Lothar de Maizière
Lothar de Maizière [ də mɛzjɛʀ ] ( born March 2, 1940 in Nordhausen ) worked from autumn 1989 to late summer 1991 as a German politician ( CDU) and was particularly known for his contribution to German unification. Previously, he was and since then he has returned to the bar in Berlin.
From 12 April to 2 October 1990, he was the first democratically elected and last Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic and from October 3 to December 19, 1990 one of five from the DDR originating federal ministers for special assignments. On December 17, he asked for to be clarified allegations that he had an unofficial employee under the code name " Czerni " (also " Czerny " ) collaborated with the Department of Homeland Security, to dismissal from the office of minister. In February 1991 he took his party offices he had let it rest, again, after Wolfgang Schäuble at a press conference with his investigation report attempted a relief. In the fall of 1991, he resigned as deputy CDU chairman and handed over his seat in parliament. He was identified according to the documents as " Czerni " in 1992.
Life
Education and work
After graduating from high school Berlinischen to the Grey Abbey 1958 de Maizière studied from 1959 to 1965 Viola at the Academy of Music "Hanns Eisler " in Berlin. He was then to 1975 as a violist in several orchestras, including also the Rundfunk- Sinfonieorchester Berlin, works. Because of a neuritis on the left arm, which disabled him in his profession, he studied from 1969 to 1975 in distance learning law at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Since 1975 he has been a lawyer. He was in the GDR from 1987 Vice-Chairman of the College of Lawyers Berlin under chairman Gregor Gysi. He also had a lawyer admitted to the Military Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of the GDR. As a lawyer, he represented until 1989 were prosecuted for draft evasion or participation in pacifist activities by the judiciary of the GDR in court mainly young people.
Family
Lothar de Maizière is married and has three daughters. He comes from the very politically active family de Maizière whose members are descendants of Huguenot immigrants.
His father Clement de Maizière (1906-1980), unmasked in the reversal time as a longtime Stasi, was also a lawyer in the GDR, the Synod's the Berlin-Brandenburg Church and a member of the East CDU, where he led a local chapter. His uncle Ulrich de Maizière served in the Reichswehr and the Wehrmacht, and the German army and was Inspector General of the Bundeswehr. His son, Lothar de Maizières cousin Thomas de Maizière is, since November 2005 the Federal Minister, currently the Federal Minister of the Interior. His maternal grandfather is the historian and politician John Rathje.
Party
Lothar de Maizière was a member of the CDU, one of the four block parties in the GDR since 1956. Although he claims to be " not even cashier " was in this party, he was appointed to the peaceful revolution to the top and was from November 1989 to 1990 Chairman. He was from October 1990 until his resignation on 6 September 1991 First Deputy Chairman of the all-German CDU. During this time he was also state chairman of the CDU in Brandenburg.
Member of Parliament
From March to October 1990 Lothar de Maizière member of the People's Chamber of the GDR. He was elected in the constituency Berlin for the CDU. Short term he served from 27 March to 10 April 1990 as Group Chairman of the CDU and Democratic Awakening, until he was replaced as Prime Minister by Günther Krause for his upcoming election. de Maizière was in October 1990 to those Members who have been sent by the People's Chamber in the Bundestag. At the general election in December 1990, he moved over the national list Brandenburg the CDU again to the Bundestag, from which he retired on 15 October 1991.
Public offices
On November 18, 1989, he resigned as deputy chairman of the Council of Ministers and as Minister for Church Affairs of the GDR into the run by Hans Modrow, the East German government.
On 5 February 1990, Chancellor Helmut Kohl in Berlin, the "Alliance for Germany " as a future partner of his party in the GDR before. The coalition consisted of the opposition groups newly formed Democratic Awakening (DA) and German Social Union (DSU ) and the East German CDU as a determining force. De Maizière was still largely unknown, as he became the leading candidate of the Alliance for Germany in the first free parliamentary election in 1990. He fought with the election slogan " Prosperity for All" and "We are one people" for the office of the first freely elected prime minister of the GDR.
The high election victory with 48.1 % for the alliance was mainly due to the expectations of the GDR population of the German reunification and the D- Mark, what the East-CDU entered, and also on the popularity of Chancellor Kohl, the de Maizières campaign supported.
After the election, he was elected on 12 April 1990 Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic, at the same time his cabinet was confirmed. From August 1990, he was also Foreign Minister of the GDR.
On the Day of German Unity - October 3, 1990 - de Maizière was appointed Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the carbon out of the federal government.
On December 10, a few days after the federal election in 1990, the news magazine Der Spiegel published the results of research, which de Maizière was conducted at the State Security as an unofficial member under the code name " Czerni ". De Maizière denied these allegations, but resigned on 19 December 1990 back as a federal minister. His CDU party offices he had to resume after a given by Wolfgang Schäuble on February 22, 1991 press conference at which this attempted a relief to rest. In September 1991, he returned the deputy CDU Presidency and other honorary offices as well as his seat in parliament. 1992 will be published by the new Stasi Records Act records that identify him as IMF Czerni. In 1994 he declined the offer of the Berlin CDU from a list of space for the federal election.
Further work
From 1986 to 1990 he was Vice President of the Synod of the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR and worked as well as other evangelical Christians there (eg Manfred Stolpe ) in the dialogue between the churches and the government and the SED.
Since 1993 de Maizière was representative of Hunzinger Information AG in Berlin, in March 2004 he was Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
Today he is chairman of the private Foundation for Monument Protection Berlin and vice chairman of Workshop Germany eV is due to the initiative of the Quadriga award. He is also co-chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue.
In addition, de Maizière is co-founder and chairman of the German Society (1990).
He works since 1996 in his law firm in Berlin, specializing in issues of reunification. De Maizière represents, inter alia, two torture victims in the matter Rakhat Aliyev, Peter Afanasenko and Sazhan Ibrajew who worked as a bodyguard of ex- Prime Minister Akeschan Kaschegeldin. Aliyev furthermore, the murder of two Kazakh bankers, extortion, bribery and money laundering accused.
In addition, Lothar de Maizière Chairman of the Steering Committee of the Petersburg Dialogue and CEO of TU Campus EUREF gGmbH, developed by the Berlin-based project developer Reinhard Müller on the grounds of the Gasometer Schöneberg in Berlin.
At the launch of his memoirs on the history of German unity his former deputy government spokeswoman Angela Merkel said of him: his " political goal, the desire for freedom and pour with the peaceful revolution Achievements in constitutional forms, has given German unification shape. "
Writings
- Advocate of the unit. A conversation with Christine de Mazières. Argon Verlag, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-87024-792-4.
- With the collaboration of Volker Resing: "I want my children no longer have to lie ." My story of German unity. 2nd edition, Verlag Herder, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-451-30355-5.
- Is grown together what belongs together? In: Law Journal (Berlin) Jahrg 53, October 2003, pp. 568-571.
Honors
- Honorary citizen of his native town of Nordhausen 2010
- Russian Order of Friendship in 2010 for acting as co-chairman of the Petersburg Dialogue, presented by the Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.
- Quadriga Prize 2010 in the category "Architecture of unity." Presented by: Richard Schroeder.