Heinz Kuhrig

{{Infobox officeholder

| honorific_prefix =

| name = Heinz Kuhrig

| honorific_suffix =

| image = Heinz Kuhrig.1981.jpg

| image_size =

| caption = Kuhrig in 1981

| order =

| office = Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Food

|1blankname = {{nowrap|Chairman of the
Council of Ministers}}

|1namedata = {{ubl|Horst Sindermann|Willi Stoph}}

| term_start = 3 October 1973

| term_end = 3 December 1982

| predecessor = Georg Ewald

| successor = Bruno Lietz

{{Collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Volkskammer

|titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes

| office1 = Member of the Volkskammer
for Glauchau, Hohenstein-Ernstthal, Reichenbach, Werdau
{{small|(Artern, Nebra, Querfurt, Saalkreis; 1976–1986)}}

| term_start1 = 29 October 1976

| term_end1 = 5 April 1990

| predecessor1 = Siegfried Tannhäuser

| successor1 = Constituency abolished{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}

| birth_name = Heinz Kuhrig

| birth_date = {{birth date|1929|03|04|df=y}}

| birth_place = Strehla, Free State of Saxony, Weimar Republic {{small|(now Germany)}}

| residence =

| occupation = {{hlist|Politician|Civil Servant|Agricultural machinery mechanic}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2001|09|13|1929|03|04}}

| death_place = Berlin, Germany

| death_cause = Suicide by firearm

| spouse =

| children =

| party = Socialist Unity Party
{{small|(1946–1989)}}

| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|

}}

| awards = {{hlist|Patriotic Order of Merit, 1st class|Banner of Labor}}

| website =

| module2 = {{collapsible list

| title = Central institution membership

| bullets = on

| 1976–1989: Full member,
Central Committee

}}

----

{{collapsible list

| title = Other offices held

| bullets = on

| 1983–1990: Vice President,
Society for German–Soviet Friendship

| 1982–1990: General Secretary,
Society for German–Soviet Friendship

}}

Heinz Kuhrig (4 March 1929 – 13 September 2001) was a German politician of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Kuhrig served as the GDR's Agriculture Minister in the 1970s following Georg Ewald's death in a car accident.

He was forced into retirement in 1982 and committed suicide after German reunification.

Life and career

=Early career=

The son of a working-class family, Kuhrig completed an apprenticeship as an industrial electrician from 1943 to 1945 after attending elementary school and worked as an agricultural machinery mechanic from 1945 to 1946.{{Cite web |year=2009 |title=Kuhrig, Heinz |url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/de/recherche/kataloge-datenbanken/biographische-datenbanken/heinz-kuhrig |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de |series=Wer war wer in der DDR? |publisher=Federal Foundation for the Reappraisal of the SED Dictatorship |language=de}}

From 1946 to 1947, he attended a preparatory school and subsequently studied agriculture at Leipzig University, graduating in 1952 with a degree in agricultural sciences (Diplomlandwirt).

Kuhrig, who had joined the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) during his studies in 1946,{{Cite news |last=Schacht |first=Holger |date=2001-09-15 |title=Heinz Kuhrig erschoss sich |url=https://www.berliner-kurier.de/archiv/heinz-kuhrig-erschoss-sich-li.1546118 |access-date=2024-11-17 |work=Berliner Kurier |language=de}} thereafter worked in the Agriculture Department of the SED Central Committee.

In 1961, he was made director of the Institute for Agricultural Engineering of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences (now Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering) in Potsdam-Bornim. Two years later, in June 1963, he joined the Agriculture Council, successor of the GDR's Ministry of Agriculture,{{Cite web |year=2010 |editor-last=Boissier |editor-first=Doris |editor2-last=Friedrich |editor2-first=Beate |title=Ministerium für Land-, Forst- und Nahrungsgüterwirtschaft |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dk1/index.htm?kid=EB996125BC8D431EA07A4079BEC75877 |access-date=2024-11-17 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}} as first deputy chairman.{{Cite book |url=https://www.kommunismusgeschichte.de/ddr-a-z/1966?no_cache=1&tx_sedaktuelles_pi1[action]=show&tx_sedaktuelles_pi1[controller]=Aktuelles&tx_sedaktuelles_pi1[wikipageid]=sbzvonabisz:1966:kuhrig_heinz |title=DDR von A-Z |publisher=Federal Ministry for All-German Affairs |year=1966 |edition=10th |location=Bonn |pages=264 |language=de |access-date=2024-11-17}} From 1964 to 1968, he was also a member of the Council of Ministers of the GDR.

After studying at the CPSU Higher Party School "W. I. Lenin" in Moscow for a year, he returned to the now renamed Council for Agricultural Production and Food Economy as State Secretary in 1968. He retained his role when the Ministry of Agriculture was reestablished as Ministry for Agriculture, Forestry and Food in January 1971. In June 1971 (VIII. Party Congress), Kuhrig also became a member of the Central Auditing Commission of the SED.

Kuhrig was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver in 1969.

=Minister of Agriculture=

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1982-0610-101, Berlin, Besuch Regierungsdelegation Grenada, Bootsfahrt (cropped).jpg Maurice Bishop (right of center) in June 1982]]

In September 1973, longtime Agriculture Minister and Kuhrig's superior Georg Ewald died in a car accident.

Kuhrig was chosen to succeed him, additionally becoming a full member of the Central Committee of the SED in May 1976 (IX. Party Congress) (though also leaving the Central Auditing Commission), serving until its collective resignation in December 1989, and of the Volkskammer in October 1976, nominally representing rural constituencies, first in the western part of Bezirk Halle,{{Cite book |url=https://www.gvoon.de/art/dokumente/1976/volkskammer-ddr-7-wahlperiode-1976-1981/pdf/volkskammer-ddr-7-wahlperiode-1976-1981-seite_033.pdf |title=Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1976-1981 |publisher=VEB Staatsverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik |year=1977 |pages=33 |language=de |access-date=2024-11-17}} then in the northwest of Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt.{{Cite book |url=https://www.gvoon.de/art/dokumente/1986/volkskammer-ddr-9-wahlperiode-1986-1990/pdf/volkskammer-ddr-9-wahlperiode-1986-1990-seite_035.pdf |title=Volkskammer der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik 1986-1990 |publisher=VEB Staatsverlag der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik |year=1987 |pages=35 |language=de |access-date=2024-11-17}}

Kuhrig was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold in 1979, the honor clasp to this order in 1989 and the Banner of Labor in 1974.

=Long retirement=

In November 1982, Kuhrig was dismissed as Agriculture Minister. He was replaced by Bruno Lietz, who had only been made head of the Agriculture Department of the Central Committee of the SED in November 1981.

While he had been officially relieved of their duties "at his own request", he was likely forced into retirement. Internally, he had been accused of having to import grain for animal feed purposes.{{Cite book |last=Behling |first=Klaus |title="Plötzlich und unerwartet ...": Selbstmorde nach Wende und Einheit |date= |publisher=edition berolina |year=2016 |isbn=978-3-95841-004-6 |edition=3. Auflage |location=Berlin |pages=63 |language=de}}

Kuhrig was allowed to remain in the Central Committee and Volkskammer, but was transferred to a politically irrelevant position at the Society for German–Soviet Friendship, a SED-controlled mass organization aiming to cultivate a positive image of the Soviet Union among the East German public. Kuhrig initially joined the DSF as General Secretary in December 1982, additionally becoming Vice President in May 1983.

= Death =

After German reunification, Kuhrig lived withdrawn as a retiree in his Berlin-Müggelheim mansion. The mansion had been built illegally in a nature reserve in 1978 and was demolished in October 2022.{{Cite news |date=2022-10-07 |title=Illegale DDR-Bonzenvilla nur noch Schutt |url=https://www.bz-berlin.de/archiv-artikel/illegale-ddr-bonzenvilla-nur-noch-schutt |access-date=2024-11-17 |work=B.Z. |language=de}}

Kuhrig suffered from health problems in his later years. He shot himself with his hunting rifle on 13 September 2001.{{Cite news |date=2001-09-17 |title=Selbstmord verübt |url=https://taz.de/!1150975/ |access-date=2024-11-17 |work=Die Tageszeitung |language=de |issn=0931-9085}} He was the second former GDR minister to die from an apparent suicide after Construction Minister Wolfgang Junker.