{{Short description|German politician (1919–2002)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Werner Eberlein | honorific_suffix = | image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1986-0724-400, Werner Eberlein.jpg | image_size = | caption = Eberlein in 1986 | order = | office = Chairman of the<br />Central Party Control Commission | 1blankname = {{nowrap|General Secretary}} | 1namedata = {{ubl|Egon Krenz}} | deputy1 = {{ubl|Werner Müller}} | term_start = 8 November 1989 | term_end = 3 December 1989 | predecessor1 = Erich Mückenberger | successor1 = ''Position abolished'' | office2 = First Secretary of the<br />Socialist Unity Party in Bezirk Magdeburg |1blankname2 = {{nowrap|Second Secretary}} |1namedata2 = {{unbulleted list|Walter Kirnich}} | term_start2 = 22 June 1983 | term_end2 = 12 November 1989 | predecessor2 = Kurt Tiedke | successor2 = Wolfgang Pohl {{Collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Volkskammer |titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes | office3 = Member of the Volkskammer <br /> for Magdeburg | term_start3 = 16 June 1986 | term_end3 = 11 January 1990 | predecessor3 = ''Multi-member district'' | successor3 = Karl-Heinz Richtetzky{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}} | birth_name = Werner Eberlein | birth_date = {{birth date|1919|11|9|df=y}} | birth_place = Mariendorf, Province of Brandenburg, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic {{small|(now Berlin-Mariendorf, Germany)}} | occupation = {{hlist|Politician|Party Functionary|Interpreter|Journalist}} | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2002|10|11|1919|11|9}} | death_place = Berlin, Germany | spouse = | children = | father = Hugo Eberlein | mother = Luise Harms | relatives = Klaus Huhn (half-brother) | party = SED {{small|(1948–1989)}}<br />PDS {{small|(1989–2002)}} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * Moscow Higher Party School }} | awards = {{hlist|Patriotic Order of Merit, 1st class|Order of Karl Marx}} | website = | module2 = {{collapsible list | title = Central institution membership | bullets = on | 1986–1989: Full member,<br />Politburo of the Central Committee | 1985–1986: Candidate member,<br />Politburo of the Central Committee | 1960–1989: Full member,<br />Central Committee }} ---- {{collapsible list | title = Other offices held | bullets = on | 1984–1989: Member,<br />National Defence Council | 1971–1981: Member,<br />Central Auditing Commission | 1964–1983: Deputy Head, Party Organs Department of the Central Committee | 1960–1964: Member,<br />Agitation Commission at the Politburo }} }}
'''Werner Eberlein''' (9 November 1919 – 11 October 2002) was a German politician and high-ranking party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
Rising to prominence as Russian interpreter to state and party leader Walter Ulbricht, he served as the First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Magdeburg and as a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED in the 80s.
==Early life and career== ===Soviet Union exile=== His father, Hugo Eberlein, was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) at the end of 1918.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Werner Eberlein gestorben – Chefdolmetscher von Ulbricht, deutsche Stimme von Chruschtschow – UEPO.de |url=https://uepo.de/2002/10/14/werner-eberlein-gestorben-chefdolmetscher-von-ulbricht-deutsche-stimme-von-chruschtschow/ |access-date=2023-11-25 |language=de-DE}}</ref> After being imprisoned in France, Hugo Eberlein was in exile in Moscow in Hotel Lux from autumn 1936 and, like many other German emigrants in the Soviet Union, became a victim of Stalin's Great Terror.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |year=2009 |title=Eberlein, Werner |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/werner-eberlein |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de |series=Wer war wer in der DDR? |publisher=Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Chronik-Biographie: Werner Eberlein |url=https://www.chronikderwende.de/lexikon/biografien/biographie_jsp/key=eberlein_werner.html |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.chronikderwende.de}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite news |date=2002-10-18 |title=Wirtschaft: Geb. 1919 |language=de-DE |work=Der Tagesspiegel Online |url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/geb-1919-938851.html |access-date=2023-11-26 |issn=1865-2263}}</ref>
Werner Eberlein had to emigrate to the Soviet Union to live with his stepmother Inna Armand in 1934. After his father death, he was exiled from the Lux, spending eight years in Siberia - known as "Wolodja" - and only returning to Germany in 1948.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=deutschlandfunk.de |title=Werner Eberlein: Geboren am 9. November. Erinnerungen |url=https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/werner-eberlein-geboren-am-9-november-erinnerungen-100.html |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=Deutschlandfunk |date=6 November 2000 |language=de}}</ref>
He worked as press officer for the SED party executive committee and, after attending the CPSU's Moscow Higher Party School from 1951 to 1954, as a journalist for the SED ''Zentralorgan'' newspaper ''Neues Deutschland''.<ref name=":0" />
==Political career== ===Chief Interpreter=== [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-62500-533, Leipziger Messe, Ulbricht und Chruschtschow.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Eberlein (left of center) translating Nikita Khrushchev (center) for Walter Ulbricht (right of center) in March 1959]] In the German Democratic Republic, under state and party leader Walter Ulbricht, he became the chief Russian interpreter, gaining widespread recognition through numerous television appearances ("Khrushchev's Voice") as he conveyed the emotional style of the Soviet party leader into German.<ref name=":1" /> "The Tall One", as he was called, was hard to miss due to his height, and his lively humor was also well known.
===SED Central Committee=== [[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1987-0702-032, Hannover, Besuch Werner Eberlein, Schalstieg.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Eberlein (center) visiting Lord Mayor of Hanover Herbert Schmalstieg (right) in July 1987]] Since 1960, Eberlein worked at the Central Committee of the SED, serving as deputy head of its powerful Party Organs Department from 1964 to 1983.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.gvoon.de/art/dokumente/1970/parteiapparat-ddr-1970/pdf/parteiapparat-ddr-1970-seite_12.pdf |title=Parteiapparat der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik |publisher=Gesamtdeutsches Institut, Bundesanstalt für gesamtdeutsche Aufgaben |pages=12 |language=de |access-date=2024-07-02}}</ref>
In 1983, almost at retirement age, he surprisingly became the First Secretary of the SED in Bezirk Magdeburg,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=1983-06-22 |title=Optimismus und Schöpfertum kennzeichnen unser Handeln |url=https://www.nd-archiv.de/artikel/1587860.optimismus-und-schoepfertum-kennzeichnen-unser-handeln.html |access-date=2024-08-20 |website=www.nd-archiv.de |publisher=Neues Deutschland |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":5" /> succeeding Kurt Tiedke, who became principal of the "Karl Marx" Party Academy,<ref>{{Cite web |year=1999–2015 |editor-last=Gräfe |editor-first=Sylvia |editor2-last=Räuber |editor2-first=Ute |title=Protokolle des Politbüros des Zentralkomitees der Sozialistischen Einheitspartei Deutschlands |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30pbpr/index.htm?kid=9fffb75a-442f-45c0-9022-f07086eaa029 |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref> and held this position until 1989. Additionally, he was elected to the National Defence Council of the GDR in 1984.<ref name=":0" /> He became known as a reformer.<ref name=":4" />
From 1985 to 1986, he was a candidate member and since 21 April 1986 (XI. Party Congress) a full member of the Politburo of the SED, the ''de facto'' highest leadership body in East Germany. This was likely due to his friendship with General Secretary Erich Honecker and the political significance of the Bezirk Magdeburg because of its long western border with West Germany.
===Peaceful Revolution=== During the ''Wende'' in late 1989, he briefly served as the chairman of the powerful Central Party Control Commission (ZPKK),<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Nestler |editor-first=Solveig |title=Zentrale Parteikontrollkommission der SED |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30zpkk/index.htm?kid=dcc3ecdc-fa9e-4592-afc4-ed4977f63c61 |access-date=2023-11-25 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref> succeeding the retiring 79-year-old longtime chairman Erich Mückenberger. The Bezirk Magdeburg SED chose reformer {{ill|Wolfgang Pohl (Politiker, 1940)|de|lt=Wolfgang Pohl}} as his successor as First Secretary.<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |year=2006 |title=Bezirksleitung Magdeburg der SED (1952 - 1990) |url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/sed-fdgb-netzwerk/html/gremien.html?mode=SED&cat=17 |access-date=2023-12-16 |website=www.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives}}</ref>
Though in office for less than a month, the Central Party Control Commission made numerous crucial decisions in that time, among other things expelling Honecker<ref name=":4" /> and Günter Mittag<ref>{{Cite web |last=Prokop |first=Siegfried |date=2020-03-26 |title=Ultima Ratio in dramatischer Zeit |url=https://www.nd-aktuell.de/artikel/1133930.ultima-ratio-in-dramatischer-zeit.html |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=nd-aktuell.de |publisher=Neues Deutschland |language=de}}</ref> while rehabilitating Robert Havemann and Rudolf Herrnstadt.<ref>{{Cite web |editor-last=Nestler |editor-first=Solveig |title=3.1 Sitzungen der ZPKK 1972 - 1989 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30zpkk/index.htm?kid=25b8577c-a3de-4a96-bb0a-98eade67b3a9 |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref>
==Later life and death== ===Reunified Germany=== After the ''Wende'', he was a member of the Elder Council of the PDS.<ref name=":0" /> He is one of the few high-ranking former SED officials to not have been expelled.
Like other former Politburo members, Eberlein was charged with "complicity in manslaughter" (political responsibility for the fatal shootings at the Berlin Wall) by the Berlin Regional Court in the Berlin Wall shooting trials.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-03-25 |title=Chronologie der Prozesse gegen DDR-Funktionäre wegen der Schüsse an der Grenze zur BRD. {{!}} TP-Presseagentur |url=https://tp-presseagentur.de/chronologie-der-prozesse-gegen-ddr-funktionaere-wegen-der-schuesse-an-der-grenze-zur-brd/ |access-date=2023-11-26 |language=de-DE}}</ref> However, the proceedings were abandoned, Eberlein being seriously ill.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web |date=2002-10-13 |title=DDR-Vergangenheit: Früheres Politbüro-Mitglied gestorben |url=https://www.mz.de/deutschland-und-welt/politik/ddr-vergangenheit-fruheres-politburo-mitglied-gestorben-3022820 |access-date=2023-11-26 |website=www.mz.de |language=de}}</ref>
He was interviewed in the 1994 documentary ''Der kalte Patriarch'' ({{langx|en|The cold patriarch}}) about Ulbricht<ref>{{Citation |title=MDR-Doku Der kalte Patriarch | date=26 July 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt8jVFNvMBM |access-date=2023-11-25 |language=en}}</ref> and the 1999 documentary ''Die Sekretäre'' ({{langx|en|The secretaries}}) about Ulbricht and Honecker.<ref>{{Citation |title=Die Sekretäre - Walter Ulbricht und Erich Honecker [DOKU] | date=27 July 2023 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb9lDVWhNdU |access-date=2023-11-26 |language=en}}</ref>
In 2002, Eberlein died of a heart attack while lawn mowing.<ref name=":3" /> His urn was interred in the grave complex for victims of fascism and those persecuted by the Nazi regime at the Berlin Central Cemetery Friedrichsfelde, where his father Hugo Eberlein is also commemorated.
He was a half-brother of the journalist Klaus Huhn.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Eberlein, Werner}} Category:1919 births Category:2002 deaths Category:People from Mariendorf Category:Politicians from the Province of Brandenburg Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Category:Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians Category:Members of the Volkskammer Category:Members of the 9th Volkskammer Category:Members of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Category:Candidate members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Category:Members of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Category:Recipients of the Order of Karl Marx Category:German communists Category:German emigrants to the Soviet Union