Career
He served as Director of the Foreign Information Department of the Central Committee of the ruling SED (party). Early years
Manfred Feist was born in 1930, during the economically distressed closing years of the Germany"s Weimar chapter, in the south-inner city (Glaucha) quarter of Halle. Feist"s father, Gotthard, was a shoe maker: his mother Helene worked in a mattress factory.
He attended the Regional Party School in Halle and became a District Leader and instructor with the FDJ. Middle years
He studied law, obtaining a doctorate in 1963.
Between 1966 and 1989 Manfred Feist served, in succession to Werner Lamberz, as Director of the Foreign Information Department of the Central Committee of the ruling SED (party). In 1971 he was nominated as a candidate for membership of the Party Central Committee, and in 1976 he was elected to membership of lieutenant
Feist was also involved in the organisation of the Olof Palme Peace March. Later years
In 1995 Manfred Feist suffered a stroke, after which he was paralysed down one side of his body.
Following a long period of ill-health he died in Berlin on 17 December 2012.
His death was made public only after a delay of more than two weeks, when an announcement was placed in the Berliner Zeitung. Press speculation focused on the question of whether Margot Honecker would return to Germany from her Chilean exile for her younger brother"s funeral. Feist was buried in Cemetery Pankow III in the Berlin-Niederschönhausen district.
