Gerhard Beil (28 May 1926,

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

– 19 August 2010,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a politician for the SED and the Minister for Foreign Trade of the

GDR East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

Life

After completing primary school, Beil trained as a commercial clerk. From 1943 to 1945 he was with the Reich Labor Service. In April 1944 he applied for membership in the

NSDAP The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor, the German Workers ...

, but was rejected in October 1944. In 1945 he became a locksmith and worked in the sales department of

I.G. Farben I. G. Farbenindustrie AG, commonly known as IG Farben, was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. It was formed on December 2, 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies: Agfa, BASF, Bayer, Griesheim-Elektron, Hoechst, and We ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

(1946/1947), as a machinist in the brown coal plant

Espenhain Espenhain is a village and a former municipality in the Leipzig district, in Saxony, Germany. On 1 August 2015 it was merged into the town Rötha.Wismut AG SAG/SDAG Wismut was a uranium mining company in East Germany during the time of the Cold War. It produced a total of 230,400 tonnes of uranium between 1947 and 1990 and made East Germany the fourth largest producer of uranium ore in the world a ...

Aue (1949) and steel locksmith in Leipzig (1950 to 1952). In 1949 Beil joined the FDJ. He studied in Berlin from 1953/1954 at the Hochschule für Planökonomie and until 1957 at the

Humboldt-Universität The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humboldt, ...

with a degree in economics. In 1953 he joined the SED. From 1954 to 1956 he worked as a department and main department head in the State Secretariat for Local Economics. After that as senior and main speaker in the Ministry for Inner German Trade, Foreign Trade and Material Supply. After a complaint about violation of party discipline, he was a research assistant at the Commercial Representation of the GDR in

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

from 1958 to 1961. From 1961 Beil worked again in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, initially as head of Western Europe (until 1965), 1969 to 1976 as State Secretary and from 1976 also as the first Deputy Minister. From 1976 he was a candidate, from 1981 to 1989 member of the Central Committee of the SED, from 1977 member of the

Council of Ministers of the GDR The Council of Ministers (, ) was the executive organ of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic from November 1950 until the country was reunified on 3 October 1990.Starcevi, Nesha (8 November 1989East German Government Resigns, ...

. From 1986 to 1990 he was the successor of

Horst Sölle Horst may refer to: Science * Horst (geology), a raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben People * Horst (given name) * Horst (surname) * ter Horst, Dutch surname * van der Horst, Dutch surname Places Settlements Germany * Hors ...

Minister for Foreign Trade of the

– he accompanied

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the post ...

on his trips to western countries. Young World: ''A Solitaire'', 21 August 201
wording of the article
Beil was one of the authors of the "Analysis of the Economic Situation of the GDR with Conclusions" together with

Gerhard Schürer Gerhard Schürer (14 April 1921 – 22 December 2010) was a leading politician in East Germany. Between 1963 and 1989 he was a member of the powerful Central Committee of the country's ruling SED (party). He also served, between 1965 and 198 ...

Ernst Höfner Ernst Höfner may refer to: * Ernst Höfner (politician) * Ernst Höfner (ice hockey) {{hndis, Hofner, Ernst ...

Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski 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 Tr ...

and Arno Donda, as a template for the

Politbüro A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in Communist party, communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in Socialism, socialist and Islamism, Islamist parties, such as the ...

of the SED on 30 October 1989. In this secret report, also known as "

Schürer paper Schürer, Schurer, Schuerer or Schürrer is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * (1770–1835), Swedish artist * (–), German natural scientist and glassmaker * Eddy Schurer (born 1964), Dutch cyclist * Emil Schürer (184 ...

", the over-indebtedness and economic disruption of the GDR became clearly known for the first time. Until his retirement, Gerhard Beil was an advisor to the

Government of Maizière A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a mea ...

. Beil and his wife were members of the party

Die Linke Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...

. Gerhard Beil saw himself as a communist. Gerhard Beil died on 19 August 2010 of heart failure in Berlin-Karolinenhof.

Literature

* Gerhard Beil: '' Foreign trade and politics. A Minister remembers '', Berlin: Edition Ost, 2010, . * Lothar de Maizière: '' I don't want my children to have to lie anymore '', Freiburg: Herder, 2010, , pp. 98–100, 105.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beil, Gerhard 1926 births 2010 deaths Politicians from Leipzig Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Government ministers of East Germany Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Reich Labour Service members