Horst Kreter

Horst Kreter (born 10 December 1927 in Essen; died 8 August 2004 in Bernau) was a party official of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD) in East Germany, and served as editor-in-chief of the NDPD’s central organ, National-Zeitung, from 1961 to 1982. Additionally, Kreter was a member of the Volkskammer (East German parliament) from 1954 to 1990.ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT POLITICAL PARTIES, AND MASS ORGANIZATIONS OF THE GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICBiographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR.
==Life==
Horst Kreter was born on December 10, 1927, as the son of a commercial clerk in Essen. After completing his secondary education, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht for military service in 1943. In 1945, Kreter was taken prisoner by the Soviets and remained in captivity until 1949. After the surrender of Nazi Germany, Kreter underwent anti-fascist reeducation. He became a member of an anti-fascist committee and later a teacher at an anti-fascist school"Wer war wer in der DDR?".
In 1949, Kreter returned to the Soviet Occupation Zone with clear political goals. He was assigned, along with other officials, to help build the newly founded National Democratic Party of Germany (NDPD), established in 1948. This party primarily targeted former Nazi Party members and Wehrmacht soldiers. Kreter was immediately employed full-time in the NDPD leadership, initially as a department head and later as a chief department head until 1952. In parallel, he began his studies in 1951, later continuing through correspondence at the German Academy for Political and Legal Sciences (DASR) in Potsdam, graduating in 1954 with a diploma in political science.
In 1952, Kreter was sent to Neubrandenburg, where he briefly served as political manager of the NDPD’s district leadership and became a member of the district council from 1952 to 1953. From 1952 until the NDPD’s dissolution, he was also a member of its main committee. When Friedrich Pfaffenbach was assigned to lead the Berlin NDPD district leadership, Kreter took over as head of the NDPD district leadership in Halle in 1953, and also joined the district council there. That same year, Kreter was co-opted as the NDPD representative into the office of the Free German Youth (FDJ, Freie Deutsche Jugend) central council, where he remained a member until 1963.
Kreter first entered the Volkskammer in 1954 as an NDPD representative, a position he held until March 1990. In 1955, Kreter continued to rise within the party apparatus, becoming a member of the party’s leadership, where he remained until 1989, and later a member of the NDPD’s main committee’s presidium. On September 1, 1961, Kreter took over as editor-in-chief of the NDPD’s central organ, National-Zeitung, a position previously held by Gustav Siemon. From 1961 onwards, Kreter was also a member of the presidium of the German-African Society and the DDR-Arab Countries Friendship Society. From 1972, he also served for several years as a member of the presidium of the Central Board of the Association of Journalists.
In 1982, Kreter returned to the party apparatus, where he was elected secretary of the NDPD’s main committee. He remained in this role until the political upheaval of November 1989. Under the newly formed Modrow government, Kreter briefly returned to journalism, working for several months as a department head in the government’s press and information office. Afterward, Kreter took early retirement.
==Distinctions==
Kreter was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver and the Banner of LaborBiographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR
==Sources==
* Günther Buch: Namen und Daten wichtiger Personen der DDR. 4., überarbeitete und erweiterte Auflage. Dietz, Berlin (West)/Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X, S. 175.
* Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR. 1945–1990. Band 1: Abendroth – Lyr. K. G. Saur, München 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2, S. 438.
Category:1927 births
Category:2004 deaths
Category:Politicians from Essen
Category:People from the Rhine Province
Category:National Democratic Party of Germany (East Germany) politicians
Category:Free German Youth members
Category:East German journalists