Ulbricht on the cover of Time (magazine) (25 August 1961)

Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (30 June 1893 – 1 August 1973) was the leader of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in exile in France and the Soviet Union) in the early development and establishment of East Germany (the German Democratic Republic). As the first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party 1950 to 1971, he was the chief decision maker in East Germany. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960, he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973.

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• Es muss demokratisch aussehen, aber wir müssen alles in der Hand haben.
  • It has to look democratic, but we must have everything in [our] hand.
  • 1945, in: Wolfgang Leonhard: Child of the revolution. Transl. by C. M. Woodhouse. London (Collins) 1957. Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung (archiviert bei archive.org) (Brandenburg State Institution for Political Education)

• Die Bauarbeiter unserer Hauptstadt beschäftigen sich hauptsächlich mit Wohnungsbau, und ihre Arbeitskraft wird dafür voll eingesetzt. Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten.
  • The builders of our capital are fully engaged in residential construction, and its labor force is deployed for that. Nobody has the intention to erect a wall.
  • 15 June 1961 at a press conference in East Berlin. Less than two months later construction began.^{[specific citation needed]}

• Ist es denn wirklich so, dass wir jeden Dreck, der vom Westen kommt, nu kopieren müssen? Ich denke, Genossen, mit der Monotonie des Je-Je-Je, und wie das alles heißt, ja, sollte man doch Schluss machen.
  • Is it truly the case that we have to copy every dirt that comes from the west? I think, comrades, with the monotonism of the yeah yeah yeah and how that all is called should we make a stop.
  • In 1965 at the 11. congress of the central committee of the SED referring to the "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" of the Beatles and against the Rock music from the west in general ^{[specific citation needed]}

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