Word: apel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...were not tied so tightly to Russia, which continues to extract favorable deals from its satellite. Ulbricht in 1965 committed 45% of the country's exports for the following five years to the Soviet Union at ridiculously low prices-an act that caused East German Planning Chief Erich Apel to commit suicide on the day the deal was announced. As a result, East Germany is forced to ship eastward many of the machines that it needs to modernize its own factories and many of the exports that it needs to increase trade with the West...
That was old Spitzbart's way of referring to his late brilliant planningcommission chieftain, Dr. Erich Apel, 48. Apel shot himself in his office three weeks ago, the same day that East Germany signed a $15 billion five-year trade pact with the Soviet Union -over Apel's bitter protests...
Under the pact, East Germany agreed to continue to reserve 50% of its ex ports, including machinery and other specialized manufactures, for the Soviet Union. Apel and his young technocrats wanted to boost hard-currency earnings with increased exports to the West. Their "illusionary, unbalanced demand" was to use these earnings to buy technically advanced Western plants and equipment. Instead, the trade pact committed East Germany to deliver some 300 merchant ships to the Soviet Union, at prices 30% below what Western buyers would have paid. The Soviet Union promised to supply oil, iron ore and other raw materials...
...Apel is believed to have lei a diary detailing the Soviets' methods of shortchanging the East Germans and giving the inside story of negotiations for the pact. The Communists say that the diary is a forgery. Ulbricht was conspicuously present at Apel's state funeral, and the official explanation for his death remains "overburdened nerves...
Died. Erich Apel, 48, East Germany's chief economic planner; by his own hand (method unannounced); in East Berlin. Since his predecessor also committed suicide, the East Germans called Apel's death "a sudden uncontrolled reaction" brought on by "overburdened nerves." They were especially embarrassed since it took place three days after he had concluded a new five-year trade pact with the Russians...