Heinz Vietze (born 19 September 1947) is a former German politician and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) and its successors, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and The Left.

A local functionary of the SED in the 1980s, Vietze rose to become the last First Secretary of the Bezirk Potsdam SED during the Peaceful Revolution.

He remained an influential politician of the PDS even after German reunification, being elected to the Landtag of Brandenburg, where he was the longtime whip of his party, and serving as key player of the Brandenburg PDS. At the same time, Vietze stirred controversy especially due to his Stasi collaboration.

Vietze retired from active politics in 2007, being elected chairman of the PDS's Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, a position he left in 2012.

After completing his polytechnic secondary school, he trained from 1964 to 1967 as a lathe operator, as vocational training with Abitur (university entrance qualification).^[1] He became a member of the ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1966,^{[1][2][3][4]: 72} despite the fact his father had left the party in 1952 during its Stalinization.^[4]: 72

Following this, he attended a one-year course for youth functionaries at the FDJ Youth Academy "Wilhelm Pieck" at the Bogensee. From 1968 to 1970, he worked as an employee of the Potsdam FDJ and then served as the Second and later First Secretary of the Potsdam FDJ until 1974.^{[1][2][3][4]: 72} He then studied at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy until 1977, graduating with a diploma in social sciences (Dipl.-Ges.-Wiss.).^[1][2][3]

From 1977 to 1983, he subsequently was the First Secretary of the Bezirk Potsdam FDJ, and from 1984 to 1988, he served as the First Secretary of the SED in Kreis Oranienburg [de], and later in Potsdam in 1988/89.^{[1][2][3][4]: 72 [5][6][7]}

In the Ministry for State Security (MfS), Vietze was registered from May 1972 to May 1975 in his role as secretary of the Potsdam FDJ as a Societal Security Collaborator (GMS).^{[7][8][9][10][11]} This registration ended when Vietze became a full-time employee of the FDJ and SED.^[9] As the Bezirk Potsdam FDJ leader in 1982, he summoned the future Brandenburg Finance Minister Rainer Speer, who was then working in an FDJ cultural center, and forced him to cancel a planned event because church groups were also supposed to participate.^{[6][7][10][12][13]} During his time as an FDJ functionary, Vietze also passed on critical remarks about the GDR made by young people, including their names and addresses, to the Stasi.^[8][9][11]

In 2011, a report prepared for the Enquete Commission for the review of the post-reunification period by the Landtag of Brandenburg concluded that Vietze should have been asked to return his parliamentary mandate during the 1990-1994 legislative period due to his collaboration with the Stasi. The report on the post-reunification Stasi review practices described it as "inexplicable" that Vietze was not even mentioned in the final report of the review commission, which consisted of two church dignitaries, in November 1991.^[8][9]

In September 1989, Vietze stated at a meeting of the Potsdam SED: "If the enemy rises in his trench to directly fight against us, aims sharply, and uses all he has, then in the German Democratic Republic, the discussion about the last leaflet or trench newspaper must stop, and we must talk about who is aiming at this enemy, and with combat power, with class-based positions."^[6][7] Vietze was additionally instrumental in the establishment of camps for GDR dissidents during the GDR era.^[14][13]

On 15 November 1989, the Bezirk Potsdam SED elected him as First Secretary of the Bezirk Potsdam SED,^{[1][2][3][5][7][8][6][13][15]} longtime incumbent Günther Jahn having resigned due to public pressure.^[15] After after his election, Vietze waited for several hours in the Haus am Werderschen Markt, the Central Committee of the SED building, to tell newly elected SED General Secretary Egon Krenz to resign.^[16]

From 1990 to 1991, he was the chairman of the Brandenburg PDS^{[1][2][3][4]: 73 [7]} and a member of the PDS party executive.^[17] From 2004, he was a member of the party executive of Die Linke.PDS.^[1]

From the inaugural 1990 state election, Vietze was a member of his party in the Landtag of Brandenburg and, from October 1990 to September 2007, also served as deputy parliamentary group leader and parliamentary manager (whip) of the state parliament group.^{[1][2][3][4]: 76 [7][9][13]} From October 1999, he was deputy chairman of the main committee of the state parliament, and from October 2004, a member of the state parliament's presidium.^{[1][2][3][4]: 76} From December 2003 to August 2004, he was also chairman of an investigative committee.^[2][7]

He remained influential in the PDS,^{[6][7][8][9][10][13]} being credited with the PDS's successful election campaigns.^[6] At the same time, his Stasi collaboration caused controversy, especially with Brandenburg SPD leader Matthias Platzeck,^[9][10][13] who had been haunted by the Stasi during his time as environmental activist in Potsdam.^[10][13] While Platzeck would eventually form a coalition government with The Left, it was only after Vietze's retirement.^[8] Vietze's leadership in the PDS parliamentary group was additionally described as authoritarian, expelled former parliamentary group member Esther Schröder calling it "SED live".^[10]

After his 60th birthday in September 2007, he resigned from his party offices and took over the chairmanship of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation,^{[1][2][3][4]: 76 [8][13][18]} which is affiliated with the party. In December 2012, Dagmar Enkelmann was elected chairwoman of the foundation, and Vietze did not run again.^[3][19]

Vietze is married and has three children. He lives in Potsdam-Golm,^[2][20] where he served as borough councillor until July 2024.^[21]