Heinrich Rau | |
|---|---|
 Rau in 1951 | |
| Chairman of the State Planning Commission | |
| In office 8 November 1950 – 23 May 1952 | |
| Chairman of the Council of Ministers | |
| First Deputy |
|
| Preceded by | Himself (as Minister for Planning) |
| Succeeded by | Bruno Leuschner |
| Minister for Planning | |
| In office 7 October 1949 – 8 November 1950 | |
| Chairman of the Council of Ministers | |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Himself (as Chairman of the State Planning Commission) |
| Member of the Landtag of Prussia | |
| In office 14 June 1928 – 31 March 1933 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Heinrich Gottlob Rau 2 April 1899 Feuerbach, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire |
| Died | 23 March 1961 (aged 61) East Berlin, East Germany |
| Resting place | Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde, Berlin, Germany |
| Political party | USPD (1917–1919) KPD (1919–1946) SED (1946–1961) |
| Spouses |
|
| Children | 3 sons, 1 daughter |
| Known for | Leader of the XI International Brigade Chairman of the German Economic Commission |
Heinrich Gottlob "Heiner" Rau (2 April 1899 – 23 March 1961) was a German communist politician during the time of the Weimar Republic; subsequently, during the Spanish Civil War, he was a leading member of the International Brigades and after World War II a leading East German statesman.
Rau grew up in a suburb of Stuttgart, where early on he became active in socialist youth organizations. After military service in World War I, he participated in the German Revolution of 1918–19. From 1920 onward, he was a leading agricultural policy maker of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). This ended in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power. Shortly afterward Rau was thrown in jail for two years. As an enemy of the Nazi regime in Germany he was imprisoned, in total, for more than half of the time of Hitler's rule. After his first imprisonment he emigrated in 1935 to the Soviet Union (USSR). From there, in 1937, he went on to Spain, where he participated in the Spanish Civil War as a leader of one of the International Brigades. In 1939, he was arrested in France, and was delivered by the Vichy regime back to Nazi Germany in 1942. After a few months in a Gestapo prison, he was transferred to the Mauthausen Concentration Camp in March 1943. While in the concentration camp he participated in conspiratorial prisoner activities, which led to a camp uprising in the final days before the end of World War II in Europe.
After the war he played an important role in the political scene of East Germany. Before the establishment of an East German state he was the chairman of the German Economic Commission, the precursor to the East German government. Subsequently, he became chairman of the National Planning Commission of East Germany and a deputy chairman of the East German Council of Ministers. He was a leading economic politician and diplomat of East Germany and led various ministries at different times. Within East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) he was a member of the party's CC Politburo.