Hermann Axen

Hermann Axen
Hermann Axen
	Axen in 1946
Editor-in-chief of ; Neues Deutschland
	In office; July 1956 – 18 February 1966
Deputy	Eberhard Heinrich; Hajo Herbell; Günter Kertzscher; Harri Czepuck; Walter Florath;
Preceded by	Georg Stibi
Succeeded by	Rudolf Singer
Second Secretary of the; Socialist Unity Party in Berlin
	In office; July 1953 – July 1956
First Secretary	Alfred Neumann;
Preceded by	Erich Hönisch
Succeeded by	Willi Kuhn
Preceded by
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Volkskammer ; for Cottbus-Stadt, Cottbus-Land, Calau, Forst, Guben, Spremberg; (Berlin; 1954–1963)
	In office; 17 October 1954 – 16 November 1989
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Petra Gündel
Member of the; German People's Council
	In office; 18 March 1948 – 30 May 1949
Preceded by	Constituency established
Succeeded by	Multi-member district
Central Committee Secretariat responsibilities
1985–1989	International Politics and Economics
1979–1989	Foreign Information
1977–1984	General Department
1966–1989	International Relations
1949–1953	Mass Agitation and Press
Personal details
Born	6 March 1916; Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony, German Empire (now Saxony, Germany)
Died	15 February 1992 (aged 75); Berlin, Germany
Resting place	Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde
Party	KPD (1932–1946); SED (1946–1989); Independent (after 1989)
Spouse	Sonja
Children	2
Occupation	Politician; Civil Servant; Party Clerk; Merchant;
	Central institution membership 1970–1989: Full member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; 1963–1970: Candidate member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; 1949–1989: Full member,; Central Committee ; Other offices held 1962–1989: Head,; Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo ; 1963–1971: Member, Commission for Agitation and Propaganda at the Politburo ; 1963–1967: Member,; East Berlin City Council ;

Hermann Axen (6 March 1916 – 15 February 1992) was a German communist politician who held several high-ranking positions in the Socialist Unity Party between 1949 and 1989. He became involved in the German resistance to Nazi rule, spending much of that time in state detention, including Auschwitz. After the war he became a prominent politician in the Soviet occupation zone, reorganized in 1949 as the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). He served as a relatively high-profile member of the powerful Politburo of the Central Committee between 1970 and 1989.

In November 1989, Axen visited Moscow for eye surgery. While he was away, the entire Politburo (of which he was a member) resigned on 8 November 1989, and he too was excluded from it. On his return in January 1990 he was arrested, suspected of corruption and abuse of public office. This dramatic reversal of fortune came during a period of rapid political change. At the time of his death the arrest warrant had been rescinded and the case against him remained unproven, the necessary investigations having been delayed or suspended in response to his declining health.