Background
Götting was born in Nietleben, Province of Saxony, now part of Halle/Saale.
politician member of the Volkskammer
Götting was born in Nietleben, Province of Saxony, now part of Halle/Saale.
He then spent two years at the Martin Luther University of Halle, where he studied German studies, history and philology.
During World World War II, he served in the Reichsarbeitsdienst, an auxiliary support and supply organization, and later in the Wehrmacht. He was briefly held as a prisoner of war by United States forces in 1945. In 1946, Götting joined the East German Christian Democratic Union, a Christian-democratic party.
During that time, Götting came to hold a number of influential positions within the East German state: from 1949 to 1963, he served as the Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union faction in the People"s Chamber.
From 1958 to 1963 as Deputy Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic. And from 1963 to November 1989 Götting served as Deputy Chairman of the Council of State, a position equivalent in rank to the vice-presidency of the German Democratic Republic. Götting also served as Chairman of the People"s Chamber from 1969 to 1976 and as its Vice-Chairman from 1969 to 1989.
Finally, Götting was elected Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union at its 1966 party congress. Götting held a number of other positions in East German society. He visited with Schweitzer twice, which meetings he recorded and publicized in his book “Begegnungen mit Albert Schweitzer“.
In 1976, Götting was elected Chairman of the People"s Friendship League of the German Democratic Republic. On November 2, 1989, just days before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Götting was forced to resign as Chairman of the Christian Democratic Union. In December Götting was arrested, but released in February 1990.
On May 19, 2015, Götting died in Berlin, aged 91.
In 1949, Götting became General Secretary of the Christian Democratic Union and, after the establishment in the Soviet Zone of the German Democratic Republic (German Democratic Republic), began his career as a member of the People"s Chamber (Volkskammer), the East German legislative body, in which he served for the next forty years. From 1961 to 1969, Götting was Vice-President of the German-African Society, and from 1963 he was a member of the Albert Schweitzer Committee. Five days later he stepped down from his position as a member of the Council of State, too.