Manfred Gerlach

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Manfred Gerlach (born May 8, 1928) is a former East German politician (LDPD) who acted as Chairman of the Council of State and thus head of state of East Germany from December 6, 1989 to April 5, 1990.

He was born in Leipzig and became a member of the resistance during World War II. In 1943 he founded an illegal antifascist youth movement. In March 1944 he was arrested.

After the war he became involved in politics and was a co-founder of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany (LDPD) and the Free German Youth (FDJ) in Leipzig. From 1946-1950 he was the LDPD youth leader of North-West Saxony. From 1947-1952 Gerlach was a member of the executive council of the Saxon LDPD. In the 1950s he was a mayor (Bürgermeister and deputy Oberbürgermeister) of the city of Leipzig.

From 1951 to 1953 he was the LDPD's Vice-Chairman and from 1954 to 1967 he was the LDPD's General Secretary. At the LDPD's general party congress of 1967 Gerlach was elected as chairman of the LDPD. He remained chairman until 10 February 1990.

From 1949 to 1990 Gerlach was a member of the People's Chamber and from 1960 to 1990 he was one of the Deputy Chairmen of the Council of State (de facto Vice-President) of the German Democratic Republic. Initially supporting pro-SED (Socialist Unity Party) line of gleichschaltung of the East German non-communist parties, but later in 1970s began to move away from total submissivness towards the Communist politicians. During Gerlach's leadership, LDPD developed some small scale contacts with its West German counterparts, the Free Democrats. However, as a state functionary, he defended the nationalisation of last substantive private enterprises. Anyway, after Erich Honecker had personally forbidden publication of a book by Gerlach, the latter began trying to find a new profile for his party and re-adopt authentic liberalism. Gerlach welcomed the liberalisation in the USSR started by Mikhail Gorbachev. Gerlach's support for more liberalisation and pluralism in East Germany earned him remarkable popularity; popularity which he, however, lost due to his hesitant attitude during the overthrow of East German Communist dictatorship in 1989.[1]

On October 13, 1989 he was the first important East German politician to publicly question the monopolic role of the SED. His article on the date in LDPD newspaper Der Morgen arose furour. However, a meeting of block party leaders the same day did not bring about any remarkable effect on the crisis East Germany had reached. A few days later, on October 18, Erich Honecker was finally deposed by his own comrades of SED. After the Fall of the Berlin Wall, Manfred Gerlach was elected Chairman of the Council of State and thus the first non-communist Head of state of the GDR.

In March 1990 his party and two other liberal parties merged into the new Bund Freier Demokraten.

In 1993 he resigned from the party membership of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). His role during the GDR is currently questioned. (He is accused of being an NKVD-agent during his younger years). In politics, he has been close to PDS during recent years; Gerlach also participates Berliner Alternatives Geschichtsforum and has signed its publications, which promote more positive views on GDR history. [2] [3]

The critics of the former communist regime have described these publications co-authored by former GDR high funcionaries (e.g Gerlach, Gerald Götting, Hans Modrow etc) as whitewashing the SED dictature and working on the image of current Germany by using antifascist rhetoric.[4]

Gerlach had earned numerous state awards by the GDR, including Vaterländischer Verdienstorden in Stern der Völkerfreundschaft in 1964 and 1988 Karl-Marx-Orden in 1988.

Contents

[edit] Citation

"In the LDPD today thinking about the politics and Society means thinking about Socialism and its future in the GDR." [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Politik für die Freiheit - Manfred Gerlach
  2. ^ http://www.grh-ev.org/ERKLAR_1/erklar_1.HTM
  3. ^ Erklärung zum 50. Jahrestag des 17. Juni 1953
  4. ^ Pflege eines Mythos in Rheinischer Merkur 25.05.2006
  5. ^ October 12, 1989 on a meeting of LDPD funcionaries. Citation found in Die Transformation der DDR-Blockparteien während und nach der politischen Wende http://paper.olaf-freier.de/blockpt.htm#4

[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

  • Manfred Gerlach: Wortmeldungen zur Zeitgeschiche. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1980
  • Manfred Gerlach: Äußerungen über uns und unsere Zeit. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1985
  • Manfred Gerlach: Standortbestimmung. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin 1989
  • Manfred Gerlach: Mitverantwortlich: Als Liberaler im SED-Staat. Morgenbuch-Verlag, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-371-00333-7

(English)*David Childs, The GDR: Moscow's German Ally, London: George Allen & Unwin 1984

Preceded by
Egon Krenz		 Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic
1989-1990		 Succeeded by
Sabine Bergmann-Pohl
(President of the People's Chamber)

[edit] External links

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Heads of State of the German Democratic Republic
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Chairmen of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany
Waldemar Koch · Wilhelm Külz · Arthur Lieutenant · Karl Hamann · Hermann Kastner · Hans Loch · Max Suhrbier · Manfred Gerlach · Rainer Ortleb