functionary in this key position. Zaisser himself showed considerable
reluctance, hoping instead that he might receive the defense portfolio.
He approached this fresh assignment with his characteristic low-key
but resolute demeanor, eschewing the hasty strong-arm tactics of the
Nazis in dealing with opponents and preferring the more calculated,
long-term techniques learned from the Soviets.
While Mielke was given considerable latitude in enlarging and
developing the ministry’s personnel, the list of Zaisser’s main re-
sponsibilities continued to grow. Not only were suspect members
of the Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands (SED) and the
rival bourgeois parties identified and brought to trial, but MfS
agents began to be placed in the Federal Republic of Germany. Yet
Zaisser’s relationship with the SED showed strains from the outset.
His main target of criticism was Ulbricht’s overly authoritarian
leadership and his transformation of the secretariat into a personal
instrument of power. Their deep-seated conflict came to a climax
in the aftermath of the Uprising of 17 June 1953—a spontane-
ous revolt throughout East Germany against the hard-line policies
adopted by the Ulbricht government. The MfS proved unable to
control the protesters, and Soviet troops had to be dispatched. In
the divisive party discussions that followed—complicated by the
leadership struggle in Moscow after Stalin’s recent death—Zaisser
believed that major blame would be assigned to Ulbricht and a
more moderate course adopted. Instead, he and his ally Rudolf
Herrnstadt were charged with counterrevolutionary “factional
activity,” and the MfS was forced to assume prime responsibility
for the events of 17 June.
Zaisser’s career ended on a bitter note. Although he was among the
first East Germans to receive the Karl Marx Order, and even voted
for his own removal from the Central Committee during his last Po-
litburo meeting, his plea to remain an “ordinary” SED member went
unheeded; he was removed as an “enemy of the party” on 12 January
- Moreover, his name was banished from all official publications
and internal MfS documents, and his wife was compelled to leave her
position as minister of education. Employed for a time as a translator
of V. I. Lenin’s works for an East German publisher, Zaisser died of
a heart attack in East Berlin on 3 March 1956. His wife’s repeated
attempts to secure his rehabilitation met with no success during her
ZAISSER, WILHELM • 513