[HIGHLIGHTS] GDR dictator Walter Ulbricht: “Do we really have to copy every bit of dirt from the West?”

Walter Ulbricht was head of state of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) for 21 years. His most striking external features were his fistula voice and a strange goatee.

A new biography opens up the strange pages of “Comrade Spitzbart’s” life. “Is it really the case that we have to copy every piece of dirt that comes from the West?” he asked his comrades. He was removed from power in 1971 and died two years later after a stroke.