republic. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-3132-6530-3.
  10. ^ a b "Friedrich Dickel". Der Spiegel (in German). No. 44. 1993.
  11. ^ "Friedrich Dickel mit Karl-Marx-Orden geehrt". Neues Deutschland (in German). Berlin. 29 June 1985. Retrieved 16 August 2022.
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