Manfred Gerlach (8 May 1928 – 17 October 2011) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

jurist and politician, and the longtime leader of the

East German East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

Liberal Democratic Party. He served as ''Chairman of the Council of State'' and was thus head of state of East Germany from 6 December 1989 to 5 April 1990.

Early life

Gerlach was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and became a member of the resistance during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

Political career

After the war, he studied law at the German Academy of State Sciences and Law "Walter Ulbricht" from 1951 to 1954. He worked as editor-in-chief of the Liberal-Democratic newspaper in Halle/Saale. In 1964, he earned his doctorate and would become a professor two decades later, in 1984. He was a co-founder of the

Liberal Democratic Party of Germany The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (german: Liberal-Demokratische Partei Deutschlands, LDPD) was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied bloc parties of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in the National Front, it ...

(LDPD) and the Free German Youth (FDJ) in Leipzig. He was the LDPD youth leader of North-West Saxony from 1946 to 1950. From 1947 to 1952 he was also a member of the executive council of the Saxon LDPD from 1947 to 1952. In the 1950s, he was a mayor ''(Bürgermeister and deputy Oberbürgermeister)'' of the city of Leipzig. He served as the LDPD's vice-chairman until 1953. From 1954 to 1967, he was the LDPD's General Secretary. At the LDPD's general party congress of 1967, he was elected as chairman of the LDPD. He remained chairman until 10 February 1990. From 1949 to 1990, Gerlach was a member of the

People's Chamber __NOTOC__ The Volkskammer (, ''People's Chamber'') was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic (colloquially known as East Germany). The Volkskammer was initially the lower house of a bicameral legislature. The upper house w ...

. He was also one of the deputy chairmen of the

Council of State A Council of State is a governmental body in a country, or a subdivision of a country, with a function that varies by jurisdiction. It may be the formal name for the cabinet or it may refer to a non-executive advisory body associated with a head o ...

(''de facto'' Vice-President) from 1960 until 1990. He initially supported the Socialist Unity Party line of ''Gleichschaltung'' of the East German non-communist parties. However, he began to move away from total submissiveness towards the SED in the late 1970s. Under his leadership, the LDPD developed some small scale contacts with its West German counterparts, the Free Democrats (FDP). However, as a state functionary, he defended the nationalisation of the last substantive private enterprises. Gerlach reportedly welcomed the liberalisation in the USSR started by Mikhail Gorbachev. His support for more liberalisation and pluralism in East Germany earned him remarkable popularity; popularity which he, however, lost due to his hesitant attitude during the overthrow of the SED in 1989. On 13 October 1989, Gerlach was the first important East German politician to publicly question the monopolistic role of the SED. A few days later, on 18 October, SED leader

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...

was finally deposed by his own Politburo. After the

Fall of the Berlin Wall The fall of the Berlin Wall (german: Mauerfall) on 9 November 1989, during the Peaceful Revolution, was a pivotal event in world history which marked the destruction of the Berlin Wall and the figurative Iron Curtain and one of the series of eve ...

, Gerlach was elected chairman of the Council of State and thus the first non-communist head of state of the GDR who was not a caretaker. He held this post until April 1990, when the State Council was abolished in a prelude to reunification with West Germany. In March 1990, Gerlach's party and two other liberal parties merged into the new

Association of Free Democrats The Association of Free Democrats (german: Bund Freier Demokraten) was a liberal coalition, later party, formed in East Germany on 12 February 1990. It originally consisted of the Liberal Democratic Party, the Free Democratic Party (GDR) and the ...

, which merged into the West German FDP after reunification. In November 1993, Gerlach resigned his FDP party membership. In politics, his views thereafter became close to those of the Party of Democratic Socialism (the former SED). Gerlach was a signatory of the ''Berliner Alternatives Geschichtsforum'', which promoted more positive views on GDR history. Critics of the former communist regime have described these publications co-authored by former GDR high functionaries (e.g. Gerlach, Gerald Götting,

Hans Modrow Hans Modrow (; born 27 January 1928) is a German politician best known as the last communist premier of East Germany. Taking office in the middle of the Peaceful Revolution, he was the ''de facto'' leader of the country for much of the winter ...

etc.) as whitewashing the SED dictatorship and working on the image of current Germany by using antifascist rhetoric. Gerlach had earned numerous state awards by the GDR, including the

Patriotic Order of Merit The Patriotic Order of Merit (German: ''Vaterländischer Verdienstorden'', or VVO) was a national award granted annually in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). It was founded in 1954 and was awarded to individuals and institutions for outstanding ...

and the

Star of People's Friendship The Star of People's Friendship (german: Stern der Völkerfreundschaft), Star of Nations' Friendship, was an order awarded by the German Democratic Republic German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Ge ...

in 1964 and 1988 and the

Order of Karl Marx The Order of Karl Marx () was the most important order in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The award of the order also included a prize of 20,000 East German marks. The order was founded on May 5, 1953 on the occasion of Karl Marx's 135th ...

in 1988.

Death

On 17 October 2011, Gerlach died, aged 83, in Berlin following a long illness.

References

Bibliography

*Manfred Gerlach: ''Wortmeldungen zur Zeitgeschiche''. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1980 *Manfred Gerlach: ''Äußerungen über uns und unsere Zeit''. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1985 *Manfred Gerlach: ''Standortbestimmung''. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1989 *Manfred Gerlach: ''Mitverantwortlich: Als Liberaler im SED-Staat''. Morgenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1991, * David Childs, The GDR: Moscow's German Ally,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

: George Allen & Unwin 1984

External links