Werner Lamberz

Werner Lamberz
Lamberz (right) in 1975
Secretary for Agitation of the
Central Committee Secretariat of the Socialist Unity Party
In office
22 April 1967 – 6 March 1978
General Secretary
Preceded byAlbert Norden
Succeeded byJoachim Herrmann
Head of the Department for Agitation of the Central Committee
In office
15 September 1966 – 19 June 1971
Secretary
Preceded byRudi Singer
Succeeded byHans Modrow
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Volkskammer
for Frankfurt/Oder, Beeskow, Eisenhüttenstadt-Stadt, Eisenhüttenstadt-Land, Seelow
In office
14 July 1967 – 6 March 1978
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byLothar Burkhardt
Personal details
Born(1929-04-14)14 April 1929
Mayen, Rhine Province, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)
Died6 March 1978(1978-03-06) (aged 48)
Wadi Suf al-Jin, Libya
Political partySocialist Unity Party
(1947–1978)
Children1
Alma materCentral Komsomol School
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Heating Engineer
Awards
Central institution membership

Other offices held
  • 1966–1971: Head,
    Commission for Agitation and Propaganda
  • 1963–1978: Member,
    Commission for Agitation and Propaganda

Werner Lamberz (14 April 1929 – 6 March 1978) was a senior politician in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).[1]

In a system under which political advancement was generally achieved only slowly and the men who reached the higher levels of government generally did so after decades of patient progression, Lamberz was unusual because of the speed of his promotion.[2] Despite having spent three years during the 1940s attending an Adolf Hitler Leadership School,[2] during 1967 he became a member of the important Central Committee of the ruling party, aged around 38, and after only four years on the candidate list.[3] During the 1970s he was sometimes seen as a possible successor to his political ally, the country's leader Erich Honecker.[2]

Werner Lamberz was killed in a helicopter accident in Libya shortly after take-off, following a meeting in a large desert encampment with the Libyan head of government, Muammar Gaddafi.[4] The cause of the accident in which Lamberz and his three fellow travelers lost their lives has been a subject for media speculation ever since it happened.[5]

  1. ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs; Monika Kaiser. "Lamberz, Werner * 14.4.1929, † 6.3.1978 Mitglied des Politbüros des ZK der SED". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Der war der geborene Führer: Er ist der Prototyp einer neuen Funktionärs-Generation in der DDR, nicht mehr geprägt von alter deutscher KP-Tradition, sondern geformt von der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei: Werner Lamberz, im Zentralkomitee Sekretär für Agitation. Der ehemalige "Adolf-Hitler-Schüler" gilt schon heute vielen als Nachfolger Erich Honeckers". Der Spiegel (online). 24 May 1976. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  3. ^ "Werner-Lamberz-Straße". Straßennamen-Lexikon: Lichtenberg, Ortsteil Friedrichsfelde: Name ab 21.2.1979: Name bis 9.1.1992. Lexikon von A-Z zur Berlingeschichte und Gegenwart. 2008. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  4. ^ "6. März 1978 - Tod des DDR-Politikers Werner Lamberz: Rätsel um Helikopterabsturz in Libyen". Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln. 6 March 2013. Retrieved 8 December 2015.
  5. ^ "Der Tag, an dem die Hoffnung der DDR starb Der mysteriöse Tod von Honeckers Kronprinzen. Jetzt redet der Leibarzt Werner Lamberz". Berliner Kurier. 5 October 2015. Retrieved 8 December 2015.