Wilhelm Zaisser (20 June 1893 – 3 March 1958) was a German communist politician and statesman who served as the founder and first Minister for State Security of the German Democratic Republic (1950–1953). Early life Born in Gelsenkirchen, Westphalia, Zaisser studied to become a teacher from 1910 to 1913 in Essen. When World War I began a year later, Zaisser joined the Imperial German Army. Upon leaving the service in 1918, Zaisser joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and in 1919 returned to Essen, where he became a school teacher. During this period, Zaisser became an active communist. During the Kapp Putsch in 1920, he was a military leader of the fledgling Red Ruhr Army, which led to his arrest and dismissal as a teacher in 1921. After his release, Zaisser worked for the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) as a propagandist. From 1921 to 1922, Zaisser edited the Ruhr Echo and the Bergischen Voice of the People. In 1923, Zaisser was recruited into the KPD's intelligence wing and worked to covertly subvert the Third French Republic's occupation of the Ruhr. Zaisser's efficient work caused him to be summoned to Moscow a year later, where he received both political and military intelligence training by the GRU. Career in Soviet Intelligence After returning to the Weimar Republic in 1924, Zaisser became one of the leaders of the KPD intelligence wing, reporting directly to the Central Committee. Throughout the 1920s, Zaisser was also a paramilitary instructor and political leader for the KPD in such the areas of Rhine, Westphalia and Berlin. He also worked covertly in other nations for the [GRU from 1925 to 1926 as a military advisor to Syria. Starting in 1927, Zaisser worked almost exclusively for the Executive Committee of the Comintern, serving as a military advisor to China (1927–1930) and the Czechoslovak Army (1930–1932). His covert activities were ultimately rewarded by full membership in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1932 and full Soviet citizenship in 1940. In 1936, Zaisser traveled to the Second Spanish Republic under the covert identity of "Gomez." On behalf of the Soviets, Zaisser became a military advisor to the Spanish Republican Army, while secretly remaining a, GRU agent, and as the Chief of the Servicio de Investigación Militar, the political police of the Second Spanish Republic. Wilhelm Zaisser's deputy was a career NKVD operative and future Stasi Minister