Eberhard Aurich

Eberhard Aurich (born 10 December 1946) is a former German politician and high-ranking functionary of the Free German Youth (FDJ).

In the German Democratic Republic, he served as the First Secretary of the FDJ from 1983 to 1989. He was the last First Secretary before the Peaceful Revolution.

Aurich has since distanced himself from the GDR.

Early career
Eberhard Aurich was active as a child in the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organization and became a member of the FDJ in 1960. After attending the EOS Karl Marx in Karl-Marx-Stadt and completing vocational training with a high school diploma as a concrete specialist, he studied from 1965 to 1969 at the Pedagogical University of Zwickau, graduating as a certified teacher for German and Staatsbürgerkunde, civics designed to indoctrinate children to support the GDR's political system and the SED.

Aurich never worked as teacher, being immediately recruited into FDJ.

Early FDJ career
In 1967, at the age of 21, he became a member of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED).

From 1969 onwards, he worked full-time for the FDJ, initially at the Bezirk leadership in Karl-Marx-Stadt, becoming a Secretary in 1971. From 1972 to 1977, he served as the deputy head of the student department of the Central Council of the FDJ.

Aurich returned to the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt FDJ in 1977 as First Secretary. As such, he also served as statutory member of the Bezirk Karl-Marx-Stadt SED leadership. In 1979, he became a member of the Bureau of the Central Council. Here he became its Second Secretary in 1980 after incumbent Erich Postler joined the Bezirk Schwerin SED as Second Secretary.

Aurich was elected as a full member of the Central Committee of the SED in April 1981 (X. Party Congress), serving until its collective resignation in December 1989. He later described the Central Committee's work as rubber-stamping. He additionally became member of the Volkskammer in 1981, nominally representing a constituency in northeastern Bezirk Halle.

FDJ First Secretary
In December 1983, Aurich rose to the position of the First Secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ, succeeding Egon Krenz, who joined the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee of the SED. Aurich also joined the State Council, the GDR's collective head of state, in 1986.

During his leadership, the FDJ became more open. The FDJ organized concerts with Western artists such as Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and was more open towards the LGBT community. In a 1988 letter, Aurich himself stated that "I can assure you that the FDJ will continue to give great attention toward the complete equality of homosexual youth and other citizens in its diverse forms of political and ideological work."

During his tenure, Aurich met future German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, then deputy chair of the Jusos, twice; in January 1984 alongside Egon Krenz and Herbert Häber and at a disarmament rally of the FDJ in Wittenberg in September 1987.

Aurich was awarded the Medal of Merit of the GDR and the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1981 and 1984.

Peaceful Revolution
During the Wende, on 24 November 1989, Aurich was deposed as the First Secretary and replaced by Bezirk Dresden FDJ First Secretary Frank Türkowsky, who held this position until the end of January 1990. The FDJ, the SED having lost power, lost almost all of its members and soon faded into obscurity.

Aurich resigned from the Volkskammer and the moribund State Council in late January 1990.

Reunified Germany
In 1991, he left the SED's successor party, the PDS.

After initially being unemployed, Aurich soon started working in video production. From 1990 until the end of 2011, Aurich was the managing director of trainmedia GmbH, a publishing house that produces the magazine "Wortspiegel" and books for children with reading and spelling difficulties.

Aurich has since distanced himself from the GDR. In 2014, he described the GDR in an interview with the Berliner Morgenpost as being gleichgeschaltet and Stalinist. He especially criticized his former superior and predecessor Egon Krenz.

Aurich lives in Berlin and is married for the second time. He volunteers in the Allende district of Berlin for the socially disadvantaged, elderly people, and refugees.