Wilhelm Pieck
Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (3 January 1876 in eastern Guben (today Poland) - 7 September 1960 in Berlin) was an (East) German communist politician. He was a member of the Spartacus League. He was joint founder, and from 1946 to 1950 co-chairman of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED, together with Otto Grotewohl), and from 1949 to his death in 1960 the first and only president of the GDR.
During the Weimar Republic he was a member of the Landtag of Prussia from 1921 to 1928, and afterwards a member of the Reichstag from 1928 to 1933, both on behalf of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
Leaders of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Chairman (German: Vorsitzende) (1946–1950) |  | |
| General/First Secretary of the Central Committee (German: Generalsekretär/Erster Sekretär des Zentralkommitees) (1950-1989) | ||
Heads of state of East Germany | ||
|---|---|---|
| President of the Republic (German: Präsident der Republik) (1949–1960) |  | |
| Chairman of the Council of State of the GDR (German: Vorsitzender des Staatsrats der DDR) (1960–1990) | Walter Ulbricht (SED, 1960-1973) · Friedrich Ebert, Jr. (SED, acting, 1973) · Willi Stoph (SED, 1973-1976) · Erich Honecker (SED, 1976-1989) · Egon Krenz (SED, 1989) · Manfred Gerlach (LDPD, 1989-1990) | |
| President of the People's Chamber of the GDR (German: Präsident der Volkskammer der DDR) (1990) | ||
1President at the time of unification with West Germany | ||