Gerhard Dengler (29 May 1914 in Reinhausen – 3 January 2007 in Hennigsdorf) was an East German writer, print and broadcast journalist, and (briefly) newspaper editor.
[1] He surrendered with his unit at the start of 1943 and became a member of the National Committee for a Free Germany, an alliance of exiled German soldiers who had become communist prisoners of war, now held in the Soviet Union.
[4] His switch from mainstream Nazism would prove heartfelt and enduring, and he paid a high personal price: his father, on learning that Gerhard had become a Communist, took his own life in October 1944.
In 1946 he joined the newly created Socialist Unity Party (SED / Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) and took a job in Dresden with the Sächsische Zeitung (newspaper).
[4] Between November 1948 and May 1949 he was editor in chief of "Der Augenzeuge" ("The eye-witness"), which was a weekly political newsreel presentation produced by the DEFA, the state-owned film company.
[4] After returning to Berlin in 1958 Dengler became the chief commentator for Deutschlandsender, the country's national radio station, taking the position over from Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler.