Waldemar Verner

Who was Waldemar Verner?

Waldemar Verner was chief of the People's Navy of the National People's Army of the German Democratic Republic and brother of Paul Verner.

The son of a metalworker he trained as a window decorator. In 1923, Verner joined the Communist Young Spartacus organization and Communist Youth Federation of Germany in 1929. He became a member of the Communist Party Germany in 1930. Verner was arrested and imprisoned by the Nazis because of their accusing him of illegal activities in the KPD, and he went into exile in the Soviet Union. There he attended the VI World Congress of the Communist Youth International in 1935 and later the International Lenin School. Starting in 1938, Verner was operating for the KPD in Denmark.

He returned to Germany at the end of 1945. After the founding of the SED in 1946 he served as acting District Chairman in Hagenow.

In May 1947, at the suggestion the National Board of the SED and the District Board of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the Stralsund he was appointed as the District Chairman replacing Ernst Guth. In September 1947 he served as a delegate at the 2nd Congress of the SED, and in December 1947 at the 1st German People's Congress in Berlin.