[5] Subsequently, he became the deputy head of the Department for Agitation and Propaganda of the Central Committee, first working under Horst Sindermann.

[3] In 1966, Felfe joined the Bezirk Halle SED led by Sindermann as the Secretary for Agitation and Propaganda.

Party Congress) a full member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED,[4][5] the de facto highest leadership body in East Germany, Bezirk Halle being an important centre for the chemical industry.

Party Congress, SED Agriculture Secretary Gerhard Grüneberg unexpectedly died of a tumour at age 59.

[5] As Central Committee Secretariat Secretary responsible for Agriculture, he was the most powerful agricultural policymaker in the country[8] and continued the course correction of his predecessor, eliminating the devastating separation between animal and plant production, reducing bureaucracy, and saving resources.

[9] Felfe was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR and the Hero of Labour title in 1988.

The article suggested the autumn of 1989 as the time for the change, presuming that the 40th anniversary of the founding of the GDR would be an appropriate date.

Alongside eventual successor Egon Krenz, Siegfried Lorenz, and Günter Schabowski, Felfe was mentioned as a potential candidate for Honecker's succession in the article.

Just under a month after the article was published, Felfe surprisingly died at the age of 60 due to acute heart failure,[8][12][9] according to official reports in East Berlin, according to another source while hunting near Strasburg (Uckermark).