Ibrahim Böhme (18 November 1944 in

Bad Dürrenberg Bad Dürrenberg is a spa town in the Saalekreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, approx. 8 km southeast of Merseburg. It is known for its historic graduation tower (for extracting salt from brine), the ...

Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (), also known as Prussian Saxony (), was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merger of various territories ceded ...

– 22 November 1999) was an

East German East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...

politician and

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

informer. Before becoming involved in politics, Böhme had numerous different jobs, including cook, waiter, bricklayer, teacher, and historian. In the late 1980s he was also a

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

advocate associated with the

Initiative for Peace and Human Rights The Initiative for Peace and Human Rights () was the oldest opposition group in East Germany. It was founded on 24 January 1986 and was independent of the churches and state. On 7 February 1990 it joined with New Forum and Democracy Now (East Germ ...

Political career

He was a cofounder of the

Social Democratic Party in the GDR The Social Democratic Party in the GDR () was a reconstituted Social Democratic Party existing during the final phase of East Germany. Slightly less than a year after its creation, it merged with its West German counterpart ahead of German reunif ...

in October 1989, and was elected as its first full-time chairman at the party's first regular congress in January 1990. He led the party to second place in East Germany's first and only free election, on 18 March 1990, and was slated to be a senior minister in the

grand coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political party, political parties of opposing political spectrum, political ideologies unite in a coalition government. Causes of a grand coali ...

led by

Lothar de Maizière Lothar de Maizière (; born 2 March 1940) is a German former politician of the Christian Democratic Union. In 1990, he served as the head of the first and only democratically elected government of East Germany, holding this office during the fi ...

. While coalition talks were underway, the weekly magazine ''

Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'' reported on 24 March 1990 that Böhme had been an informer for the

since 1969. He had infiltrated opposition circles in East Berlin in 1985. Although Böhme denied this, he was forced to resign on 1 April. He was expelled from the Social Democratic Party in 1992 for "serious party-damaging behavior". Böhme was one of many East German citizens discovered to have been Stasi informants during the Communist era, sometimes ruining personal relationships as well as careers. In 1992 a book about Böhme titled ''Comrade Judas: The Two Lives of Ibrahim Böhme'', written by , was published in Germany. Ibrahim Böhme died of heart complications in Neustrelitz on 22 November 1999 at the age of 55. He denied the accusations of him being a

informer up to his death.

Notes

References

Biography: Ibrahim Bohme, 1944-1999

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohme, Ibrahim 1944 births 1999 deaths People from Saalekreis Politicians from the Province of Saxony Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Expelled members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party in the GDR politicians Members of the 10th Volkskammer Stasi informants