Walter Ulbricht quotes

Walter Ulbricht was an East German politician and a leading figure in the German Democratic Republic. As the head of the Socialist Unity Party, he was instrumental in shaping the political and economic structure of East Germany, including the construction of the Berlin Wall. He played a crucial role in establishing and maintaining the socialist system in East Germany during the Cold War. Here are 22 of his quotes:

Let us show our fellow countrymen and the entire world what the Germans can do when they work for peace.

Walter Ulbricht

The victory of the working people over the exploiters and slave holders is at the same time the victorious struggle for liberation by the German people.

Walter Ulbricht

This hunger for profits causes great misery for the people.

Walter Ulbricht

Let there be great enthusiasm for the plan throughout the entire republic that will overcome all obstacles. Let us join together to realize the Five Year Plan and bring our economy and our own living standards to previously unknown heights.

Walter Ulbricht

Any sensible family has a budget that lays out how much will be spent for household and other purposes. Without such planning, things would quickly go awry.

Walter Ulbricht

When has there ever been a government in German history that came to the people and revealed its detailed plans for the coming years? That could not happen before, since German governments planned war and conquest.

Walter Ulbricht

Something new has happened: For the first time in German history our fatherland is guided by a plan that considers only the needs of the people, and aims at building prosperity and reconstructing of our fatherland.

Walter Ulbricht

The success of each of us benefits us all, and the success of us all benefits each of us individually.

Walter Ulbricht

May we soon enjoy the fruits of our labor in a peaceful and united Germany.

Walter Ulbricht

In the past, people worked together only when some great disaster threatened.

Walter Ulbricht

The guiding principle is not to manufacture the goods everyone needs, rather to earn profits for a few capitalists.

Walter Ulbricht

The West German population would protest passionately if it knew what secret meetings between the federal chancellor, McCoy, and foreign and Nazi generals are planning.

Walter Ulbricht

The government of the German Democratic Republic rejects secret policies. It works for the people, and only the people, so it does not need to keep secrets like the warmongers.

Walter Ulbricht

The plan shows that the twenty million people in the German democratic Republic and in the democratic sector of Berlin think only of peace, and that they are working for freedom and peaceful prosperity.

Walter Ulbricht

It has to look democratic, but we must have everything in [our] hand.

Walter Ulbricht

The builders of our capital are fully engaged in residential construction, and its labor force is deployed for that. Nobody has the intention to erect a wall.

Walter Ulbricht

Is it truely the case that we have to copy every dirt that comes from the west? I think, comrades, with the monotonism of the yeah yeah yeah and how that all is called should we make a stop.

Walter Ulbricht

The more you participate in our common endeavors, the more successful your work in the factory, mine, wharf or village, in an economic institute or in the arts, in commerce or administration, the sooner we will be where we all want to be.

Walter Ulbricht

The West German revanchists and militarists are using the peace-loving position of the USSR and the member-states of the Warsaw Pact on the resolution of German question, so as to inflict harm on the German Democratic Republic through subversive activity and the illegal recruitment of citizens of the German Democratic Republic. For this, they primarily use the open border in Berlin. In the interests of the peaceful work and construction by the citizens of the German Democratic Republic and of the member-states of the Warsaw Pact, it is necessary to stop the illegal recruitment and other hostile measures. Therefore, we propose that the member-states of the Warsaw Pact agree, in the interests of the cessation of the subversive activity, to implement control along the borders of the German Democratic Republic, including the borders in Berlin, comparable to the control along the state borders of the Western powers.

Walter Ulbricht