Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski
Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski | |
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Head of the KoKo State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Trade[a] | |
In office 7 December 1966 – 6 December 1989 | |
Minister |
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Deputy |
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Preceded by | Horst Roigk |
Succeeded by | Karl-Heinz Gerstenberger (acting) |
Personal details | |
Born | Treptow, Berlin, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Germany) | 3 July 1932
Died | 21 June 2015 Rottach-Egern, Bavaria, Germany | (aged 82)
Political party | Socialist Unity Party (1955–1989) |
Spouses | Margareta Becker
(m. 1955; div. 1975)Sigrid Gutmann (m. 1976) |
Children | 2 |
Alma mater | Hochschule für Außenhandel Juristische Hochschule des MfS |
Occupation |
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Awards | |
Central institution membership
Other offices held
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Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski (3 July 1932 – 21 June 2015) was a politician and trader in the German Democratic Republic. He was director of a main department ('Hauptverwaltungsleiter') in the Ministry for Foreign Trade and German Domestic Trade (1956–62), the Deputy Minister for External Trade (1967–75), and head of the GDR's Kommerzielle Koordinierung (KoKo, 1966–86).[1]
Early life
He was born in
Schalck-Golodkowsky joined the Free German Youth in 1951 and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) in 1955.
Career in East Germany
In 1966 he was appointed head of KoKo (at that time a newly formed department of the Ministry for Foreign Trade, ten years later it would formally become a powerful independent government agency in its own right) and in 1967 was also appointed a special officer of the Ministry of State Security.
In 1983 he led the negotiations with
He was appointed to the central committee of the SED in 1986 and, under suspicion of misusing his powers at KoKo he fled to West Berlin in December 1989. He was briefly imprisoned before settling in Bavaria.
Post-reunification activities
Following reunification, the actions of KoKo and of Schalck-Golodkowski head were investigated on suspicions of espionage activities, tax evasion, fraud, breaking embargo regulations and offences against Allied military law. He was prosecuted in 1996 for breaking Allied law and sentenced to a year's probation; other charges were withdrawn due to his ill-health—he had operations to remove cancers in 1987 and 1997.
He had been married twice and had two children.
See also
References
- ^ www.dhm.de/lemo/ biography (in German)
- ^ munzinger.de biography (in German)
- ^ "Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade" from 1967 until 1975