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. initially at the Bezirk leadership in
Karl-Marx-Stadt, becoming a Secretary in 1971. 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.
FDJ First Secretary In December 1983, Aurich rose to the position of the First Secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ, Aurich also joined the
State Council, the GDR's collective
head of state, in 1986. 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. Aurich was deposed as the First Secretary and replaced by
Bezirk Dresden FDJ First Secretary Frank Türkowsky, 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. 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. == References ==