Vom "Feindagenten" zum Vorzeigemanager: der erste Kombinatsdirektor des VEB Carl Zeiss Jena in der Wahrnehmung von SED und Staatssicherheit (1946-1966)

Abstract

This article is focused on the perception of the long-standing manager of the Carl Zeiss by the SED (German Socialist Unity Party) and the Ministry of State Security. During the first decade after the war, a minority faction of party and state officials supported Hugo Schrade as an indispensable specialist. However, the majority of the elite in political power considered him to be an exponent of the reactionary management of the old Zeiss corpo rate group. Between 1957 and the beginning of 1959, the re gional management officials of the SED in Gera and the re gional administrative forces of the State Security coopera ting with the party secretary of Zeiss demanded the replace ment of the manager. But the administrative office of the central committee of the SED did not comply with this suggestion. Just at that time, Walter Ulbricht tried to be loy al to the Zeiss boss. This constellation changed with the first considerations about the formation of a collective combine and the re-profiling of Zeiss Jena to a precision-optic-elec tronic industrial plant which was drawn up between 1960 and 1964. The and its management were assigned a leading role in the planned mechanization and automation of the whole industry of the GDR by the SED direction. The effusive honoring demonstrated by Ulbricht on the occasion of Hugo Schrade's 65th birthday symbolized this change in perception at the height of the N?S (new economic system) euphoria in summer 1965. Address all communications to: R?diger Stutz, Sonderforschungsbereich 580, Friedrich Schiller-Universit?t Jena, Carl-Zeiss-Str. 2, 07743 Jena, E-Mail: ruediger.stutz@uni jena.de.