Heinz Kuhrig

Heinz Kuhrig (4 March 1929 – 13 September 2001) was an East German politician and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Kuhrig served as the East Germany's Agriculture Minister in the 1970s following Georg Ewald's death in a car accident.

He was forced into retirement in 1982 and committed suicide after German reunification.

Life and career Early career The son of a working-class family, Kuhrig completed an apprenticeship as an industrial electrician from 1943 to 1945 after attending elementary school and worked as an agricultural machinery mechanic from 1945 to 1946.

From 1946 to 1947, he attended a preparatory school and subsequently studied agriculture at Leipzig University, graduating in 1952 with a degree in agricultural sciences (Diplomlandwirt). thereafter worked in the Central Committee Agriculture Department. as first deputy chairman. From 1964 to 1968, he was also a member of the East German Council of Ministers. then in the northwest of Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt.

Long retirement In November 1982, Kuhrig was dismissed as Agriculture Minister.

Kuhrig was allowed to remain in the Central Committee and Volkskammer, but was transferred to a politically irrelevant position at the Society for German–Soviet Friendship, a SED-controlled mass organization aiming to cultivate a positive image of the Soviet Union among the East German public.

Kuhrig suffered from health problems in his later years. He shot himself with his hunting rifle on 13 September 2001. He was the second former East German minister to die from an apparent suicide after Construction Minister Wolfgang Junker.