28 Facts About Erich Apel

Erich Apel worked during World War Two as a rocket engineer at the Peenemunde Army Research Center in Nazi Germany.

Erich Hans Apel was born in Judenbach, a small town in the Franconian Forest which had once benefited from its position as a staging post on a major trade route, but which had lost out commercially following the construction of a railway line providing a direct link from Leipzig to Nuremberg.

Erich Apel's father was a mechanical engineer: his mother worked in the garments industry.

Erich Apel attended school in nearby Sonneberg and Steinach, but left school in 1932 in order to embark on an apprenticeship at the Neuhaus porcelain factory in toolmaking and mechanical engineering.

Directly after receiving his degree, in September 1939 Erich Apel was conscripted into the army, becoming a member of Infantry Reserve Battalion 451, based in Gotha.

However, on 20 December 1939 Erich Apel was ordered to the Weapons Agency's research facility at Peenemunde on Germany's northern coast.

Erich Apel's speciality was the hydraulic systems for the rockets.

Erich Apel was tireless in his work of calculation, measuring and modelling.

Erich Apel seems to have made a good impression, since in August 1940 he was relieved of all further obligations regarding military service.

Erich Apel was totally uninterested in politics, never joining the party, and regarded by colleagues as a dedicated engineer, body and soul.

At the start of 1943 Erich Apel was promoted again, despite his young age becoming head of one of the many development departments at the Peenemunde army research facility.

On 1 April 1944, at the request of the LHW management, Erich Apel was released from his employment contract with the Army High Command Weapons Agency.

Erich Apel was now employed directly as chief engineer and assistant to the technical director at LHW.

In January 1946 Erich Apel joined a political party, choosing the centre-left Social Democratic Party.

On 1 June 1946 Erich Apel was "picked up" by the Soviet authorities.

Erich Apel did not want to volunteer for further work in the weapons industry.

Till now Erich Apel's working life had involved living in guest houses or barracks so he did not have many personal effects.

Erich Apel had found a new wife, Christa Metzner, the daughter of a German aircraft engineer from the Arado aircraft plant, whom he married in Gorodomlya.

Information on his first marriage remains in short supply: Christa Apel said later that she believed Erich had married an Austrian woman around 1942, but the first marriage had ended in divorce because Apel's war work meant he was almost always away.

Just four months after getting back, Erich Apel was working as a chief engineer and department head at the East German Ministry for Machinery Construction.

Erich Apel owed his rapid advancement in the new state to its leader, Walter Ulbricht.

In June 1954, already a junior government minister, Erich Apel became a candidate for party membership.

In July 1960 Erich Apel became one of approximately 112 members of the powerful Party Central Committee.

In July 1961 Erich Apel was promoted to candidate membership of the politburo and secretaryship of the Central Committee.

Back in January 1963 Ulbricht had stunned colleagues, under the influence of Erich Apel, announcing a 180-degree reversal on economic policy.

Erich Apel was not in favour of signing the agreement that the comrades in Moscow had imposed, but he had been opposed by Alfred Neumann, Chairman of the People's Economic Council and a Moscow loyalist.

Erich Apel, while seated at his desk, had taken his own life.

News of Erich Apel's death was held back until after the Soviet signatory, Trade Minister Nikolai Patolichev had left town, later that day.