Ibrahim Böhme

Böhme in 1990

Ibrahim Böhme (November 18, 1944, Bad Dürrenberg, Province of Saxony – November 22, 1999) was a politician for a short period of time after the collapse of the communist regime in the German Democratic Republic, also known as East Germany. Before becoming involved in politics, Böhme had worked numerous different jobs, including as a cook, waiter, bricklayer, teacher, and historian.^[1] In the late 1980s he is also known to have been a human rights advocate associated with the Initiative for Peace and Human Rights.

He was a cofounder of the Social Democratic Party in the GDR in October 1989, and was elected its first full-time chairman at the party's first regular congress in January 1990. He led the party to second place in East Germany's first (and as it turned out, only) free election, in March 1990, and was slated to be a senior minister in the grand coalition led by Lothar de Maizière. However, while coalition talks were underway, the weekly magazine Der Spiegel reported that Böhme had been an informer for the Stasi for decades prior to the collapse of Communism. Although Böhme denied this, he was forced to resign late in March. Böhme was one of many East German citizens to have been discovered to be Stasi informants during the Communist era, sometimes ruining personal relationships as well as careers.

In 1992 a book about Böhme titled Comrade Judas: The Two Lives of Ibrahim Böhme, written by Birgit Lahann, was published in Germany. Ibrahim Böhme died of heart complications in Berlin on November 22, 1999 at the age of 55. He denied the accusations of him being a Stasi informer up to his death.

Notes

References

Biography: Ibrahim Bohme, 1944-1999

Ibrahim Böhme (IN the “Maximilian”)

Comrade Judas

Chronikderwende: Ibrahim Bohme

Ibrahim Bohme Died