Hermann Axen

Hermann Axen was a German communist politician who held several high-ranking positions in the Socialist Unity Party between 1949 and 1989. He became involved in the German resistance to Nazi rule, spending much of that time in state detention, including Auschwitz. After the war he became a prominent politician in the Soviet occupation zone, reorganized in 1949 as the German Democratic Republic. He served as a relatively high-profile member of the powerful Politburo of the Central Committee between 1970 and 1989.