Kurt Krüger

Kurt Hermann Ernst Paul Krüger (17 September 1925 – 21 October 2006) was an East German politician and diplomat whose career was crowned with an appointment, in 1982, as his country's ambassador to Kabul.

Life

Early years Krüger was born in Jüterbog, a traditionally walled town some 40 miles (65 km) south-west of Berlin. His father worked as a waiter and his mother was employed in retailing. His own schooling came to an accelerated conclusion through the device of an "Emergency Abitur" due to the pressures arising out of war and he was conscripted for Labour service early in 1943.

Army life in the Soviet Union In June 1943 he was drafted into the army, serving initially in Poland before being transferred to the Russian Front in June 1944. By September 1944 he had been promoted to the rank of sub-officer. That was the month in which he defected to the Red Army and almost immediately joined the Soviet backed National Committee for a Free Germany (NKFD / Nationalkomitee Freies Deutschland). He then undertook propaganda missions on behalf of the NKFD with the troops still fighting. From December 1944, in Soviet captivity, he undertook numerous assignments for the NKFD in the prisoner camps. From 1948 he was employed as a production manager in Camp 7351/6. He also attended an Anti-Fascist School in Tagil (near Moscow). In 1967 he became a member of The Party Regional Leadership Team for Frankfurt (Oder). During this time, in 1966/67, he also underwent a succession of Interior Ministry leadership courses at the National Police Academy in Berlin. a posting he was to retain for a little more than four years.

Kurt Krüger retired from public service in 1988.

Awards and honours 1975 Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver 1986 Forty Years of Victory in the Great Patriotic War Medal from the Soviet Union