BERLIN (AP) -- Former East German Premier Willi Stoph, who was dropped as a defendant in a manslaughter trial for killings at the Berlin Wall because of illness, has died at age 84.
Stoph died April 13 in Berlin following a long illness, Hanno Harnisch of the Party of Democratic Socialism, which succeeded the East German communist party, said Monday.Born in Berlin on July 9, 1914, to a working-class family, Stoph joined a Communist youth group in 1928. He served in Hitler's army as a private in the artillery from 1940-42 and was released after being wounded.
According to his biography, Stoph studied at the Lenin Academy in the Soviet Union after the war and attended Soviet army weapons schools.
He became East Germany's first defense minister in 1956 and was known as the architect of the East German People's Army.
Stoph moved up in East Germany's Politburo hierarchy to become premier in 1970, succeeding Otto Grotewohl. He met the same year with then-West German Chancellor Willy Brandt for talks to ease relations between the communist East and capitalist West.
As East Germany's communist rulers faced growing pressure for reform from a peaceful, popular uprising, Stoph was ousted Nov. 7, 1989, along with East German leader Erich Honecker. Two days later, the Berlin Wall was opened.
Along with Honecker and four other defendants, Stoph went on trial in Berlin on Nov. 13, 1992, charged with 13 counts of manslaughter in the killings of people trying to escape East Germany. He was dropped from the case in August 1993 after the court decided he was too sick to continue because of heart problems.
Honecker was also dropped from the trial due to illness. He died in exile in Chile in 1994.