1. Klaus Gysi was a German journalist, publisher, and politician who served as Minister of Culture from 1966 to 1973, and from 1979 to 1988, as the State Secretary for Church Affairs of the German Democratic Republic.
13 Facts About Klaus Gysi
1. 2.
Klaus Gysi was born in Neukolln, Berlin, to a middle-class family.
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Klaus Gysi's father was Hermann Gysi, a local doctor whose family originated in Switzerland, and his mother was Erna Potolowsky, a bookkeeper of Jewish descent from Weilburg.
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Klaus Gysi attended grade school and Realgymnasium in Neukolln and in 1928, joined the Young Communist League of Germany, the Workers International Relief and the Sozialistischer Schulerbund.
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Klaus Gysi received his Abitur from the Odenwaldschule in Darmstadt in 1931, and that same year, joined the Communist Party.
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Klaus Gysi became active in the left-wing students' movement in 1931.
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Klaus Gysi went to Cambridge, England, in 1936 and later, to Paris, France, where in 1939, he became one of the student leaders of the Communist Party there.
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Klaus Gysi was then detained in France from 1939 to 1940 and evaded detection by German authorities following the invasion of France.
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In 1963, Klaus Gysi became a member of the West Commission of the Politburo of the SED's Central Committee.
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From 1973 to 1978, Klaus Gysi was ambassador to Italy, and a diplomat in Vatican City and Malta.
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In November 1979 Klaus Gysi succeeded Hans Seigewasser as the State Secretary for Church Affairs, remaining in this position until his retirement in 1988.
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Klaus Gysi moved to the former West Germany in 1985.
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In 1969, Klaus Gysi was awarded the Banner of Labor; in 1970, he received the Memorial Medal of the Ministerium fur Staatssicherheit and the Lenin Memorial Medal.