REORGANIZATION OF THE MINISTRY OF TRANSPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00810A006600060001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 8, 2008
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 20, 1955
• Content Type: REPORT

Approved For Release 2008/01/08: CIA-RDP80-0081 OA006600060001-5
CE +TRE IINTELLIGENC , AGE&&CY
INFORMATION REPORT
COUNTRY East Germany
SUBJECT Reorganization..of -'.the Ministry
of Transport
DATE OF INFO.
PLACE ACQUIRED
DATE ACQUIRED
This material contains information affecting the
National Defense of the United States within the
meaning of the Espionage Laws, Title 18, U.S.C.
Secs. 793 and 794, the transmission or revel-
ation of which in any manner to an unauthorized
person is prohibited by law..
1
?DATE DISTR.
NO. OF PAGES 3
REQUIREMENT NO. RD
20 May 1955
This is UNEVALUATED
Information
THE SOURCE EVALUATIONS IN THIS REPORT ARE DEFINITIVE,
THE APPRAISAL OF CONTENT IS TENTATIVE.
(FOR KEY SEE REVERSE)
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1. The East German Ministry for Transport is undergoing a major change of
structure by which itris being reorganized on the model of the Soviet
Ministry for Railway Affairs. The reorganization was begun in the second
week of January 1955, following Erwin Kramer's accession to the PO;t=;'t of
Minister, and is expected to be carried to completion by the end of
March 1955. The removal of Roman Chwalek as Minister for Railway Affairs
and the naming of Kramer to head the newly enlarged Ministry fbr Transport
appears to have been intended to place the leadership and'control of
this important ministry in the hands of a politically reliable, Moscow-
trained, experienced railway official. Kramer is,believed to be the
individual who bears the main responsibility for carrying through the
reorganization of the Ministry.
3. The official reason given for the removal of Roman Chwalek was that for ay
reasons of age and of health he was no longer abib to carry out the 25X1
functions of his post. He has since beet given the position of "Vorstands-
mitglied der Genossenschaften Berlins".
4. Richard Staimer, former Deputy Minister and son-in-law of 'Wilhelm Pieok,
also was the victim of the Ministry's reorganisation, rather'than of the
official charges levied against him. Staimer was charged with violation,
of the East German law concerning the exercise,of extreme frugality in
the expenditure of government funds., He was officially charged with the
..
misuse of 30,000 DIE for the purchase of. shako-type fur caps for
;
railway transport escorts (Zugbegleitspersonal) travelling on E erman
and.
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government funds when the transport police refused to wear them.
SECRET
STATE I 1; ARMY Jx NAVY X AIR FBI '~ AEC
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Stailner was the victim of this trumped-up charge an$ was removed from office.
G
ST.
He has since been named to the Vorstand of the
Another victim of the reorganization program was former Deputy Minister
Lindemann, chief of the Main Administration for Railroad Installations
(Bahnanlagen)o Lindemann was removed in mid-January 1955 because of his
inability to carry out his responsibilities. He has been replaced by Kurt
Freitag, who until mid-January 1955 held the post of President.of the Berlin
6. As a replacement for Kurt Freitag, Decker;(fnu) was named to the post of
President of the Berlin Reichsbahndirektion. Until his appointment to this
post, Decker had bee Ministry's liaison officer with the office of the
Minister-President.
8. The following is the new T/0 of the Ministry of Transport as of 11 February
1955:
9?
tion, although no personnel have been added to the staff as of it February
1955. The other sections of the Ministry remain basically the same as
heretofore in organization.
status as. the departments listed a#ove. The finance Department, headed
by Hielscher, is expected to be expanded to include sections for the appro-
priate new departments for water transporta-tiara.and motor vehicle transporta-
Minister for Transport Erwin Kramer
Chief, EV Strecken (Trackage) Kurt Freita
Chief, HV Betrieb and Verkehr (Oper~ti~r a~d Semper (fnuf
HV Maschinendienst, Chief ra is Vacant at present. No
(Locomotives) successor to Kramer has
been named for this post.
flV Sicherungs and Fernmeldewesen; Chief Fritz Szczepeeke
Chief, HV Politische Verwa]tung, des Ministeriums Menzel (fnu)
Chief Selbststaendige fly Finanzen Hielecher (fnu)
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Each of the Main Administration chiefs is to hold the post of Stato Secretary
in the Mir' try. It is expected that the State Secretariats for'Shiopingand
Motor Traffic will be renamed Main Administrations and have. the same +. y
10. The East German Reichsbahndirektion is directly responsible to Minister for
Transport Erwin Kramer and in turn is organized to parallel the Ministry's
structure, each Ministerial Main administration having as its counterpart
an Abteilung in the Reichsbahndirektion. However, the Reichsbahn is also
undergoing reorganization. Fourteen of the present 38 Reiehsbahnaemisr are
to be dissolved, leaving a total of 24 districts into which the other former-
ly independent districts will be incorporated. These new districts will
then be reorganized and modeled structurally and functionally according to
the Soviet pattern. Heretofore, each Reichsbahnamt was responsible for all
Eisenbahndienststellen-in its geographic district. The Reichsbahn main-
tenance shops (Bahnbetriebswerke) will now be independent installations
directly subordinate to the Reichsbahndirekti. Previously, each Reiohs-
bahnamt on the average had 10 ahnmeistereien ,each of which took care of a
section of track 20 or 30 1:.iloineters long. However, section offices (Streck-
enmeistereien). each lirvin=- a st-t,+4n- from ICY' ?rn 1An kilnma+-.-.^ pre +-
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11. The entire effort to sovietize the Ministry of Transport and its subordinate
operating organizations is based on a desire to replace present officials
in responsible positions in the government hierarchy, who may not have
been considered completely reliable politically in the past, or who have
not completed their advanced politico-economic training in Marxian philo-
sophy, with tried and tested proponents of the system, whose reliability
is vouched for by the training programs they attended in the USSR. A
gradual exodus of officials from Saxs , %ere brought to Berlin to fill
government positions and who have held positions of trust and responsibility
in the Ministry,has been noted in the past several weeks. The Saxons had
previously earned the reputation of being the Party stalwarts on which the
regime relied, but they are being replaced without exception by SED members
who have recently returned from technical and political training courses
in the USSR.
Come : Main Administration for Signals and Telecommunications
Comment: Vorstandsmital ed der Genossenachaften Berlins (member
of the executive board of the consumers' cooperatives
of Berlin).
Comment: ?Vo'rstand.cof the'GST is the executive board of the
Association of Sports and Technology (Geeel:lschaft
Sport und' Technik) .
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