otto nuschke

Otto Nuschke(23 February 1883-27 February 1957) was an East German Christian Democratic politician. He was born in Frohburg. In 1910 he was elected General Secretary of the (liberal) Progressive Party of Kassel. In the same year he became chief editor of the Berliner Tagesblattes and in 1915 co-editor of the Berliner Volkszeitung. In 1919 he was an delegate of the German Democratic Party to the National Congress of Weimar and from 1921 to 1933 he was a member of the Reichstag for the German Democratic Party. After the Nazi's gained power in 1933 he joined the resistance. After the 1944 assasination attempt on Hitler's life, he got into hiding. Directly after World War II he became involved in the politics of the Soviet Occupation Zone (SBZ). In June 1945 he was one of the co-founders of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In 1946 Nuschke was elected in the party's executive committee. From 1946 to 1952 he was a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg. In 1947, after the deposition of party chairmen Jakob Kaiser and Ernst Lemmer, Nuschke became acting chairman and after the party congress of 1948, chairman of the CDU. Nuschke, a supporter of the communist policies of the Socialist Unity Party, was elected president of the provisional Parliament in 1948. After the establishment of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) Nuschke became a member of the People's Chamber (Parliament) and Deputy Prime Minister and chief of the Church Office of the GDR. On 17 June 1953, during the East German uprising, he and his driver were kidnapped and brought to West Berlin, where they were beaten. Some American military recognised him and saved him from the angry masses. He and his driver brought to a police station, but released on 19 June. After that Nuschke and his driver returned to East Berlin. In 1954 he received the Patriotic Order of the GDR and in 1955 he received an honorary degree.

Otto Nuschke

See also