Paul Fröhlich

Paul Fröhlich (21 March 1913 – 19 September 1970) was a German politician and high-ranking party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

In the German Democratic Republic, he served as the longtime First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Leipzig and was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED. Until his surprising death in September 1970, he ruled Bezirk Leipzig in a particularly authoritarian manner.

Life and career Fröhlich trained as a cook from 1929 to 1931 and worked as an industrial worker and miner.

In 1930, he joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). succeeding Karl Schirdewan,

Fröhlich practiced a particularly authoritarian leadership style in his secretariat and in the Bezirk administration. He suppressed any criticism of his decisions or his person with uncompromising severity and acted as a sole ruler, ruthlessly persecuting dissenters, even from within the party ranks. he was elected as a candidate member in 1954 and from 1958 (V. Party Congress) to his death, he was a full member of the Central Committee of the SED. Since 1958, he was a candidate member and since 1963 (VI. Party Congress) a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED, the de facto highest leadership body in East Germany.

Fröhlich additionally joined the Volkskammer in 1954. Until 1958, he was a member of the Committee for Clemency, where he spoke up against philosopher and Karl Marx University lecturer Ernst Bloch, who was persecuted for criticising the repression of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Death

Fröhlich died of cancer at the age of 57.

His urn was interred in the Memorial of the Socialists at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

In the GDR, the National People's Army Training Center in Schneeberg (AZ-10) was named "Paul Fröhlich." From 1973 to 1990, the main facility of the TAKRAF combine operated under the name VEB Loading and Transport Systems Leipzig "Paul Fröhlich" (VTA).