Wilhelm Zaisser

Wilhelm Zaisser
Wilhelm Zaisser
	Zaisser in 1947
Minister of State Security
	In office; 8 February 1950 – 18 July 1953
Minister-President	Otto Grotewohl;
First Deputy	Erich Mielke;
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	Ernst Wollweber
Member of the Volkskammer
	In office; 30 May 1949 – 17 February 1954
Preceded by	Multi-member district
Succeeded by	Multi-member district
Personal details
Born	20 June 1893; Gelsenkirchen, Westphalia, Prussia, German Empire
Died	3 March 1958 (aged 64); East Berlin, East Germany
Party	USPD (1918–1919); KPD (1919–1932); CPSU (1932–1947); SED (1947–1954)
Spouse	Elisabeth Knipp (m. 1922)
Children	Renate Böttcher-Zaisser; (born 22 April 1924)
Occupation	Soldier; Spy; Politician;
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire; Revolutionaries; Republic of the Rif; Revolutionaries; Canton Soviet; Czechoslovakia; Spanish Republic
Branch/service	Imperial German Army; Ruhr Red Army; Riffian Army; Druze Revolutionaries; Red Guard; Czechoslovak Army; International Brigades
Years of service	1914–1918; 1920; 1925–1926; 1927–1930; 1930–1932; 1936–1938
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands	XIII International Brigade
Battles/wars	World War I Eastern Front; ; Ruhr Uprising; Guangzhou Uprising; Rif War; Great Syrian Revolt; Spanish Civil War;
	Espionage activity
Allegiance	Soviet Union
Service branch	Main Intelligence Directorate
Service years	1924–1939
Codename	"Gomez"
	Central institution membership 1950–1953: Full member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; 1950–1953: Full member,; Central Committee ; Other offices held 1949–1950: Chief,; Volkspolizei-Bereitschaft ; 1949–1950: Vice President,; German Administration of the Interior ; 1948–1949: Deputy Minister-President,; Saxony-Anhalt ; 1948–1949: Minister,; Ministry of the Interior of Saxony-Anhalt ; 1947–1948: Chief,; Saxony-Anhalt Police ;

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Wilhelm Zaisser (20 June 1893 – 3 March 1958) was a German communist politician and statesman who served as the founder and first Minister for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1950 to 1953.

A veteran of World War I, the Ruhr Uprising, and the Spanish Civil War, he was recruited by the Soviet Union as a GRU agent and served in that capacity for most of the 1920s and 1930s. He returned to Germany after the end of World War II and took part in the founding of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and the GDR. Following the death of Joseph Stalin and the East German uprising of 1953, he opposed SED First Secretary Walter Ulbricht but lost the power struggle and was stripped of his positions.