Willy Rumpf

Willy Rumpf (4 April, 1903 – 8 February, 1982) was Finance Minister in the German Democratic Republic.

Born in Berlin, Rumpf was from 1917 to 1920 educated as an insurance assessor, and worked until 1932 as an accountant, cashier and a foreign trade correspondent. In 1920 he joined the German Communist Youth Association, and in 1925 the Communist Party of Germany. From 1933 to 1938 he was in committed to the penitentiary, and later to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen. After that he returned to work, and was a member of the resistance group Robert Uhrig. From 1944 to 1945 he was again in custody.

From 1945 to 1947 he was deputy leader of the finance department of the magistrate of greater Berlin, from 1947 to 1948 leader of the trust administration of Berlin, from 1948 to 1949 leader of the central administration for finances of the German economic commission, and from 1949 to 1955 Finance Minister.

In 1946 Rumpf became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). He was from 1949 to 1967 a delegate of the "Volkskammer", from 1950 as a candidate and from 1963 as a member of the central committee of the SED. He was from 1955 to 1966 Finance Minister and member of the cabinet council, and from 1963 its president.

Rumpf received the Order of Merit for the Fatherland in 1958, in 1963 the Order of Karl Marx, and in 1978 the Star of Friendship of Nations.