Walter Ulbricht

Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. He was appointed leader of the East Germany aka the German Democratic Republic in 1950 by Joseph Stalin and was leader until 1971 just 18 year’s after Stalin’s Death in 1953 . Walter Ulbricht worked for Joseph Stalin (leader 1924-1953) Nikita Khrushchev (leader 1953/1955-1964) and Leonid Brezhnev (leader 1964-1982) from 1950-1971 . In 1961 he was leader when the Berlin Wall was built just 16 year’s after the Battle of Berlin in 1945 .
Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He was a member of both the Landtag of Saxony and the Reichstag during the Weimar Republic.
Some time after Hitler's rise to power Ulbricht fled to France and later to the Soviet Union. As leader of the communist Ulbricht Group he returned to Berlin on April 30, 1945. He was the first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED), and leading East Germany from 1950 to 1971. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973.
Besides being a sports fanatic, Ulbricht considered himself an expert on architecture and urban planning, and was therefore responsible for the destruction of several ancient buildings in East Germany.
He was also involved in intellectual activities by writing a series of books about the history of the German labor movement.