1.
Leadership of East Germany
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The political leadership of East Germany was in the hands of several offices. Prior the proclamation of an East German state, the Soviets established in 1948 the German Economic Commission as a de facto government in their occupation zone. On 7 October 1949 an East German state, called the German Democratic Republic, was proclaimed, for most of its existence, the most important position in the GDR was that of the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party. The Communist party and its leader held ultimate power and authority over state, the formal head of state originally was the President of the German Democratic Republic. After the death of incumbent Wilhelm Pieck in 1960, the office was replaced by a head of state. The position of chairman was commonly held by the party leader, government was headed by the Council of Ministers and its chairman, sometimes colloquially called Prime Minister. The Council was composed exclusively of members of the SEDs Central Committee and Politburo, hence, the partys subsequent leaders were no more leaders of East Germany than the leaders of other parties. List of German monarchs President of Germany President of Germany List of German presidents Chancellor of Germany List of Chancellors of Germany World Statesmen – East Germany
2.
East Germany
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East Germany, formally the German Democratic Republic, was an Eastern Bloc state during the Cold War period. The Soviet zone surrounded West Berlin, but did not include it, as a result, the German Democratic Republic was established in the Soviet Zone, while the Federal Republic was established in the three western zones. East Germany, which lies culturally in Central Germany, was a state of the Soviet Union. Soviet occupation authorities began transferring administrative responsibility to German communist leaders in 1948, Soviet forces, however, remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Until 1989, the GDR was governed by the Socialist Unity Party, though other parties participated in its alliance organisation. The economy was centrally planned, and increasingly state-owned, prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners, rather than rising and falling through supply and demand. Although the GDR had to pay war reparations to the USSR. Nonetheless it did not match the growth of West Germany. Emigration to the West was a significant problem—as many of the emigrants were well-educated young people, the government fortified its western borders and, in 1961, built the Berlin Wall. Many people attempting to flee were killed by guards or booby traps. In 1989, numerous social and political forces in the GDR and abroad led to the fall of the Berlin Wall, the following year open elections were held, and international negotiations led to the signing of the Final Settlement treaty on the status and borders of Germany. The GDR was dissolved and Germany was unified on 3 October 1990, internally, the GDR also bordered the Soviet sector of Allied-occupied Berlin known as East Berlin which was also administered as the states de facto capital. It also bordered the three sectors occupied by the United States, United Kingdom and France known collectively as West Berlin. The three sectors occupied by the Western nations were sealed off from the rest of the GDR by the Berlin Wall from its construction in 1961 until it was brought down in 1989, the official name was Deutsche Demokratische Republik, usually abbreviated to DDR. West Germans, the media and statesmen purposely avoided the official name and its abbreviation, instead using terms like Ostzone, Sowjetische Besatzungszone. The centre of power in East Berlin was referred to as Pankow. Over time, however, the abbreviation DDR was also used colloquially by West Germans. However, this use was not always consistent, for example, before World War II, Ostdeutschland was used to describe all the territories east of the Elbe, as reflected in the works of sociologist Max Weber and political theorist Carl Schmitt
3.
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl
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Sabine Bergmann-Pohl is a German doctor and politician. A member of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, she was president of the Peoples Chamber of East Germany from April to October 1990, as such, she served as acting head of state of East Germany until its merger into West Germany in October. After the reunification of Germany, she served in the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl was born in Eisenach, Thuringia. After leaving school in 1964, Bergmann-Pohl was initially not admitted to university, in 1966, she began to study medicine and graduated in 1972 with a diploma in medicine. From 1979, she worked as a lung specialist and in 1980 earned a medical doctorate, from 1980 to 1985, she was medical director of the polyclinic department for lung diseases, and tuberculosis in Berlin-Friedrichshain. From 1985 to 1990, she was Medical Director at the District Office for lung diseases, since 1990 Bergmann-Pohl has been the Patron of the General Disabled Persons in Germany and since 2003 President of the Berlin Red Cross. Also since 2003 she has been a member of the Presidium of the International Federation and has been a president since 2007. In 1981, she joined the CDU, one of the parties of the GDR. In the general election of March 1990, the free election ever held in East Germany, she was elected to the Peoples Chamber. On the same day, parliament also abolished the State Council, after the 1990 all-German election, she was appointed Parliamentary Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Health on 18 January 1991. Following her partys defeat in the 1998 election, she departed from the government on 26 October 1998, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl is married and has two children. Dissertation Academy for Medical Training of East Berlin,1981, Berlin-Karow,1976, looking back at the year of the Unification. Ullstein, Berlin - Frankfurt/Main,1991 ISBN 3-550-07802-1 Sabine Bergmann-Pohl & Paul B, the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Berlin 2007 ISBN 978-3-939826-46-0 Profile at Bundestag. de
4.
Hans Modrow
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Hans Modrow is a German politician, best known as the last communist premier of East Germany. He currently is the honorary Chairman of the Left Party, Modrow was born in Jasenitz, Province of Pomerania, Germany, now Jasienica part of the town of Police, Poland. He briefly served in the Volkssturm, founded in 1944 by Adolf Hitler and was held as a prisoner of war. Upon release in 1949, he joined the Socialist Unity Party, Modrow had a long political career in East Germany, including periods as a member of the Volkskammer. From 1973 onward, he was the SED leader in Dresden, Modrow was prevented from rising any further than a local party boss, largely because he was one of the few SED leaders who dared to publicly criticise longtime SED chief Erich Honecker. Nonetheless, he developed some important contacts with the Soviet Union, when Honecker was toppled in October 1989, Gorbachev hoped that Modrow would become the new leader of the SED. However, Egon Krenz was selected instead and he became premier following the resignation of Willi Stoph on 18 November 1989. After Krenzs resignation as leader of the SED on 3 December, the SED, which later changed its name to the Party of Democratic Socialism, had abandoned power two days earlier. Modrow remained premier until the elections on 18 March 1990, after the German reunification, Modrow served as a member of the European Parliament and of the Bundestag. The judge declined to impose a sentence or a fine. However, the court revoked its decision in 1995 and Modrow was sentenced to nine months on probation, Modrow did not directly deny the charges, but argued that the trial was politically motivated and that the court lacked jurisdiction for crimes committed in East Germany. We were all members of a system, he said. Some perhaps had the good fortune not to come into contact with manipulation, while others could not or were not allowed to turn away
5.
Helmut Kohl
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Helmut Josef Michael Kohl is a German statesman, who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and as the chairman of the Christian Democratic Union from 1973 to 1998. From 1969 to 1976, Kohl was the 3rd Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate, Kohls 16-year tenure was the longest of any German Chancellor since Otto von Bismarck, and by far the longest of any democratically elected Chancellor. Kohl oversaw the end of the Cold War, and is regarded as the main architect of the German reunification. Together with French President François Mitterrand, Kohl is also considered to be the architect of the Maastricht Treaty, which established the European Union. Kohl has been described as the greatest European leader of the half of the 20th century by U. S. Presidents George H. W. Bush. With the death of Helmut Schmidt in November 2015, he became the oldest living former German chancellor, Helmut Kohl was born on 3 April 1930 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Germany, the third child of Hans Kohl, a civil servant, and his wife, Cäcilie. Kohls family was conservative and Roman Catholic, and remained loyal to the Catholic Centre Party before and his older brother died in the Second World War as a teenage soldier. At the age of ten, Kohl was obliged, like any child in Germany at the time, to join the Deutsches Jungvolk, a section of the Hitler Youth. Aged 15, on 20 April 1945, Adolf Hitlers birthday, Kohl was sworn in to the Hitler Youth by leader Artur Axmann at Berchtesgaden, just days before the end of the war. Kohl was also drafted for service in 1945, however, he was not involved in any combat. Kohl attended the Ruprecht Elementary School, and continued at the Max-Planck-Gymnasium, after graduating in 1950, Kohl began to study law in Frankfurt am Main, spending two semesters commuting between Ludwigshafen and Frankfurt. Here, Kohl heard lectures from Carlo Schmid and Walter Hallstein among others, in 1951, Kohl switched to the University of Heidelberg, where he majored in History and Political Science. Kohl was the first in his family to attend university, after graduating in 1956, Kohl became a fellow at the Alfred Weber Institute of the University of Heidelberg under Dolf Sternberger where he was an active member of the student society AIESEC. In 1958, Kohl received his degree for his thesis The Political Developments in the Palatinate. After that, Kohl entered business, first as an assistant to the director of a foundry in Ludwigshafen and, in April 1960, as a manager for the Industrial Union for Chemistry in Ludwigshafen. In 1960, Kohl married Hannelore Renner, after he had asked for her hand in marriage in 1953. Both had known each other since 1948, when met in a dancing class. They had two sons, born in 1963 and 1965, in 1946, Kohl joined the recently founded CDU, becoming a full member once he turned 18 in 1948
6.
Chancellor of Germany
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The Chancellor of Germany is the head of government of Germany. The official title in German is Bundeskanzler, sometimes shortened to Kanzler, the term, dating from the early Middle Ages, is derived from the Latin term cancellarius. In German politics, the Chancellor is equivalent to that of a minister in many other countries. German has two equivalent translations of prime minister, Premierminister and Ministerpräsident, while Premierminister usually refers to heads of governments of foreign countries, Ministerpräsident may also refer to the heads of government of most German states. The current Chancellor is Angela Merkel, who is serving her term in office. She is the first female chancellor, thus being known in German as Bundeskanzlerin, the role of the Chancellor has varied greatly throughout Germanys modern history. Today, the Chancellor is the effective leader. The office of Chancellor has a history, stemming back to the Holy Roman Empire. The title was, at times, used in several states of German-speaking Europe, the modern office of Chancellor was established with the North German Confederation, of which Otto von Bismarck became Chancellor in 1867. After the Unification of Germany in 1871, the became known in German as Reichskanzler. With Germanys constitution of 1949, the title Bundeskanzler was revived in German, during the various eras, the role of the Chancellor has varied. From 1871 to 1918, the Chancellor was only responsible to the Emperor, with the founding of the republic and the constitutional reform in 1918, the Parliament was granted the right to dismiss the Reichskanzler. According to the Weimar Constitution of 1919, the Chancellor was appointed by the President and responsible to Parliament, when the Nazis came to power on 30 January 1933, the Weimar Constitution was de facto set aside. After the death of President Hindenburg in 1934, Adolf Hitler, the 1949 constitution gave the Chancellor much greater powers than during the Weimar Republic, while strongly diminishing the role of the President. Since 1867,33 individuals have served as heads of government of Germany or its predecessor, due to his administrative tasks, the head of the clerics at the chapel of an Imperial palace during the Carolingian Empire was called Chancellor. The chapels college acted as the Emperors chancery issuing deeds and capitularies and these three Prince-Archbishops were also Prince-electors of the Empire electing the King of the Romans. Already in medieval times, the German Chancellor had political power like Archbishop Willigis or Rainald von Dassel under Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. In 1559, Emperor Ferdinand I established the agency of an Imperial chancellery at the Vienna Hofburg Palace, upon the 1620 Battle of White Mountain, Emperor Ferdinand II created the office of an Austrian Court Chancellor in charge of the internal and foreign affairs of the Habsburg Monarchy
7.
Egon Krenz
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Egon Rudi Ernst Krenz is a former East German politician who was the last communist leader of East Germany during the final months of 1989. He succeeded Erich Honecker as the General Secretary of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany, throughout his career, Krenz held a number of prominent positions in the SED. He was Honeckers deputy from 1984 onward, until he succeeded him in 1989 amid protests against the regime, Krenz was unsuccessful in his attempt to retain the communist regimes grip on power, and was forced to resign some weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall. After German reunification in 1990 he was sentenced to six and a half years in prison for manslaughter and he retired to the small town of Dierhagen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern upon his release from prison in late 2003. Krenz was born in Kolberg in what was part of Germany and his family resettled in Damgarten in 1944. After serving in the Volksarmee, Krenz joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany in 1955, throughout his career, Krenz held a number of posts in the SED and the communist government. He was leader of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation from 1971 to 1974 and he was also a member of the Peoples Chamber from 1971 to 1990, and a member of its presidium from 1971 to 1981. Between 1974 and 1983, he was leader of the communist youth movement, from 1981 to 1984 he was a member of the Council of State. In 1983 he joined the Politburo and became a secretary of the committee with responsibility for security. He rose to prominence when he became Honeckers deputy on the Council of State in 1984. Around the same time, he replaced Paul Verner as the unofficial number-two man in the SED leadership, although he was the youngest member of the Politburo, speculation abounded that Honecker had tapped him as his heir apparent. Krenz had been approached several months earlier about ousting Honecker, but was reluctant to move against a man he called my foster father and political teacher. He was initially willing to wait until the seriously ill Honecker died, despite many protests, the Peoples Chamber elected Krenz to both of Honeckers major state posts—Chairman of the Council of State and Chairman of the National Defence Council. For only the time in the Peoples Chambers forty-year history. In his first address as leader, Krenz promised democratic reforms, for instance, they still remembered that after the Tiananmen Square massacre, he had gone to China to thank Deng Xiaoping on behalf of the regime. For this and other reasons, Krenz was almost as detested as Honecker had been, indeed, almost as soon as he took power, thousands of East Germans took to the streets to demand his resignation. Also on the day he took office, Krenz received a top secret report from planning chief Gerhard Schürer that showed the depths of East Germanys economic crisis. It showed that East Germany did not have money to make payments on the massive foreign loans that propped up the economy
8.
Manfred Gerlach
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Manfred Gerlach was a German jurist and politician. He served as Chairman of the Council of State and was head of state of East Germany from 6 December 1989 to 5 April 1990. Gerlach was born in Leipzig and became a member of the resistance during World War II, in 1943, he founded an illegal anti-fascist youth movement. He was arrested in March 1944 in connection with the plot to assassinate Hitler, after the war, he studied law at the German Academy of State Sciences and Law Walter Ulbricht from 1951-54. 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 and he was the LDPD youth leader of North-West Saxony from 1946-50. From 1947-52 He was also a member of the council of the Saxon LDPD from 1947-52. In the 1950s, he was a mayor of the city of Leipzig and he served as the LDPDs Vice-Chairman until 1953. From 1954-67, he was the LDPDs General Secretary, at the LDPDs 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 Peoples Chamber. He was also one of the Deputy Chairmen of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic from 1960 until 1990 and 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. However, as a functionary, he defended the nationalisation of the last substantive private enterprises. Gerlach reportedly welcomed the liberalisation in the USSR started by Mikhail Gorbachev, 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 was finally deposed by his own Politburo. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Gerlach was elected Chairman of the Council of State and he held this post until April 1990, when the State Council was abolished in a prelude to reunification with West Germany. In March 1990, Gerlachs party and two liberal parties merged into the new Association of Free Democrats, 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
9.
Alfred Neumann (East Germany)
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Alfred Ali Neumann was a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, and for a short time, he was East German Minister of Materials Management. Neumann was born in Berlin-Schöneberg and completed training as a joiner, in 1919, he joined the workers sport club Fichte, which in 1928 became a member of the Fighting Community for Red Sport Unity. Neumann became a member of the Communist Party of Germany in 1929, and in 1930, in 1933-1934 he worked together with Karl Maron illegally – for Hitler had come to power by now – for the KG. In 1934, he emigrated through Sweden and Finland to the USSR, in 1938, he was expelled from the Soviet Union as he had no Soviet citizenship, and he went to Spain where he participated in the Spanish Civil War as a member of the International Brigades. In February 1945, he was transferred from Brandenburg-Görden Prison to the Dirlewanger SS penal battalion and he became a Soviet prisoner of war, however, and stayed until 1947 in several prison camps. After his return to Germany, he joined the Socialist Unity Party and was an administrative staffer and an SED functionary at the district level in Berlin. From 1949, Neumann was a representative in the Volkskammer, from 1954 a member of the Central Committee and candidate, and from February 1958 a member of the SED Central Committees Politburo. From 1957 to 1961, he was SED Central Committee Secretary, from 1961 to 1965 chairman of the Peoples Economic Council, and from 1965 to 1968 Minister of Materials Management. From 1962, he was a member of the Presidium of the Council of Ministers, Neumann played an important role in the initiation and implementation of the New Economic System. Erich Honecker would never forget this, Neumann was until the end an uncomfortable antagonist to Honecker, but this was never used in public against him. In 1989, in East Germanys dying days, Neumann went back to join the Council of Ministers and was excluded from the Politburo and he was also excluded from the SED/PDS in 1990. From 1992 he faced accusations of manslaughter and bodily harm on the border for his membership in the East German National Defence Council. The 23rd Penal Chamber of the Berlin State Court, however, Neumann received in 1956 and 1964 the Fatherland Order of Merit and in 1984 the Order of Karl Marx. Arbeit für den Sozialismus, selected speeches, Berlin 1979 Die DDR stärken - den Frieden sichern, selected speeches, Berlin 1984 S. Prokop, S. Prokop im Gespräch mit Alfred Neumann, Frankfurt an der Oder 1996 Alfred Neumann in the German National Library catalogue
10.
Friedrich Bohl
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Friedrich Bohl is a former German politician. From 1991 to 1998 he was the chief of the Federal Chancellery and he was the member of Fourth Kohl cabinet and Fifth Kohl cabinet. He succeeded Rudolf Seiters on 26 November 1991, Bohl was born in Rosdorf on March 5,1945. He graduated in law at the University of Marburg in 1964 and he finished the first and second legal state examination in 1969 and 1972 respectively. He was also an associate at the Institute for Commercial. He started practising as a lawyer from 1972 and he was ordered to notary in January 1999. From 1998 to March 31,2009 Bohl was on the Executive Board of Deutsche Vermögensberatung responsible for the areas of Group Secretariat, public relations, associations, since March 31,2009 he is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Vermögensberatung. He became a member of the CDUs youth union in 1964, from 1978 to 2002 he was the chairman of CDUs Marburg-Biedenkopf district association. He was a member of Bundestag from 1980 to 2002, from 1970 to 1980 he was a member of Hesse Landtag and was the deputy chairman of the places CDU association from 1978 to 1980. From 25 May to 26 October 1998 he was the head of the Press, after the 1998 election he resigned from the federal government on 26 October 1998. He had also been member of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Bureau of the European Union of Germany and he also served as the first parliamentary secretary of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. From 26 November 1991 to 26 October 1998 he served as the Federal Minister for Special Tasks and he was alleged to have destroyed files related to the party funding scandal during his tenure as the chief of the Federal chancellery. At that time he had taken the responsibility but denied that he had ordered to destroy the documents. No evidences were found against him in the matter and he has served as the chairman of the supervisory board of the company Hessian craft AG. He was regarded as one of the closest confidants of then-Chancellor of Germany Helmut Kohl, in December 2013 he was unanimously elected the chairman of the Joint Board of the Max Planck Institute for Heart and Lung Research and the William G. Kerckhoff Foundation. Bundeskanzleramtschefs im vereinten Deutschland, Friedrich Bohl, Frank-Walter Steinmeier und Thomas de Maizière im Vergleich
11.
Nordhausen
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Nordhausen is a city in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Nordhausen district and the centre of northern Thuringia. Nordhausen is located approximately 60 km N of Erfurt,80 km W of Halle,85 km S of Braunschweig and 60 km E of Göttingen. Nordhausen was first mentioned in records in the year 927 and became one of the most important cities in central Germany during the later Middle Ages. The city is situated at Zorge river, a tributary of the Helme within the region of Goldene Aue at the southern edge of the Harz mountains. In the early 13th century, it became an imperial city, so that it was an independent. Due to its trade, Nordhausen was prosperous and influential. It was the third-largest city in Thuringia after Erfurt, todays capital, and Mühlhausen, Nordhausen was once known for its tobacco industry and is still known for its distilled spirit, Nordhäuser Doppelkorn. Industrialization accompanied railway construction that linked the cities to major markets in the mid-19th century, in the late 19th century, narrow-gauge railways were constructed in this region through the Harz mountains. In December 1898 the Nordhausen-Wernigerode Railway Company or NWE added a line, the Harz Narrow Gauge Railways are maintained today by local authorities and frequented primarily by tourists. In the early 20th century, this became a center of the engineering, during World War II, the Nazi German government established and operated the nearby KZ Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, where 60,000 forced labourers had to work in the arms industry. They were prisoners of war and persons from occupied territories, some 20,000 persons died because of the bad conditions. In April 1945, most of the city was destroyed by Royal Air Force bombings, most of the historic buildings of the city were destroyed, it suffered the most damage during the war of any city in Thuringia. A week later the United States troops occupied the city, followed later by the Soviet Red Army. The city was within the Soviet zone of occupation, and later the territory was known as East Germany, hundreds of German scientists and their families from Nordhausen were among thousands deported to the Soviet Union after the war to work on advanced rocket and other arms engineering projects. Nordhausen is the birthplace of the famous mathematician Oswald Teichmüller, known for his work on the Teichmüller spaces – which were named after him. It is the site of the Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences, the Franks colonized the area around Nordhausen about 800, many place names here have a Frankish origin, discernible by the suffix -hausen. Nordhausen itself is first mentioned in a 13 May 927 document of King Henry the Fowler and he built a castle here, which is traceable between 910 and 1277 and became a centre of the empire during the 10th century
12.
Province of Saxony
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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 1945. The majority of population was Protestant, with a Catholic minority considered part of the diocese of Paderborn, the province sent 20 members to the Reichstag and 38 delegates to the Prussian House of Representatives. The Province of Saxony was one of the richest regions of Prussia with highly developed agriculture, in 1932 the province was enlarged with the addition of the regions around Ilfeld and Elbingerode, which had previously been part of the Province of Hanover. On 1 July 1944, the Province of Saxony was divided along the lines of its three administrative regions, the Erfurt Regierungsbezirk was merged with the Herrschaft Schmalkalden district of the Province of Hesse-Nassau and given to the state of Thuringia. The Magdeburg Regierungsbezirk became the Province of Magdeburg, and the Merseburg Regierungsbezirk became the Province of Halle-Merseburg, in 1945, the Soviet military administration combined Magdeburg and Halle-Merseburg with the State of Anhalt into the Province of Saxony-Anhalt, with Halle as its capital. The eastern part of the Blankenburg exclave of Brunswick and the Thuringian exclave of Allstedt were also added to Saxony-Anhalt, in 1947, Saxony-Anhalt became a state. Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt were abolished in 1952, but were recreated after the reunification of Germany in 1990 with some border changes as modern states of Germany. Also territories around Torgau, where was part of Saxony-Anhalt between 1945 and 1952, was passed to Saxony, prior to 1944, the province of Saxony was divided into three Regierungsbezirke. In 1945, only the provinces of Magdeburg and Halle-Merseburg were re-merged, Urban districts Aschersleben Burg bei Magdeburg Halberstadt Magdeburg Quedlinburg Stendal Rural districts Calbe a. /S. Gardelegen Haldensleben Jerichow I Jerichow II Oschersleben Osterburg Quedlinburg Salzwedel Stendal Wanzleben Wernigerode Wolmirstedt Urban districts Eisleben Halle a. d, jacobs, Geschichte der in der preussischen Provinz Sachsen vereinigten Gebiete, Gotha,1884. Die Provinz Sachsen in Wort und Bild, Berlin,1900, further information Administrative subdivision and population breakdown of Saxony province, 1900/1910
13.
Free State of Prussia
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The Free State of Prussia was a German state formed after the abolition of the Kingdom of Prussia in the aftermath of the First World War. It was the state of the German Reich during the time of the Weimar Republic, comprising almost 5⁄8 of its territory. Free state is another German term for republic that was coined in contrast to the Latin word, the democratic Free State of Prussia was rendered incapacitated when it was taken over by the Preußenschlag of 1932–33 and Otto Braun was forced from office. His government went to court over this ouster, but in 1933 the Nazi regime seized control of the Prussian government, from 1933, the Free State was deprived of parliamentary democracy and ruled exclusively under the leadership of the National Socialist German Workers Party. Initially, Prussia was administered by high-ranking Nazi Hermann Göring who was appointed Minister-President of Prussia, after the end of World War II Otto Braun approached US officials to reinstate the legal Prussian government. They and the other Allied Occupation forces, who had occupied all of Germany, were opposed to the idea, except for its overseas colonies, Alsace-Lorraine and the Bavarian portion of the Saargebiet, all German territorial losses as a result of World War I were Prussian losses. As specified in the Treaty of Versailles, the kingdom lost territory to Belgium, Denmark. The Saargebiet was administered by the League of Nations until 1935, the Rhine Province became a demilitarised zone. The bulk of Prussias losses were to Poland, including most of the provinces of Posen and West Prussia, Danzig was placed under the administration of the League of Nations as the Free City of Danzig. These losses separated East Prussia from the rest of the country, in particular, it was thought that the French would seek to annex the Rhineland. Both the Reich and Prussian governments in Berlin were dominated by traditionalist sentiment, essentially, apart from its territorial losses and having its government placed on a democratic footing, Prussia continued unchanged. It remained by far the largest state of the Reich, with more territory, during the 500 years of Hohenzollern rule, Prussia had been synonymous with authoritarianism. In contrast, Prussia was a bulwark of democracy during the Weimar Republic, the restrictive Prussian three-class franchise was abolished shortly after Kaiser William II abdicated. Power now passed from the Junker landowners and great industrialists to Red Berlin, Prussia now became a stronghold of the left. From 1919 to 1932, Prussia was governed by a coalition of the Social Democrats, Catholic Centre, unlike in other states of the German Reich, majority rule by democratic parties in Prussia was never endangered. Otto Braun, a Social Democrat from East Prussia, served as Prussian minister-president almost continuously from 1920 to 1932. A capable leader, he implemented several trend-setting reforms together with his minister of the interior, Carl Severing, for instance, a Prussian minister-president could be forced out of office only if there was a positive majority for a potential successor. This concept, known as the vote of no confidence, was carried over into the Basic Law of the FRG
14.
Nazi Germany
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Nazi Germany is the common English name for the period in German history from 1933 to 1945, when Germany was governed by a dictatorship under the control of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Under Hitlers rule, Germany was transformed into a fascist state in which the Nazi Party took totalitarian control over all aspects of life. The official name of the state was Deutsches Reich from 1933 to 1943, the period is also known under the names the Third Reich and the National Socialist Period. The Nazi regime came to an end after the Allied Powers defeated Germany in May 1945, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany by the President of the Weimar Republic Paul von Hindenburg on 30 January 1933. The Nazi Party then began to eliminate all opposition and consolidate its power. Hindenburg died on 2 August 1934, and Hitler became dictator of Germany by merging the powers and offices of the Chancellery, a national referendum held 19 August 1934 confirmed Hitler as sole Führer of Germany. All power was centralised in Hitlers person, and his word became above all laws, the government was not a coordinated, co-operating body, but a collection of factions struggling for power and Hitlers favour. In the midst of the Great Depression, the Nazis restored economic stability and ended mass unemployment using heavy military spending, extensive public works were undertaken, including the construction of Autobahnen. The return to economic stability boosted the regimes popularity, racism, especially antisemitism, was a central feature of the regime. The Germanic peoples were considered by the Nazis to be the purest branch of the Aryan race, millions of Jews and other peoples deemed undesirable by the state were murdered in the Holocaust. Opposition to Hitlers rule was ruthlessly suppressed, members of the liberal, socialist, and communist opposition were killed, imprisoned, or exiled. The Christian churches were also oppressed, with many leaders imprisoned, education focused on racial biology, population policy, and fitness for military service. Career and educational opportunities for women were curtailed, recreation and tourism were organised via the Strength Through Joy program, and the 1936 Summer Olympics showcased the Third Reich on the international stage. Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels made effective use of film, mass rallies, the government controlled artistic expression, promoting specific art forms and banning or discouraging others. Beginning in the late 1930s, Nazi Germany made increasingly aggressive territorial demands and it seized Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1938 and 1939. Hitler made a pact with Joseph Stalin and invaded Poland in September 1939. In alliance with Italy and smaller Axis powers, Germany conquered most of Europe by 1940, reichskommissariats took control of conquered areas, and a German administration was established in what was left of Poland. Jews and others deemed undesirable were imprisoned, murdered in Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps, following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the tide gradually turned against the Nazis, who suffered major military defeats in 1943
15.
Christian Democratic Union (East Germany)
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The Christian Democratic Union of Germany was an East German political party founded in 1945. It was part of the National Front with the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and it contested the free elections in 1990 as an arm of the West German Christian Democratic Union, into which it merged after German reunification later that same year. The CDU was originally similar to its West German counterpart. Like the West German CDU, its support mostly from devout middle class Christians. However, it was a little more left-leaning than the West German CDU and its first chairman was Andreas Hermes, who had been a prominent member of the Centre Party during the Weimar Republic and a three-time minister. He fled to the West in 1946 and was replaced by Jakob Kaiser, another former Centre Party member, Kaiser had been a prominent member of the Centres left wing, and favoured nationalisation of heavy industries and a land distribution program suggested by the Communists. However, his criticism of the Communists resulted in him being pushed out in 1947 in favour of the more pliant Otto Nuschke, Nuschke and his supporters gradually pushed out those CDU members who were not willing to do the Communists bidding. This culminated at the Sixth Party Congress in 1952, at which it transformed itself into a loyal partner of the Communists. At this gathering, it declared itself a Socialist party without any limitations in accordance with the new line of Christian realism, in the 22 Theses on Christian Realism, the CDU committed itself to the Socialist reorganisation of Society. Its deputies, like all other East German parties, consistently voted for the government proposals in the Volkskammer, the only exception was the March 9,1972 vote on the abortion law, when there were 14 nays and 8 absentees among the CDU deputies. After Nuschkes death, August Bach, another former DDP member, in 1966 longtime general secretary Gerald Götting was elected chairman. Götting, who was chairman of the Volkskammer from 1969 to 1976, carried on, Götting remained chairman and an SED ally until Erich Honecker was deposed in favour of Egon Krenz in October 1989. On 2 November 1989, Götting was deposed by inner party reformers, in December 1989 Lothar de Maizière, a lawyer and deputy chairman of the Evangelical Church Synod of East Germany, was elected chairman. From that point on the party deposed its former top figures, in March 1990, the CDU became the main element of the Alliance for Germany, a centre-right coalition. It won the first free elections and became the biggest party in the Peoples Chamber. In April de Maizìere became Prime Minister of the GDR, heading a coalition that immediately set about reuniting the country with the West. In August 1990, the Democratic Awakening, a member of the governing coalition. The merger brought Democratic Awakening spokeswoman and future Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel into the party, in October 1990, the East German CDU merged into the West German CDU
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Christian Democratic Union of Germany
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The Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and liberal-conservative political party in Germany. It is the major party of the centre-right in German politics. The CDU forms the CDU/CSU grouping, also known as the Union, the leader of the CDU, Angela Merkel, is the current Chancellor of Germany. The CDU is a member of the Centrist Democrat International, International Democrat Union, immediately following the collapse of the Nazi dictatorship at the end of World War II, the need for a new political order in Germany was paramount. Simultaneous yet unrelated meetings began occurring throughout Germany, each with the intention of planning a Christian-democratic party, the Christlich-Demokratische Union was established in Berlin on 26 June 1945, and in Rheinland and Westfalen in September of the same year. The founding members of the CDU consisted primarily of members of the Centre Party, German Democratic Party, German National Peoples Party. In the Cold War years, after World War II up to the 1960s, a prominent anti-Nazi member was theologian Eugen Gerstenmaier who became Acting Chairman of the Foreign Board. One of the lessons learned from the failure of the Weimar Republic was that disunity among the parties ultimately allowed for the rise of the Nazi Party. It was therefore crucial to create a party of Christian Democrats – a Christian Democratic Union. The result of meetings was the establishment of an inter-confessional party influenced heavily by the political tradition of liberal conservatism. The latter was more nationalist and sought German reunification, even at the expense of concessions to the Soviet Union, the Western powers appreciated the CDUs moderation, its economic flexibility and its value as an oppositional force to the Communists, which appealed to European voters at the time. Also, Adenauer was trusted by the British, the party was split over issues of rearmament within the Western alliance and German unification as a neutral state. Adenauer staunchly defended his position and outmanoeuvred some of his opponents. He also refused to consider the SPD as a party of the coalition until he felt sure that they shared his anti-Communist position, the CDU was the dominant party for the first two decades following the establishment of West Germany in 1949. Konrad Adenauer remained the leader until 1963, at which point the former minister of economics Ludwig Erhard replaced him. As the Free Democratic Party withdrew from the coalition in 1966 due to disagreements over fiscal and economic policy. Consequently, a coalition with the SPD took over government under CDU Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger. The CDU continued its role as opposition until 1982, when the FDP’s withdrawal from the coalition with the SPD allowed the CDU to regain power, CDU Chairman Helmut Kohl became the new Chancellor of West Germany and his CDU-FDP coalition was confirmed in the 1983 federal election
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Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
18.
Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster
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The Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster, located in suburban Schmargendorf, Berlin, is an independent school with a humanistic profile, known as one of the most prestigious schools in Germany. In 1963 the Evangelisches Gymnasium of West Berlin adopted its traditions, the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster is one of the last schools in Berlin offering the entire range of classical education with Latin and Ancient Greek as compulsory subjects. The students learn foreign languages in order, English, Latin, Ancient Greek. Additionally, it is possible to learn Hebrew and Dutch, the debating society deserves particular mention as members of the society have won several Jugend debattiert student competitions over the last years. The premises were centered around the Gothic abbey church dating from the 13th century, after the ancient schools buildings had been destroyed by Allied air raids in 1945, the original school moved several times. This found a new home in Schmargendorf in 1954, in 1958 the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster was officially abolished by the Communist authorities, and in 1963 the Evangelisches Gymnasium adopted its traditions and name. The remnants of the schools library, including donations by Sigismund Streit. Bewährungsproben einer Berliner Gymnasialtradition in ihrem vierten Jahrhundert, diterich, M. Berlinische Kloster- und Schulhistorie. Ausgabe von Johannes Saltzwedel Digitalisat Canisius-Kolleg Berlin Education in Germany Gymnasium Graues Kloster Website Sponsoring Society Graues Kloster Mitte
19.
Humboldt University of Berlin
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The Humboldt university model has strongly influenced other European and Western universities. In 1949, it changed its name to Humboldt-Universität in honour of both its founder Wilhelm and his brother, geographer Alexander von Humboldt. The first semester at the newly founded Berlin university occurred in 1810 with 256 students and 52 lecturers in faculties of law, medicine, theology, du Bois and European unifier Robert Schuman, as well as the influential surgeon Johann Friedrich Dieffenbach in the early half of the 1800s. The structure of German research-intensive universities, such as Humboldt, served as a model for institutions like Johns Hopkins University, Alexander von Humboldt, brother of the founder William, promoted the new learning. With the construction of research facilities in the second half of the 19th Century teaching of the natural sciences began. During this period of enlargement, Berlin University gradually expanded to other previously separate colleges in Berlin. An example would be the Charité, the Pépinière and the Collegium Medico-chirurgicum, in 1717, King Friedrich I had built a quarantine house for Plague at the city gates, which in 1727 was rechristened by the soldier king Friedrich Wilhelm, Es soll das Haus die Charité heißen. By 1829 the site became Berlin Universitys medical campus and remained so until 1927 when the more modern University Hospital was constructed, Berlin University started a natural history collection in 1810, which, by 1889 required a separate building and became the Museum für Naturkunde. The preexisting Tierarznei School, founded in 1790 and absorbed by the university, also the Landwirtschaftliche Hochschule Berlin, founded in 1881 was affiliated with the Agricultural Faculties of the University. After 1933, like all German universities, it was affected by the Nazi regime, the rector during this period was Eugen Fischer. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service resulted in 250 Jewish professors and employees being fired during 1933/1934, students and scholars and political opponents of Nazis were ejected from the university and often deported. During this time one third of all of the staff were fired by the Nazis. The Soviet Military Administration in Germany ordered the opening of the university in January 1946, the SMAD wanted a redesigned Berlin University based on the Soviet model, however they insisted on the phrasing newly opened and not re-opened for political reasons. The University of Berlin must effectively start again in almost every way and you have before you this image of the old university. What remains of that is nought but ruins, the teaching was limited to seven departments working in reopened, war-damaged buildings, with many of the teachers dead or missing. However, by the semester of 1946, the Economic. This program existed at Berlin University until 1962, the East-West conflict in post-war Germany led to a growing communist influence in the university. This was controversial, and incited strong protests within the student body, Soviet NKVD secret police arrested a number of students in March 1947 as a response
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Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
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Huguenots
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Huguenots are the ethnoreligious group of French Protestants who follow the Reformed tradition. It was used frequently to members of the French Reformed Church until the beginning of the 19th century. The term has its origin in 16th-century France, Huguenot numbers peaked near an estimated two million by 1562, concentrated mainly in the southern and western parts of France. As Huguenots gained influence and more openly displayed their faith, Catholic hostility grew, in spite of political concessions, a series of religious conflicts followed, known as the French Wars of Religion, fought intermittently from 1562 to 1598. The Huguenots were led by Jeanne dAlbret, her son, the future Henry IV, the wars ended with the Edict of Nantes, which granted the Huguenots substantial religious, political, and military autonomy. Huguenot rebellions in the 1620s prompted the abolishment of their political and they retained religious provisions of the Edict of Nantes until the rule of Louis XIV. Nevertheless, a minority of Huguenots remained and faced continued persecution under Louis XV. By the death of Louis XV in 1774, French Calvinism was almost completely wiped out, persecution of Protestants officially ended with the Edict of Versailles, signed by Louis XVI in 1787. Two years later, with the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of 1789 and they also spread to the Dutch Cape Colony in South Africa, the Dutch East Indies, the Caribbean, New Netherland, and several of the English colonies in North America. Small contingents of families went to Orthodox Russia and Catholic Quebec, a term used originally in derision, Huguenot has unclear origins. Geneva was John Calvins adopted home and the centre of the Calvinist movement, the label Huguenot was purportedly first applied in France to those conspirators involved in the Amboise plot of 1560, a foiled attempt to wrest power in France from the influential House of Guise. The move would have had the effect of fostering relations with the Swiss. Thus, Hugues plus Eidgenosse by way of Huisgenoten supposedly became Huguenot, a version of this complex hypothesis is promoted by O. I. A. Roche, who writes in his book, The Days of the Upright, A History of the Huguenots, that Huguenot is, a combination of a Dutch and a German word. Gallicised into Huguenot, often used deprecatingly, the word became, Some disagree with such double or triple non-French linguistic origins, arguing that for the word to have spread into common use in France, it must have originated in the French language. The Hugues hypothesis argues that the name was derived by association with Hugues Capet, king of France and he was regarded by the Gallicans and Protestants as a noble man who respected peoples dignity and lives. Janet Gray and other supporters of the hypothesis suggest that the name huguenote would be equivalent to little Hugos. It was in place in Tours that the prétendus réformés habitually gathered at night
22.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
23.
East German general election, 1990
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Legislative elections were held in the German Democratic Republic on 18 March 1990. It was the first and only free election in the GDR. Four hundred deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, the largest bloc was the Alliance for Germany, led by the East German branch of the Christian Democratic Union and running on a platform of speedy reunification with the West. The runner-up was the East German branch of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany, renamed the Party of Democratic Socialism, ran in a free election for the first time ever and finished in third place. The AfD came up just short of the 201 seats needed to govern alone, on 5 April 1990, the new Volkskammer elected the CDUs Sabine Bergmann-Pohl as its president. As the State Council was at the same time dissolved, she became East Germanys interim head of state, between them, the three main partners in the coalition commanded a two-thirds supermajority in the Volkskammer, enough to pass amendments to the constitution. The treaty took effect on 3 October
24.
Volkskammer
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The Peoples Chamber was the unicameral legislature of the German Democratic Republic. Despite the appearance of a multi-party system, all these Bloc parties were completely subservient to the SED, in addition, seats were also allocated to various mass organizations affiliated with the SED, such as the Free German Youth. Initially, it was the house of a bicameral legislature. The upper chamber was the Chamber of States, or Länderkammer, but in 1952 the states of East Germany were dissolved, in theory, the Volkskammer was the highest organ of state power in the GDR. Both GDR constitutions vested it with great lawmaking powers and it also formally appointed the Council of State, the Council of Ministers, and the National Defence Council. All other branches of government—including the judiciary—were theoretically responsible to it, in practice, like most other legislatures in Communist countries, the Peoples Chamber did little more than rubber-stamp decisions already made by the SED and its Politburo. All parties were expected to respect the principles of democratic centralism, as a result, all but two measures put before it before the Peaceful Revolution passed unanimously. A1972 vote on liberalising abortion laws saw 14 CDU representatives vote nay and eight abstain, during Peoples Chamber elections, voters were presented with a single list from the National Front, with seats allocated based on a set quota rather than actual vote totals. By ensuring that its candidates dominated the list, the SED effectively predetermined the composition of the legislature, the democratic centralist principle extended to the ballot box as well. A voter simply took the paper, which contained only one name. A voter could vote against the candidate by crossing out his or her name, the consequences for such an act of defiance were severe—loss of ones job or expulsion from school, and close surveillance by the Stasi. The table below shows an overview of the results of all parliamentary elections before 1990. ¹Eastern Bureau of the Social Democratic Party of Germany In 1976, the Volkskammer moved into a building on Marx-Engels-Platz. On paper, the president of the Peoples Chamber was the third-highest post in the GDR and was vice president of the country. The last president of the Peoples Chamber, Sabine Bergmann-Pohl, was interim head of state during the last six months of East Germanys existence due to the State Council having been abolished. Presidium of the Peoples Chamber Show election A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People Deliberations of the Volkskammer on nuclear disarmament,1981
25.
Unification of Germany
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The unification of Germany into a politically and administratively integrated nation state officially occurred on 18 January 1871, in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles in France. Princes of the German states gathered there to proclaim Wilhelm I of Prussia as German Emperor after the French capitulation in the Franco-Prussian War. The Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, which had included more than 500 independent states, was dissolved when Emperor Francis II abdicated during the War of the Third Coalition. Economically, the creation of the Prussian Zollverein in 1818, and its subsequent expansion to other states of the German Confederation. Emerging modes of transportation facilitated business and recreational travel, leading to contact, the model of diplomatic spheres of influence resulting from the Congress of Vienna in 1814–15 after the Napoleonic Wars endorsed Austrian dominance in Central Europe. The negotiators at Vienna took no account of Prussias growing strength within and among the German states and this German dualism presented two solutions to the problem of unification, Kleindeutsche Lösung, the small Germany solution, or Großdeutsche Lösung, the greater Germany solution. Reaction to Danish and French nationalism provided foci for expressions of German unity, military successes—especially those of Prussia—in three regional wars generated enthusiasm and pride that politicians could harness to promote unification. This experience echoed the memory of mutual accomplishment in the Napoleonic Wars, by establishing a Germany without Austria, the political and administrative unification in 1871 at least temporarily solved the problem of dualism. 1797, The French First Republic annexed the Left Bank of the Rhine as a result of the War of the First Coalition,1802, Previous annexations by France confirmed following its victory in the War of the Second Coalition. 1804, Francis I of Austria declared the new Austrian Empire as a reaction to Napoleon Bonapartes proclamation of the First French Empire in 1804. 1806, As a result of the War of the Third Coalition, Napoleon I annexed some territories East of the Rhine,1807, Prussia lost one half of its territory following the War of the Fourth Coalition. 1815, After the defeat of Napoleon, the Congress of Vienna reinstated the Germanic states into the German Confederation under the leadership of the Austrian Empire,1834, The Prussian-led custom union evolved into the Zollverein that included almost all Confederation states except the Austrian Empire. 1848, Revolts across the German Confederation, such as in Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt, in the meantime, the Frankfurt Parliament was set up in 1848 and attempted to proclaim a united Germany, but this was refused by William IV. The question of a united Germany under the Kleindeutsch solution or the so-called Großdeutsch began to surface,1864, The Danish-Prussian War started as Prussia protested against Danish incorporation of Schleswig into the Kingdom of Denmark. The Austrian Empire was deliberately drawn into war by Otto von Bismarck. The Austro-Prussian victory led to Schleswig, the part, being governed by Prussia and Holstein. 1866, Bismarck accused the Austrian Empire of stirring up troubles in Prussian-held Schleswig, Prussian troops drove into Austrian-held Holstein and took control of the entire state of Schleswig-Holstein. Austria declared war on Prussia and, after fighting the Austro-Prussian War, was swiftly defeated, Napoleon III declared war against Prussia
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West Germany
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West Germany is the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation on 23 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990. During this Cold War era, NATO-aligned West Germany and Warsaw Pact-aligned East Germany were divided by the Inner German border, after 1961 West Berlin was physically separated from East Berlin as well as from East Germany by the Berlin Wall. This situation ended when East Germany was dissolved and its five states joined the ten states of the Federal Republic of Germany along with the reunified city-state of Berlin. With the reunification of West and East Germany, the Federal Republic of Germany, enlarged now to sixteen states and this period is referred to as the Bonn Republic by historians, alluding to the interwar Weimar Republic and the post-reunification Berlin Republic. The Federal Republic of Germany was established from eleven states formed in the three Allied Zones of occupation held by the United States, the United Kingdom and France, US and British forces remained in the country throughout the Cold War. Its population grew from roughly 51 million in 1950 to more than 63 million in 1990, the city of Bonn was its de facto capital city. The fourth Allied occupation zone was held by the Soviet Union, as a result, West Germany had a territory about half the size of the interbellum democratic Weimar Republic. At the onset of the Cold War, Europe was divided among the Western and Eastern blocs, Germany was de facto divided into two countries and two special territories, the Saarland and divided Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany claimed a mandate for all of Germany. It took the line that the GDR was an illegally constituted puppet state, though the GDR did hold regular elections, these were not free and fair. For all practical purposes the GDR was a Soviet puppet state, from the West German perspective the GDR was therefore illegitimate. Three southwestern states of West Germany merged to form Baden-Württemberg in 1952, in addition to the resulting ten states, West Berlin was considered an unofficial de facto 11th state. It recognised the GDR as a de facto government within a single German nation that in turn was represented de jure by the West German state alone. From 1973 onward, East Germany recognised the existence of two German countries de jure, and the West as both de facto and de jure foreign country, the Federal Republic and the GDR agreed that neither of them could speak in the name of the other. The first chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who remained in office until 1963, had worked for an alignment with NATO rather than neutrality. He not only secured a membership in NATO but was also a proponent of agreements that developed into the present-day European Union, when the G6 was established in 1975, there was no question whether the Federal Republic of Germany would be a member as well. With the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe in 1989, symbolised by the opening of the Berlin Wall, East Germany voted to dissolve itself and accede to the Federal Republic in 1990. Its five post-war states were reconstituted along with the reunited Berlin and they formally joined the Federal Republic on 3 October 1990, raising the number of states from 10 to 16, ending the division of Germany
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German reunification
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The end of the unification process is officially referred to as German unity, celebrated on 3 October. Following German reunification, Berlin was once designated as the capital of united Germany. The East German regime started to falter in May 1989, when the removal of Hungarys border fence with Austria opened a hole in the Iron Curtain and it caused an exodus of thousands of East Germans fleeing to West Germany and Austria via Hungary. The united Germany is the continuation of the Federal Republic. For political and diplomatic reasons, West German politicians carefully avoided the term reunification during the run-up to what Germans frequently refer to as die Wende, after 1990, the term die Wende became more common. The term generally refers to the events led up to the actual reunification, in its usual context. When referring to the events surrounding unification, however, it carries the connotation of the time. However, anti-communist activists from Eastern Germany rejected the term Wende as it was introduced by SEDs Secretary General Egon Krenz, the capital city of Berlin was divided into four occupied sectors of control, under the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Germans lived under such imposed divisions throughout the ensuing Cold War, into the 1980s, the Soviet Union experienced a period of economic and political stagnation, and they correspondingly decreased intervention in Eastern Bloc politics. In 1987, US President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at Brandenburg Gate challenging Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down this wall that had separated Berlin. The wall had stood as an icon for the political and economic division between East and West, a division that Churchill had referred to as the Iron Curtain. In early 1989, under a new era of Soviet policies of glasnost, perestroika and taken to more progressive levels by Gorbachev. Further inspired by images of brave defiance, a wave of revolutions swept throughout the Eastern Bloc that year. In May 1989, Hungary removed their border fence and thousands of East Germans escaped to the West, however, events rapidly came to a head in early 1990. First, in March, the Party of Democratic Socialism—the former Socialist Unity Party of Germany—was heavily defeated in East Germanys first free elections. A grand coalition was formed under Lothar de Maizière, leader of the East German wing of Kohls Christian Democratic Union, on a platform of speedy reunification, second, East Germanys economy and infrastructure underwent a swift and near-total collapse. While East Germany had long been reckoned as having the most robust economy in the Soviet bloc, the East German mark had been practically worthless outside East Germany for some time before the events of 1989–90 further magnified the problem. Discussions immediately began for a merger of the German economies
28.
Stasi
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It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed. The Stasi was headquartered in East Berlin, with a complex in Berlin-Lichtenberg. The Stasi motto was Schild und Schwert der Partei, referring to the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany, Erich Mielke was its longest-serving chief, in power for thirty-two of the GDRs forty years of existence. Its Main Directorate for Reconnaissance was responsible for espionage and for conducting covert operations in foreign countries. Under its long-time head Markus Wolf, this gained a reputation as one of the most effective intelligence agencies of the Cold War. Numerous Stasi officials were prosecuted for their crimes after 1990, the Stasi was founded on 8 February 1950. Wilhelm Zaisser was the first Minister of State Security of the GDR, Zaisser tried to depose SED General Secretary Walter Ulbricht after the June 1953 uprising, but was instead removed by Ulbricht and replaced with Ernst Wollweber thereafter. Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, in 1957, Markus Wolf became head of the Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung, the foreign intelligence section of the Stasi. As intelligence chief, Wolf achieved great success in penetrating the government, political, the most influential case was that of Günter Guillaume, which led to the downfall of West German Chancellor Willy Brandt in May 1974. In 1986, Wolf retired and was succeeded by Werner Grossmann, in 1978, Mielke formally granted KGB officers in East Germany the same rights and powers that they enjoyed in the Soviet Union. The Ministry for State Security also included the following entities, Administration 12 was responsible for the surveillance of mail, Administration 2000 was responsible for the reliability of National Peoples Army personnel. Administration 2000 operated a secret, unofficial network of informants within the NVA, Administration for Security of Heavy Industry and Research and Main Administration for Security of the Economy, protection against sabotage or espionage. Division of Garbage Analysis, was responsible for analyzing garbage for any suspect western foods and/or materials, Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment, the armed force at disposal of the ministry, named for the founder of the Cheka, the Bolshevik secret police. The members of regiment, who served at least three years, were responsible for protecting high government and party buildings and personnel. The regiment was composed of six motorized rifle battalions, one artillery battalion and its equipment included PSZH-IV armored personnel carriers,120 mm mortars,85 mm and 100 mm antitank guns, ZU-23 antiaircraft guns, and helicopters. A Swiss source reported in 1986 that the troops of the Ministry of State Security also had commando units similar to the Soviet Unions Spetsnaz GRU forces. These East German units were said to wear the uniform of the airborne troops and they also wore the sleeve stripe of the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment. Main Administration for Struggle Against Suspicious Persons was charged with the surveillance of foreigners—particularly from the West—legally traveling or residing within the country and this included the diplomatic community, tourists, and official guests
29.
Bundeswehr
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The Bundeswehr is the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities. The States of Germany are not allowed to maintain armed forces of their own, the Bundeswehr is divided into a military part and a civil part with the armed forces administration. The military part of the defense force consists of the Heer, Marine, Luftwaffe, Streitkräftebasis, Zentraler Sanitätsdienst. In addition the Bundeswehr has approximately 27,600 reserve personnel. 2%, the Bundeswehr are in the process of integrating smaller NATO members Brigades into divisions of the German army. The Bundeswehr is to play a role as anchor army for smaller NATO states. 2 of 3 Royal Netherlands Army Brigades are now under German Command, in 2014 the 11th Airmobile Brigade, was integrated into the German Division of fast forces. Also the Dutch 43rd Mechanized Brigade, will be integrated into the 1st Panzer Division of the German army, with the integration starting at the beginning of 2016, and the unit becoming operational at the end of 2019. The Dutch-German military cooperation are seen as an example for setting up a European defense union, also the Czech Republics 4th Rapid Deployment Brigade, and Romania’s 81st Mechanized Brigade, will be integrated into Germany’s 10 Armoured Division and Rapid Response Forces Division. The name Bundeswehr was first proposed by the former Wehrmacht general and Liberal politician Hasso von Manteuffel, the Iron Cross is its official emblem. It is a symbol that has an association with the military of Germany. The Schwarzes Kreuz is derived from the black cross insignia of the medieval Teutonic knights, when the Bundeswehr was established in 1955, its founding principles were based on developing a completely new military force for the defence of West Germany. In this respect the Bundeswehr did not consider itself to be a successor to either the Reichswehr of the Weimar Republic or Hitlers Wehrmacht, neither does it adhere to the traditions of any former German military organization. One of the most visible traditions of the modern Bundeswehr is the Großer Zapfenstreich, the FRG reinstated this formal military ceremony in 1952, three years before the foundation of the Bundeswehr. Today it is performed by a band with 4 fanfare trumpeters and timpani. The Zapfenstreich is only performed during national celebrations or solemn public commemorations and it can honour distinguished persons present such as the German federal president or provide the conclusion to large military exercises. Another important tradition in the modern German armed forces is the Gelöbnis, there are two kinds of oath, for conscripts/recruits it is a pledge but its a solemn vow for full-time personnel. The pledge is made annually on 20 July, the date on which a group of Wehrmacht officers attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler in 1944, recruits from the Bundeswehrs Wachbataillon make their vow at the Bendlerblock in Berlin. This was the headquarters of the resistance but also where the officers were executed following its failure
30.
Angela Merkel
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Angela Dorothea Merkel is a German politician who is currently Chancellor of Germany. She is also the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, Merkel has been described at various times as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the worlds second most powerful person. Following German reunification in 1990, Merkel was elected to the Bundestag for the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Merkel was appointed as the Minister for Women and Youth in the federal government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl in 1991, and became the Minister for the Environment in 1994. In the 2009 federal election, the CDU obtained the largest share of the vote, in 2007, Merkel was President of the European Council and chaired the G8, the second woman to do so. Merkel played a role in the negotiation of the Treaty of Lisbon. One of Merkels consistent priorities has been to strengthen economic relations. Merkel played a role in managing the financial crisis at the European and international level. On 26 March 2014, Merkel became the incumbent head of government in the European Union. On 20 November 2016, Merkel announced she would seek re-election to a fourth term and she has two younger siblings, her brother Marcus Kasner, a physicist, and her sister Irene Kasner, an occupational therapist. In her childhood and youth, Merkel was known among her peers by the nickname Kasi, Merkel is of Polish and German descent. Her paternal grandfather Ludwik Kaźmierczak was a German policeman of Polish ethnicity and he married Merkels grandmother Margarethe, a German girl from Berlin, and relocated to her hometown where he worked in the police. In 1930 they Germanized the Polish name Kaźmierczak to Kasner, Merkels maternal grandparents were the Danzig politician Willi Jentzsch and Gertrud Alma née Drange, a daughter of the city clerk of Elbing Emil Drange. Merkel has mentioned her Polish heritage on several occasions, but her Polish roots became better known as a result of a 2013 biography, religion played a key role in the Kasner familys migration from West Germany to East Germany. In 1954, he received a pastorate at the church in Quitzow, the family moved to Templin and Merkel grew up in the countryside 80 km north of East Berlin. Like most young people in the German Democratic Republic, Merkel was a member of the Free German Youth, membership was nominally voluntary, but those who did not join found it difficult to gain admission to higher education. She did not participate in the coming of age ceremony Jugendweihe, however. Later, at the Academy of Sciences, she became a member of the FDJ district board, Merkel claimed that she was secretary for culture. When Merkels one-time FDJ district chairman contradicted her, she insisted that, According to my memory, I believe I wont know anything when Im 80
31.
Third Merkel cabinet
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The incumbent government of Germany, the third cabinet of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, was sworn in on 17 December 2013. Led by Merkel, the government is supported by a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union, the Christian Social Union of Bavaria, the CDU received five ministries in addition to the positions of Chancellor and Chancellery Chief of Staff/Minister for Special Affairs. The SPD controls six ministries and the CSU three, the current federal cabinet is composed of the following ministers and their parliamentary state secretaries, Kabinettsliste, Das sind Merkels wichtigste Minister. Live-Blog zur Großen Koalition, Parteivorstand billigt die Kandidatenliste der SPD, die Welt erfährt einige überraschende Personalien. Cabinet of Germany Federal Ministries of Germany
32.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946
33.
Princeton University Press
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The Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large, the press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial support of Charles Scribner, as a printing press to serve the Princeton community in 1905. Its distinctive building was constructed in 1911 on William Street in Princeton and its first book was a new 1912 edition of John Witherspoons Lectures on Moral Philosophy. Six books from the Princeton University Press have won Pulitzer Prizes, russia Leaves the War by George F. The Princeton University Press Bollingen Series had its beginnings in the Bollingen Foundation, from 1945, the foundation had independent status, publishing and providing fellowships and grants in several areas of study including archaeology, poetry, and psychology. The Bollingen Series was given to the university in 1969, first copyright 1950, 27th printing 1997. Bernstein Military Power, Explaining Victory and Defeat in Modern Battle by Stephen Biddle Banks, book of Lists, Princeton University Press at 100. A Century in Books, Princeton University Press 1905-2005
34.
Andreas Hermes
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Andreas Hermes was a German agricultural scientist and politician. In the Weimar Republic he was a member of several governments, serving as minister of food/nutrition, during the rule of the Nazi Party, he was a member of the resistance, for which he was imprisoned and sentenced to death. After World War II, Hermes co-founded the Christian Democratic Union, in the Weimar Republic, Hermes was a major influence on German agricultural policies. From the end of World War II to the late 1950s he was one of the people who shaped them. Andreas Anton Hubert Hermes was born on 16 July 1878 in Cologne, then part of the Prussian Rhine province, as the son of Andreas Hermes, a railway worker and he was raised as a Catholic in Mönchengladbach, and lost his father at the age of 8. Hermes studied agricultural science and philosophy at Bonn, Jena and Berlin, at that time he also travelled widely in Europe and South America, and he developed an interest in crossbreeding European with South American animal stock. In 1901 he became a teacher of agriculture at Cloppenburg and in 1902-04 was assistant to a breeder at Bonn. In 1911 Hermes was appointed director of the department of the International Institute of Agriculture in Rome. After the end of the war, in 1919, Hermes headed the department on agriculture, in the first Müller cabinet Hermes became Reichsernährungsminister in March 1920. Also in 1920, Hermes married Anna Schaller and they had three sons and one daughters. During his period in office, the Reichsernährungsministerium was restructured according to his suggestions, in 1922 Hermes in addition to his post as Reichsernährungsminister became Minister of Finance. After a short while he resigned from the former post but remained in charge of Finance and he stayed in that office until the resignation of the cabinet of Wilhelm Cuno in August 1923. Whilst serving as a minister, Hermes managed the transition from technocratic expert to politician, in 1924 he was elected for the Zentrum to the Prussian Diet and in 1928 to the Reichstag. In 1927 he was a member of the German delegation at the International Economic Conference at Geneva, at the same time, Hermes was active in the lobbying/umbrella organizations of the German agricultural industry. In 1928, he became president of the Association of the German Farmers Associations and after the crisis of the Great Depression started. In 1930, he became president of the Reichsverband der deutschen landwirtschaftlichen Genossenschaften-Raiffeisen, in March 1933, even before the passage of the Ermächtigungsgesetz he resigned from the Reichstag in protest against Nazi policies. He was arrested, charged and, on 12 July, sentenced to four months in prison for his opposition to the Nazis and he then was either affected by an amnesty, or released as his time served in jail counted towards the sentence, according to different sources. He resigned from his positions in the organizations and in 1936 emigrated to Colombia
35.
Jakob Kaiser
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Jakob Kaiser was a German politician and resistance leader during World War II. Jakob Kaiser was born in the Franconian town of Hammelburg, following in his father’s footsteps, Kaiser began a career as a bookbinder. It was during this time that he became active as a member of a Catholic trade union. Kaiser increased his participation in politics by becoming a member of the Centre Party and he was elected to the Reichstag in 1933. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Hitler abolished all unions, Kaiser opposed National Socialism and he joined the resistance in 1934. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1938 under suspicion of treason, through his participation in the Cologne-resistance circle, Kaiser became a close associated of the former Mayor of Leipzig, Carl Goerdeler. His relationship with Goerdeler allowed him to come into contact with Claus von Stauffenberg, after the war, Kaiser returned to politics and worked with Andreas Hermes to found the East Berlin division of the Christian Democratic Union. He was elected president of the Berlin CDU. Kaiser belonged to a group within the CDU called the Christian Socialists and they called for the nationalisation of some major industries. In 1946 Kaiser helped found the Free German Trade Union Federation, in the same year he was elected co-chairman of the East German CDU. Although his political views were progressive, he was critical of the Communist Party of Germany and his belief that the German Congress was controlled by the Soviets resulted in his refusal to join. In 1947 the Soviets forced him to resign as party chairman, however, he remained a member of the partys Executive Committee. In 1948 Kaiser was forced to leave East Berlin and he went to West Berlin where he joined the West German Christian Democratic Union, within the CDU he became a major rival of Konrad Adenauer, the party leader. Kaiser disagreed with Adenauers social market economy and called for the nationalisation of key industries, Kaiser strongly believed in a neutral, united Germany, and hoped that Germany would be a bridge between the West and the East. In 1950 Kaiser was elected chairman of the West German CDU, from 1949 until 1957 he was Minister of All-German Affairs in Adenauers cabinet. Kaiser died on 7 May 1961 in Berlin and he is buried in the Waldfriedhof Zehlendorf, in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough of Berlin. In 1953, after the death of his first wife, he married his colleague in trade union activism. She was instrumental in helping to save his life after the failure of the 20 July Plot, the Jakob-Kaiser-Platz, a transportation hub in Charlottenburg-Nord, was named after him on 12 May 1961, five days after his death
36.
Otto Nuschke
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Otto Nuschke was a German politician. Nuschke was born in Frohburg in the Kingdom of Saxony, in 1910 he was elected General Secretary of the liberal Progressive Peoples Party of Kassel. In the same year he became editor of the Berliner Tageblatt. Nuschke soon joined the Liberal Union, left-wing liberal organisation, as this group fused with other left-liberal organisations to form the Progressive Peoples Party, Nuschke became the general secretary of the new party in Kassel. In 1918 he took part in establishing the German Democratic Party, in 1919 he was a delegate to the National Congress of Weimar and from 1921 to 1933 he was a member of the Reichstag. In 1920s Nuschke was at times the deputy chairman of the German Democratic Party, Nuschke was one of the founders of the republican Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and became the general secretary of the German State Party in 1931. After the Nazis gained power in 1933 Nuschke joined the opposition, after the 1944 assassination attempt on Hitlers life, he went into hiding. After World War II, he involved in the politics of the Soviet Occupation Zone --what became East Germany. In 1946 Nuschke was elected in the executive committee. From 1946 to 1952 he was a member of the Landtag of Brandenburg, in 1947, after the deposition of party chairmen Jakob Kaiser and Ernst Lemmer by the Soviet military authorities, Nuschke became acting chairman and after the party congress of 1948, party chairman. In March 1948, Nuschke - alongside Wilhelm Pieck and Wilhelm Külz - was chairman of the German Peoples Council that drafted the Constitution of the German Democratic Republic, in 1949 Nuschke became a member of the Provisional Peoples Chamber of the GDR. He remained a member of parliament until his death, after the formal establishment of the German Democratic Republic, Nuschke became Deputy Prime Minister and chief of the Church Office. Nuschke was a supporter of the SED regime, and gradually pushed out those CDU members not willing to do the Communists bidding. This culminated in the partys 1952 conference, at which the CDU formally declared itself a socialist party, on 17 June 1953, during the East German uprising, Nuschke and his driver were kidnapped and brought to West Berlin. Some American military recognised him and saved him from the angry masses and he and his driver were brought to a police station, but released on 19 June. After that Nuschke and his driver returned to East Berlin, in a spontaneous interview given to RIAS reporter Peter Schultze, Nuschke claimed that the East German government had popular support and that the demonstrators included West Berliners. In 1954 he received the Patriotic Order of the GDR and in 1955 he received an honorary degree, German Democratic Republic Christian Democratic Union Media related to Otto Nuschke at Wikimedia Commons
37.
August Bach
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August Bach was an East German Christian Democratic politician. August Bach was born in Rheydt, from 1915 to 1918 he served in German army. After the War he studied History at the University of Berlin and he worked as a journalist during the Weimar Republic and he was a member of the liberal German Democratic Party. From 1922 to 1944 he was the editor of the Berliner Monatshefte, after World War II, Bach was the co-founder of East German Christian Democratic Union in Thüringen and was elected in the provincial executive of the CDUD of Thüringen. In 1947 he joined the Society for German-Soviet Russian Friendship and he served as the vice-chairman of the DSF-Thüringen, later he was a member of the Presidium of the DSF. From May 1950 Bach was the editor of the Thüringen Daily and member of the CDU Executive Commission, from 1955 to 1958 he served as chairman of the Länderkammer. After the death of Otto Nuschke, Bach was elected Chairman of the CDUD in 1958, from 1958 to 1963 he was Vice-President of the Volkskammer and from 1963 to his death he served as member of the Presidium of the Volkskammer. German Democratic Republic Christian Democratic Union
Quotations related to Lothar de Maizière at Wikiquote
German Empire (1871–1918)
Weimar Republic (1918–33)
Nazi Germany (1933–45)
German Democratic Republic1 (1949–90)
Federal Republic of Germany (1949–present)