BERLIN –
Hans Modrow, who served as East Germany’s last communist leader during a turbulent term that ended with the country’s first and only free election, has died. He was 95 years old.
Modrow died early Saturday, the Left party group of MPs tweeted.
Modrow, a reform-minded communist, took over East Germany shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and then invited opposing forces into government, but could not slow the rallying momentum to reunify the country. Virtue.
“The whole peaceful process to establish the unification of Germany is precisely his special achievement,” the Left wrote on Twitter. “That will remain his political legacy.”
During his 16 years as Communist party secretary in Dresden, beginning in 1973, Modrow built a reputation as an anti-government figure. He refused party privileges and insisted on living in an ordinary apartment.
The top leadership position of East Germany eluded him until he was appointed chancellor, a position previously of little influence, in November 1989 – days after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
When hardline leader Egon Krenz and his ruling Politburo resigned in early December, Modrow emerged as a leading East German political figure. But the communists can no longer decide for themselves. The following month, he agreed to share power with the increasingly vocal opposition and held East Germany’s first landmark free elections in March 1990, amid growing unrest. increase.
Even as the pro-democracy demonstrations quickly took on a pro-reunification stance, the communists were initially opposed to talking about reunification. However, in February 1990, Modrow urged negotiations with West Germany towards a “united homeland” that would eventually be independent of the military blocs and governed by a joint parliament in Berlin.
Modrow topped the electoral campaign of the reformed communists, the Social Democrats, but his personal popularity was not enough to prevent them from ending up as the third most powerful party, with 16%. donate.
The winner was a coalition of conservative parties that favored swift reunification and was backed by the government of West German leader Helmut Kohl. Germany was unified under Kohl’s leadership and as a NATO member on October 3, 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Modrow became a member of the united parliament, where he sat until 1994, and was honorary chairman of the post-communist PDS – the forerunner of today’s opposition Left party. From 1999 to 2004, he was a member of the European Parliament.
Modrow’s past under the hardline communist regime brought him to court several years after reunification.
In 1995, a court convicted him of instigating the falsification of results in the May 1989 local elections in Dresden. It earned him a suspended nine-month prison sentence and a fine.
Modrow claimed that the trial was politically motivated and asserted that its outcome would exacerbate divisions between the Germans in the east and west. His lawyers argued that he had corrected previous injustices by overseeing free elections as prime minister.
Later in adulthood, Modrow served on the elder council of the Left Party.
“Hans is a sincere and belligerent socialist,” Dietmar Bartsch, chairman of the Leftist parliamentary group wrote on Twitter. “Until his old age, he was an important adviser in our party, whose wisdom will be missed.”
