Heinrich Rau

Heinrich Rau
Heinrich Rau
	Rau in 1951
Deputy Chairman of the; Council of Ministers
	In office; 16 November 1950 – 23 March 1961
Chairman	Otto Grotewohl;
Preceded by	Multi-member position
Succeeded by	Multi-member position
Chairman of the; State Planning Commission
	In office; 8 November 1950 – 23 May 1952
Chairman of the; Council of Ministers	Otto Grotewohl;
First Deputy	Friedrich Behrens;
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	Otto Grotewohl;
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Himself (as Chairman of the State Planning Commission)
Chairman of the; German Economic Commission
	In office; 9 March 1948 – 7 October 1949
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Position abolished
Preceded by
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Volkskammer ; for Berlin
	In office; 18 March 1948 – 23 March 1961
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Josef Schicketanz
Member of the; Landtag of Prussia; for Berlin
	In office; 14 June 1928 – 31 March 1933
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
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	SPD (1913–1917); USPD (1917–1919); KPD (1919–1946); SED (1946–1961)
Other political; affiliations	Spartacus League (1916–1919)
Spouse	Elisabeth Bihr (m. 1920, divorced) Helene Heß (m. 1923, divorced)
Children	3 sons, 1 daughter
Known for	Leader of the XI International Brigade; Chairman of the German Economic Commission; Leading economic politician and diplomat of East Germany
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire; Revolutionaries; Spanish Republic
Branch/service	Imperial German Army; Spartacus League; International Brigades
Years of service	1917–1918; 1918–1919; 1937–1939
Rank	Commander
Commands	XI International Brigade
Battles/wars	World War I Western Front; ; German Revolution; Spanish Civil War Battle of Brunete; Battle of Belchite; Battle of Teruel; Aragon Offensive; La Retirada; ;
	Central institution membership 1949–1961: Full member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; Other offices held 1955–1961: Minister,; Ministry of Foreign Trade and Internal German Trade ; 1953–1955: Minister,; Ministry of Mechanical Engineering ; 1946–1948: Minister for Economic Planning of Brandenburg ; 1946–1948: Member,; Landtag of Brandenburg ; 1918–1919: Chief,; Zuffenhausen Military Police ;

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.

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