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Modrow Government
The Modrow government refers to the final socialist government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was led by Socialist Unity Party (SED) official Hans Modrow from November 1989 until East Germany's first democratically elected government took power on 18 March 1990. Background Spurred on by the liberal policies of Glasnost and Perestroika in the Soviet Union, and Mikhail Gorbachev's apparent tolerance of liberal reforms in other countries in the Warsaw Pact, protests began to spread in the German Democratic Republic in 1989. This culminated in a large increase in citizens escaping from the country during the summer of 1989 after Hungary dismantled its portion of the Iron Curtain. At the same time opposition to the incumbent SED was growing - on 9 October 1989, for example, 70,000 people took part in a demonstration in Leipzig calling for free elections and other democratic rights which had been denied to East German citizens since the founding of the GDR. On 18 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Palace Of The Republic, Berlin
The Palace of the Republic (german: link=no, Palast der Republik) was a building in Berlin that hosted the ''Volkskammer'', the parliament of East Germany, from 1976 to 1990. The Palace of the Republic, also known as the "People's Palace", was located on Museum Island in the Mitte (locality), Mitte area of East Berlin, on the site of the former Berlin Palace between the Lustgarten and Schloßplatz (Berlin), Schlossplatz, near the West Berlin border. The Palast was completed in 1976 to house the ''Volkskammer'', also serving various cultural purposes including two large auditoria, art museum, art galleries, a theatre, a cinema, 13 restaurants, 5 beer halls, a bowling, bowling alley, 4 billiards, pool rooms, a billiards room, a rooftop ice skating rink, skating rink, a private gym with spa, a casino, a medical station, a post office, a police station with an underground cellblock, an indoor basketball court, an indoor swimming pool, private barbershops and Beauty salon, salons, pu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Germany
West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 October 1990. During the Cold War, the western portion of Germany and the associated territory of West Berlin were parts of the Western Bloc. West Germany was formed as a political entity during the Allied occupation of Germany after World War II, established from eleven states formed in the three Allied zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France. The FRG's provisional capital was the city of Bonn, and the Cold War era country is retrospectively designated as the Bonn Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided between the Western and Eastern blocs. Germany was divided into the two countries. Initially, West Germany claimed an exclusive mandate for all of Germany, representing itself as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rainer Eppelmann
Rainer Eppelmann () (born 12 February 1943 in Berlin), is a German politician. Known for his opposition in the German Democratic Republic, he became Minister for Disarmament and Defense in the last cabinet. He is now a member of the CDU. The erection of the Berlin Wall forced him to drop out of the school he had attended in West Berlin in 1961 and he was forbidden from taking his Abitur exams in the East for refusing to join the Free German Youth movement. He then worked as an assistant to a roofer before doing a job training for bricklayer. He is a pacifist. In 1966, for refusing both regular service and '' Bausoldat'' (construction soldier in the National People's Army), he was brutally beaten and arrested by the Stasi, and put into prison for eight months where he was starved, tortured, abused and interrogated. Later, he studied Theology at the theological school in Berlin, an education he completed in 1974 with two exams. He then worked as a Lutheran pastor in Berlin-Fri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Ullmann
Wolfgang Ullmann (18 August 1929 – 30 July 2004) was a German journalist, theologian, politician. Life Wolfgang Ullmann was born in Bad Gottleuba near Dresden. From 1948 to 1954 he studied Protestant theology and also philosophy, first in Berlin and then at the University of Göttingen. Following graduation he returned to East Germany in 1954 and became minister in Colmnitz, Saxony. In 1963 he was appointed lecturer in Church History at Naumburg. From 1978, he was lecturer in Church History at the training centre of the Eastern Region of the then divided Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg in East Berlin. Protected by the Protestant Church in East Germany, opposition movements against the regime in the GDR formed and in 1987 Wolfgang Ullman became a member of one of these group, the “Initiative for the Refusal of Practice and Principle of the Demarcation”. After German reunification in 1990 he was a member of parliament (Bundestag) and from 1994 to 1998 a m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minister Without Portfolio
A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet with decision-making authority wherein a minister without portfolio, while they may not head any particular office or ministry, may still receive a ministerial salary and has the right to cast a vote in cabinet decisions. Albania In Albania, ''"Minister without portfolio"'' are considered members of the government who generally are not in charge of a special department, do not have headquarters or offices and usually do not have administration or staff. This post of was first introduced in 1918, during the Përmeti II government, otherwise known as the Government of Durrës. The members of this cabinet were referred to as ''Delegatë pa portofol'' (delegate without portfolio). The name "minister" was used two years later, during the g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hannelore Mensch
Hannelore Mensch (born Hannelore Bosch; 16 June 1937 in Neu Zachun) is a former East German politician. She served as the German Democratic Republic's Minister for Work and Wages in 1989/90. Life Hannelore Bosch was born in the north of what was then the central part of Germany. Her father was a farmer and she had a rural upbringing. The Second World War started when she was 2 and ended when she was not quite 8, after which her childhood was spent growing up in the Soviet occupation zone in what remained of Germany. While she was 12 the occupation zone became the German Democratic Republic, formally founded in October 1949. Between 1953 and 1956 Hannelore attended an agricultural college in Ludwigslust, emerging with a qualification in Agriculture. In 1958 she took a job as a Planner with MTS Brüsewitz, a state-administered agricultural machinery depot serving the district. From 1958 till 1962 she served as FDJ secretary and as divisional leader with the Schwerin rural di ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wolfgang Schwanitz
Wolfgang Schwanitz (26 June 1930 – 1 February 2022) was a German intelligence official, who was the last head of the Stasi, the East German secret police. It was officially renamed the "Office for National Security" on 17 November 1989. Unlike his predecessor, Erich Mielke, he did not hold the title "Minister of State Security", but held the title of "Leader of the Office for National Security". Following the German reunification, he was active as an author of works that sought to portray the Stasi in a positive light.Karl Wilhelm Fricke: Geschichtsrevisionismus aus MfS-Perspektive', Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, 2006 Career in East Germany Early developments Schwanitz was born in Berlin. He became a member of the Free German Youth when the German Democratic Republic was founded. In 1950, he became a member of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (german: Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Sowjetische Freundschaft), and in 1953, of the Socialist Unity Party of Germ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stasi
The Ministry for State Security, commonly known as the (),An abbreviation of . was the Intelligence agency, state security service of the East Germany from 1950 to 1990. The Stasi's function was similar to the KGB, serving as a means of maintaining state authority, i.e., the "Sword and Shield of the Party" (). This was accomplished primarily through the use of a network of civilian informants. This organization contributed to the arrest of approximately 250,000 people in East Germany. The Stasi also conducted espionage and other clandestine operations abroad through its subordinate foreign intelligence service, the Main Directorate for Reconnaissance, Office of Enlightenment, or Head Office A (german: Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung). They also maintained contacts and occasionally cooperated with West German terrorists. The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with an extensive complex in Lichtenberg (locality), Berlin-Lichtenberg and several smaller facilities throughout the c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Volkspolizei
The ''Deutsche Volkspolizei'' (DVP, German for "German People's Police"), commonly known as the ''Volkspolizei'' or VoPo, was the national police force of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1945 to 1990. The Volkspolizei was a highly- centralized agency responsible for most civilian law enforcement in East Germany, maintaining 257,500 personnel at its peak. History The ''Volkspolizei'' was effectively founded in June 1945 when the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG) established central police forces in the regions of Nazi Germany it occupied following after World War II.Thomas Lindenberger, ‘The German People's Police (1945 - 1990)’, in Hans Ehlert and Rüdiger Wenzke (ed.) ‘In the service of the party - Handbook of Armed Organs of the GDR’ (Berlin, 1998) pp. 98-100 The SVAG approved the arming of community-level police forces on 31 October 1945, but nevertheless remained a non-militarised force, and by 1946 the ''Volkspolizei'' comprised ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Moreth
Peter Moreth (28 July 19414 February 2014) was a German politician of the East German satellite party LDPD. He was a member of the Volkskammer from 1986 to March 1990 and member of the State Council of East Germany from 1986 to November 1989. During the Peaceful Revolution he was a Deputy Chairman of the East German Council of Ministers from November 1989 to March 1990, overseeing local government. During the transition towards German reunification he was briefly the first president of the Treuhand, the organisation entrusted with the privatisation of East Germany's nationally-owned enterprises. Life Moreth was born in Chemnitz on 28 July 1941, during the Second World War. His father was shopkeeper. After leaving school he served an apprenticeship as a bricklayer between 1955 and 1957, followed by another apprenticeship in retailing from 1957 till 1959. He then worked in the retail sector from 1959 to 1968. He completed a correspondence course of business administration at the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lothar De Maizière
Lothar de Maizière (; born 2 March 1940) is a German Christian Democratic politician. In 1990, he served as the only premier of the German Democratic Republic to be democratically elected freely and fairly by the people. He was also the last leader of an independent East Germany. Family background Maizière belongs to a noble family which takes its name from Maizières-lès-Metz who, as Huguenots, fled France for asylum in Prussia in the late 17th century; the Maizière family attended French-language schools and Huguenot churches in Berlin until the beginning of the 20th century. He is a son of the lawyer Clement de Maizière. His uncle Ulrich de Maizière was Inspector General of the ''Bundeswehr'' (the West German Armed Forces). His cousin Thomas de Maizière was a close advisor to Former Chancellor Angela Merkel and served as the Federal Minister of the Interior from 17 December 2013 to 14 March 2018 in Merkel's third cabinet. Early life and education Lothar de Maizièr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerhard Schürer
Gerhard Schürer (14 April 1921 – 22 December 2010) was a leading politician in East Germany. Between 1963 and 1989 he was a member of the powerful Central Committee of the country's ruling SED (party). He also served, between 1965 and 1989, as chairman of the State Planning Commission of East Germany's Council of Ministers. It is one mark of his importance that during the 1980s Schürer lived with his family at House 7 in the Wandlitz residential estate. Wandlitz was the exclusive Berlin enclave where the top party officials lived. House 7 was a large house, with space to accommodate his (at this stage) second wife and seven children. A previous occupant had been Chairman Walter Ulbricht. After reunification, and as the German Democratic Republic receded into history, there were times when he felt able to recall his experiences with greater candour and clarity than others who had known the ruling establishment from the inside. Life Early years Paul Gerhard Sch� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
