Werner Lamberz

Werner Lamberz
Werner Lamberz
	Lamberz (right) in 1975
Secretary for Agitation of the; Central Committee Secretariat of the Socialist Unity Party
	In office; 22 April 1967 – 6 March 1978
General Secretary	Walter Ulbricht; Erich Honecker;
Preceded by	Albert Norden
Succeeded by	Joachim Herrmann
Head of the Department for Agitation of the Central Committee
	In office; 15 September 1966 – 19 June 1971
Secretary	Albert Norden; himself;
Deputy	Eberhard Fensch; Günter Fischer; Frank-Joachim Herrmann; Hans-Joachim Kobert; Herbert Malcherek;
Preceded by	Rudi Singer
Succeeded by	Hans Modrow
Head of the Foreign Information Working Group of the Central Committee
	In office; 27 March 1963 – 17 September 1966
Secretary	Albert Norden;
Deputy	Ernst-Otto Schwabe;
Preceded by	Position established
Succeeded by	Manfred Feist
Preceded by
Parliamentary constituencies
Member of the Volkskammer ; for Frankfurt/Oder, Beeskow, Eisenhüttenstadt-Stadt, Eisenhüttenstadt-Land, Seelow
	In office; 14 July 1967 – 6 March 1978
Preceded by	multi-member district
Succeeded by	Lothar Burkhardt
Personal details
Born	14 April 1929; Mayen, Rhine Province, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany)
Died	6 March 1978 (aged 48); Wadi Suf al-Jin, Libya
Political party	Socialist Unity Party; (1947–1978)
Children	1
Alma mater	Central Komsomol School
Occupation	Politician; Heating Engineer;
Awards	Patriotic Order of Merit; Banner of Labor;
	Central institution membership 1971–1978: Full member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; 1970–1971: Candidate member,; Politburo of the Central Committee ; 1967–1978: Full member,; Central Committee ; 1963–1967: Candidate member,; Central Committee ; Other offices held 1966–1971: Head,; Commission for Agitation and Propaganda ; 1963–1978: Member,; Commission for Agitation and Propaganda ;

Werner Lamberz (14 April 1929 – 6 March 1978) was a senior politician in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

In a system under which political advancement was generally achieved only slowly and the men who reached the higher levels of government generally did so after decades of patient progression, Lamberz was unusual because of the speed of his promotion. Despite having spent three years during the 1940s attending an Adolf Hitler Leadership School, during 1967 he became a member of the important Central Committee of the ruling party, aged around 38, and after only four years on the candidate list. During the 1970s he was sometimes seen as a possible successor to his political ally, the country's leader Erich Honecker.

Werner Lamberz was killed in a helicopter accident in Libya shortly after take-off, following a meeting in a large desert encampment with the Libyan head of government, Muammar Gaddafi. The cause of the accident in which Lamberz and his three fellow travelers lost their lives has been a subject for media speculation ever since it happened.