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.

He was first secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and as such the actual leader of East Germany from 1950 to 1971. From President Wilhelm Pieck's death in 1960 he was also the East German head of state until his own death in 1973.