Manfred Feist

Manfred Feist
Head of the Foreign Information Department of the Central Committee
In office
17 September 1966  24 November 1989
Secretary
Preceded byWerner Lamberz
Succeeded byReiner Kalisch
Personal details
Born
Manfred Feist

(1930-04-06)6 April 1930
Halle an der Saale, Province of Saxony, Free State of Prussia, Weimar Republic (now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany)
Died17 December 2012(2012-12-17) (aged 82)
Berlin, Germany
Political partySocialist Unity Party
(1947–1989)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Party Functionary
Awards
Central institution membership

Other offices held
  • 1954–1958: Department Head,
    Committee for German Unity

Manfred Feist (born Halle 6 April 1930 died Berlin 17 December 2012) was a German politician and party functionary. He served as Director of the Foreign Information Department of the Central Committee of the ruling SED (party).

His notability is enhanced by the marriage, in 1953, of his elder sister Margot to a political high-flyer called Erich Honecker. As a result of this, between 1971 and 1989 Manfred Feist found himself the brother in law of East Germany's de facto head of state. Over the years he was subjected to greater media scrutiny than would normally have been applied to political functionaries at his level of competence: his tongue-in-cheek soubriquet "Manny the Great" ("Manni der Große") allegedly used by colleagues, was publicized even in West Germany.