Günther Wyschofsky

Günther Wyschofsky (born 8 May 1929 in Bischofswerda) is a former politician and official in the German Democratic Republic. He became a member of the powerful Central Committee of the country's ruling Socialist Unity Party in 1964. For more than two decades he also served as junior Minister for the Chemicals Industry.

Life Günther Wyschofsky was born in Bischofswerda, a small industrial town in Upper Lusatia in then southern part of what was then Central Germany, and some 20 km (12 miles) from the frontier with the republic of Czechoslovakia, established slightly more than a decade before his birth. His father was a baker and confectioner who lost his job during the economic crisis of the 1920s and had joined the Communist Party (KPD) before 1933. Wyschofsky himself retained this ministerial post for more than twenty years, till November 1989 Later he was also Chairman, for the East German side, in the bilateral Economic Committees of the German Democratic Republic with Iran and with China.

Wyschofsky period in office saw the construction or massive expansion of several major industrial facilities that nearly half a century later are still important facilities in their respective sectors. These include the vast Petro-chemicals facility in Schwedt, the second refinery at Leuna and the extended adhesives plant at Piesteritz. On the other hand there were other less prestigious Chemicals plants which were left to deteriorate because the larger high-profile "beacon" facilities absorbed all the available investment capital. He often found himself torn between insights deriving from his own expertise and the strictures of party discipline. With Wyschofsky it was always party discipline that won.

1990, the year of German reunification, was also the year in which Günther Wyschofsky took early retirement. He returned to live in Bischofswerda.

Awards and honours 1960 Patriotic Order of Merit in Bronze 1964 Banner of Labor 1970 Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver 1974 Distinguished Service Medal of the National People's Army 1977 Honoured Chemical Worker 1979 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold 1984 Patriotic Order of Merit Gold clasp 1984 Honorary doctorate of the "Carl Schorlemmer" Technical Academy (Leuna-Merseburg) 1989 Order of Karl Marx