Otto Grotewohl

Chairman of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany

11 March 1894 Braunschweig, German Empire

21 September 1964(1964-09-21) (70) East Berlin, East Germany

22 April 1946 – 25 July 1950Serving with Wilhelm Pieck

German politician This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Otto Grotewohl" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2014 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Otto Emil Franz Grotewohl (German pronunciation: ; 11 March 1894 – 21 September 1964) was a German politician who served as the first prime minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) from 1949 to 1964. Grotewohl was a Social Democratic Party (SPD) politician in the Free State of Brunswick during the Weimar Republic and leader of the party branch in the Soviet Occupation Zone after World War II. Grotewohl led the SPD's merger with the Communist Party (KPD) to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1946 and served as co-chairman of the party with KPD leader Wilhelm Pieck until 1950. Grotewohl chaired the Council of Ministers after the establishment of the GDR in 1949, and served as the de jure head of government under First Secretary Walter Ulbricht until his death in 1964.