In the German Democratic Republic, he emerged as an early expert on environmental policy, eventually leading him to be appointed the GDR's first Environmental Minister.
However, Titel suddenly died under unexplained circumstances shortly afterwards at the age of 40, after the Stasi discovered that Titel had concealed his father's crimes against humanity as SS officer.
In 1949, he became a member of the FDGB (Free German Trade Union Federation) and the FDJ (Free German Youth). Until 1950, he worked as a farm laborer and until 1951 as an agricultural research technician in Frankfurt (Oder).[1]
In May 1963, at the VII. Party Congress of the DBD, he was elected to the presidium of the DBD party executive committee.[1][4] From 1963 to 1966, he was chairman of the Bezirk Frankfurt (Oder) DBD, a member of the Bezirk agricultural council, a Bezirk assembly representative and from 1966 to 1967, a member of the Bezirk government.[1]
From 1966 to 1967, he served as secretary of the DBD party executive committee.[1]
Between October 1967 and September 1968, he led a working group of 21 researchers who presented a 118-page scientific analysis on environmental hazards in the GDR as part of the "Forecast on the Planned Development of Socialist National Culture."[1][7]: 170 The GDR subsequently groomed him as an expert in environmental policy.
When he was about to be appointed the first Environmental Minister of the GDR in 1971,[1][3][8] the Stasi discovered during the appointment process that Titel had concealed in his personnel records that his father had been sentenced to death in 1948 as a former SS officer for crimes against humanity.[3]
When the Stasi then urged the leadership of the DBD to take personnel actions against Titel,[3] he suddenly died under unexplained circumstances at the age of 40.[1][3][5][8]
According to historian Tobias Huff, who published an environmental history of the GDR in 2015, Titel died of a rare heart disease.[7]: 176
He was buried in the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin.[9]Hans Reichelt succeeded him both as Minister for Environmental Protection and Water Management and as the DBD's Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers.[5][8][10]