Werner Jarowinsky

Werner Jarowinsky was born in Leningrad (as Saint Petersburg / Petrograd had been renamed in 1924).

His father was a worker of whom little is known, probably originally from Germany.

Werner Jarowinsky (25 April 1927 - 22 October 1990) was an East German economist who became a party official.

In or shortly after 1930 it appears that his father died and the rest of the family returned to Germany.

Backers of the merger pointed to the events of 1933, insisting that the Hitler Adolf Hitler's take-over had been possible only because of divisions between the two main parties of the political left.

He completed his schooling in 1941 and then undertook a two-year commercial apprenticeship in industry.

Between 1943 and 1945 he undertook his military service in the German army.

One result of the end of the war in May 1945 was an end to twelve years of Nazi dictatorship.

The Communist Party was no longer banned.

Later that year Jarowinsky joined it.

During 1945 and 1946 Jarowinsky was based in Zeitz (south of Leipzig) as a "Youth official" ("Jugendfunktionär").

He was also employed during this period by the People's Police, though it is not clear from sources whether he was a "member" of the police or working as an administrative support official.

At the same time, from 1945 till 1947, he was able to study with the "Workers' and Peasants' Faculty" attached to Halle University in order to complete his hitherto truncated schooling.

In April 1946 a contentious political merger took place between the Communist Party of Germany and the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

The resulting merged party became known as the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED).

It has never been entirely clear whether those behind the party merger intended that it should take effect across the whole of Germany: in reality its impact was restricted to the regions administered as the Soviet occupation zone.

Werner Jarowinsky passed his School Final Examinations (Abitur) in 1947, which opened the way to university-level education.

He studied Economics and Jurisprudence at the universities of Halle and Berlin between 1948 and 1951.

Werner Jarowinsky was one of more than a million communist party members who lost no time in signing their party membership across to the new SED, which by 1949 had become the dominant political force in a new kind of German one-party dictatorship.

During that time, in October 1949, the Soviet occupation zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

It was in this new version of Germany that Werner Jarowinsky now pursued his studies and built his career.

He remained at Berlin with a junior teaching position (als "Dozent") between 1951 and 1956.

However, when in June 1956 he received his doctorate, it came from the Karl Marx University (as it had been rebranded and relaunched in 1953) in Leipzig.

His dissertation concerned the "Functions of Planning of Socialist Trade in the German Democratic Republic and the underlying principals for the state planning of frontline merchandising".

In 1956 Jarowinsky was appointed to head up the "Research Institute for Inter-German Trade" ("Forschungsinstituts für den Binnenhandel"), which was part of the Economics faculty at Berlin University.

In 1957 he became Head of National Administration ("Leiter der Hauptverwaltung") at the East German Ministry for Trade and Supplies ("Ministerium für Handel und Versorgung"), which had connections to the university institute.

Further promotion followed in 1959 when he became "Deputy Minister" or "Secretary of State" (sources differ over the job title) In succession to Franz Fillinger.

Between 1963 and 1989 he was a member of the powerful Party Central Committee which, under the Leninist constitutional structure that the country had adopted after 1949, was the focus of political power and decision making.

Between 1963 and 1990 Werner Jarowinsky combined his party responsibilities with membership of the People's Parliament (Volkskammer).

Jarowinsky remained in office at the ministry till 1963.

The Sixth Party Conference of the SED was held in East Berlin during the third week in January 1963.

Werner Jarowinsky was among those elected to membership of the Party Central Committee.

It was quite usual for Central Committee members to join only after their names had been on the list of candidates for membership during a period of several years.

Indeed, the names of many candidates never progressed beyond the candidates' list.

There is no indication in the sources consulted that Jarowinsky's admission to Central Committee membership was delayed in this way.

However, at that same Sixth Party Conference his name was placed on the (much shorter) list of candidates for future promotion to Politburo membership.

Within the Central Committee, on 1 November 1963, Jarowinsky was elected to a secretaryship with responsibility for Trade and Supplies.

Later "Church Questions" were added to his portfolio of central committee responsibilities.

Within the Central Committee, from 1984 till 1989, he served as a member of Politburo which controlled and coordinated the work of the Central Committee on behalf of the leadership.

In May 1984 he finally joined the Politburo, serving as a member till December 1989.