Anton Plenikowski

Anton Plenikowski
Head of the Office of the Council of Ministers
In office May 1956 – November 1963
Chairman	Otto Grotewohl
Preceded by	Rudi Geyer
Succeeded by	Rudolf Rost
Head of the State Administration Department of the Central Committee
In office 3 June 1950 – November 1954
Secretary	Walter Ulbricht
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Klaus Sorgenicht
Parliamentary constituencies Member of the Volkskammer In office 21 February 1950 – 14 July 1967 Preceded by Paul Bismark Succeeded by multi-member district Member of the Volkstag In office 11 January 1928 – 7 October 1937 Preceded by multi-member district Succeeded by Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	(1899-01-19)19 January 1899 Zoppot, West Prussia, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire (now Sopot, Poland)
Died	3 March 1971(1971-03-03) (aged 72) Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin (East Berlin)
Political party	Socialist Unity Party of Germany (East German Communist Party) (1946–1971)
Other political affiliations	Communist Party of Germany (1927–1946) Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig (1926–1927)
Occupation	Politician Party Functionary Civil Servant Teacher
Central institution membership 1954–1967: Candidate member, Central Committee Other offices held 1954–1956: Deputy Head, Office of the Council of Ministers 1946–1950: Head, State Police and Interior Department of the Central Committee

Anton Plenikowski (19 November 1899 – 3 March 1971) was a German communist politician of the Free City of Danzig and East Germany.

Biography

Plenikowski was born in Zoppot, then a German town on the country's "North Sea" coast. He served in the German Army in World War I and became a member of the Soldier's and Workers' council of Breslau in 1918. After the war he worked as a teacher in Zoppot. He was a member of the municipal parliament of Liessau (1925–28) and the district parliament of Landkreis Großer Werder (1926–1930). In 1926 he joined the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig and the Communist Party in 1927. He represented the Communist Party in the Volkstag parliament in 1928-1937, at times as leader of the Communist group in it. He was dismissed from public service in 1933. After the ban on the Communist Party on 28 May 1934 by the Nazi Government, it continued to run in the 1935 Volkstag elections as "List Plenikowski".

In 1937 he emigrated to Sweden. In 1940-1941 he was detained at the Smedsbo prison camp. After his release, he settled down in Uppsala. From 1943 onwards he was involved in the Stockholm branch of the KPD. Plenikowski returned to Germany in 1946. He joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and worked in various positions in the SED administration. Plenikowski was a member of the Volkskammer in 1950-1967, candidate to the Central Committee of the SED (1954–1967) and head of the office of the council of ministers (1956–1963).

Plenikowski died in the Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin (East Berlin).