Lucie Pflug

Lucie Pflug (24 February 1916 - 9 November 1993) was a senior cultural official in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

Between 1956 and 1978 she was the head of the "Publications, Book trade and Academic Libraries department" , working in the Knowledge Section of the powerful Party Central Committee. There was always a reluctance on the part of the authorities to acknowledge the existence of state censorship. It is nevertheless believed that Lucie Pflug's job gave her significant influence over what was published, and therefore over what was available to be read, in the German Democratic Republic.

Life Lucie Pflug was born in Kunersdorf, a small village in Brandenburg, east of Berlin. Her father was a blacksmith. She attended school locally and then, between 1930 and 1932, trained for work as a typist. Between 1932 and 1934 she was unemployed. In 1934 she took a secretarial job with the Berlin publishers, Delius, Klasing & Co., with whom she remained till 1943 working on the motor magazine . Between 1943 and 1945 she is recorded as a "housewife", latterly in Kössern.

In 1952 Pflug was a member of the first cohort of students on the further education course for the publishing industry held by the "Walter Ulbricht" legal academy ( / ASR) at Potsdam. In 1954/55 she attended a training at the party's "Karl Marx" academy. Neues Deutschland, the party's mass circulation newspaper, paid tribute to her on the occasion of her sixtieth birthday:

"In a twenty year career as section leader for the Central Committee of the SED, she rendered lasting service to the successful development of publishing and the book trade in the German Democratic Republic."

She remained in post for another two years, till 1978.

After her retirement in 1978, she remained a member of the board of the Publishers' Association for a further ten years, till 1988.

Lucie Pflug died in Berlin on 9 November 1993.