Lothar De Maiziere

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Lothar De Maizière

The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | 2008 | The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Lothar De Maizière , 1940-, the first and last freely elected prime minister of the (East) German Democratic Republic. He joined the puppet Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in 1957 and the federal Synod of Protestant Churches, becoming its vice president in 1985. He was minister of religious affairs and deputy prime minister in Hans Modrow's Communist reform cabinet (Nov. 9, 1989). Withdrawing support from the embattled government, he resigned in Jan., 1990. Advocating rapid reunification with West Germany, he won the March elections with 45.6% of the vote. A reluctant public figure, as prime minister in a "Grand Coalition" he negotiated reunification and an end to his own position. He became minister without portfolio in Helmut Kohl 's cabinet in reunified Germany (Oct., 1990). He resigned from his post, and as head of the CDU, in December when allegations surfaced that he had worked for the Stasi, the East German secret police.

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Germany

A Dictionary of Contemporary World History | 2004 | | © A Dictionary of Contemporary World History 2004, originally published by Oxford University Press 2004. (Hide copyright information) Copyright

Germany By 1900 the German Empire, unified by Bismarck in 1866/71, was under tremendous strain in a process of singularly rapid industrial transformation which created unusually large social and political tensions. In addition, in the federal nation-state created by Bismarck it was the constituent states, and not the Empire, which controlled most of the revenues. Without their consent, the Empire could not increase its own revenue substantially, and this meant that Germany could not keep up with the arms race that developed in the years around 1900, partly as a result of Germany's own desire to take part in imperialism and its consequent building of a large navy at the instigation of Admiral Tirpitz. This sense of crisis explains why Emperor Wilhelm II and his Chancellor, Bethmann Hollweg, felt compelled to incite World War I, out of the conviction that if there had to be war, the chances of winning it would be higher the sooner it broke out.

The initial consensus in favour of supporting the war was relatively short-lived, and soon the political parties began to demand domestic reform, particularly in Prussia. In 1917, Parliament passed a motion demanding peace negotiations. By then, however, the country was run in a virtual dictatorship by Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff, who instilled in most Germans a belief and confidence in ultimate victory. Defeat in World War I, therefore, came as a complete shock to most Germans, as did the territorial losses and the reparation payments imposed upon them by the Versailles Treaty, under the humiliating charge that Germany had been the sole aggressor.

These factors became a great burden for the new democracy that began to form after the popular unrest of 1918 had forced the Emperor to abdicate. This democracy is known as the Weimar Republic, so named after the city of the German poets Goethe and Schiller in which the National Assembly convened to write the new Constitution. It established universal suffrage and unrestricted proportional representation, which made it very difficult to establish stable parliamentary majorities. Another problem was that the Weimar Republic depended on the bureaucratic and military elites of the former Empire, neither of whom felt any commitment to the democracy. After years of crisis, marked by the decommissioning of millions of soldiers, the payments of reparations, the Kapp Putsch in 1920, the murder of Erzberger and Rathenau, and the events of 1923 (which saw the occupation of the Ruhr, hyperinflation, and the Hitler Putsch), the Republic gained some stability during the Stresemann era. However, after the world economic crisis caused by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, millions of disaffected people voted for Hitler's Nazi Party from 1930, and Germany became ungovernable. Chancellors Brüning and von Papen tried to avert Hitler's coming to power despite his popularity, but in the end von Papen urged President von Hindenburg to make Hitler Chancellor, as he felt sure Hitler could be controlled by the other Cabinet Ministers.

Hitler's appointment as Chancellor on 30 January 1933 and his acquisition of dictatorial powers through the Enabling Law marked the beginning of the Third Reich, in which Hitler sustained and increased his popularity by ending record unemployment (largely through a massive programme of rearmament), the restoration of order and security on the streets, and a succession of major foreign policy triumphs such as the Saarland return to the Reich in 1935, the Anschluss with Austria (1938), and the annexation of the Sudetenland (1938) and of the Czech lands (1939). These successes led most Germans to overlook the fact that this sense of national unity was acquired at the expense of minorities such as gypsies, homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, priests, the mentally ill, and especially Jews, who were officially degraded as second-class citizens by the Nuremberg Laws. Jews and other opponents of the regime were thrown into concentration camps, while the persecution of Jews reached new heights with the Kristallnacht of 1938. Following the conclusion of the Hitler–Stalin Pact, Hitler started his pursuit of more ‘living space’ (Lebensraum) with the invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which unleashed World War II.

In 1941, Hitler started an all-out offensive against the Soviet Union, and in the wake of the initial Barbarossa campaign the Nazis embarked upon the Holocaust, the extermination of Jews in concentration camps such as Auschwitz. Despite sporadic resistance to Hitler, most notably through the July Plot of 1944, the Third Reich could only be overcome by the subjection of Germany through the Allied invasion which forced German capitulation on 8 May 1945.

Germany was divided into four zones, governed by the Soviet Union in the east, Britain in the north, France in the west and the US in the south. All German territories east of the Rivers Oder and Neisse were placed under Polish and Soviet administration. Despite initial endeavours at cooperation, which only succeeded in a few circumstances such as the Nuremberg Trials, the Soviet zone became administered increasingly separately from the other three.

The German Democratic Republic (GDR) was founded in the Soviet eastern zone on 7 October 1949, in response to the foundation of the FRG (see below). Led by Ulbricht, who transformed it into a Communist satellite state of the Soviet Union, its economy was restrained by the efforts required to transform it into a centrally planned economy, and by the dismantling of industries through the Soviet Union. Disenchantment with the dictatorial regime and the slow economic recovery compared to West Germany sparked off an uprising of over 300,000 workers on 17 June 1953, which was crushed by Soviet tanks. However, the country's existence continued to be challenged by the exodus of hundreds of thousands of East Germans to West Berlin every year. To enable East Germany's continued existence, the Berlin Wall was built on 13 August 1961 as a complement to the existing impenetrable border between East and West Germany. In the following decades, authoritarian Communist rule, severe travel restrictions, a vast secret police apparatus (the Stasi), and considerable economic prosperity compared to its eastern neighbours provided a relative degree of stability, at least on the surface.

The Soviet-style rule of Honecker, Ulbricht's successor since 1971, became undermined by the advent of Gorbachev as Soviet leader, when the East German leadership became more orthodox than the Soviet original. Matters came to a head in the summer of 1989, when Hungary opened its borders with Austria, thus enabling thousands of East German tourists to escape to the West. Meanwhile, Gorbachev's visit to the 40th anniversary celebrations of the GDR sparked off weekly mass protests, first in Leipzig and Berlin, and then throughout East Germany. Honecker had to resign, and in the confusion that followed, the Berlin Wall was opened by the GDR authorities on 9 November 1989. As East Germans used the opportunity to flee to West Germany in droves, the continuance of the GDR as a separate state became untenable. On 22 July 1990 the East German parliament reintroduced the five states that had existed 1945–52, each of which acceded to West Germany. On 3 October 1990 the GDR ceased to exist and Germany was unified.

The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was founded on 23 May 1949, and after a narrow election victory Adenauer became its first Chancellor. Aided by a rapid economic recovery masterminded by Erhard, the new democracy won general acceptance and support. This stability was further strengthened by Adenauer's policy of integration into the Western alliance, e.g. through European integration and the joining of NATO, which enabled the speedy gain of full sovereignty for the new state from the Western allies. Adenauer was succeeded by Erhard in 1963, but following disagreements with his coalition partner, the Liberal Party (FDP), he resigned in favour of Kiesinger, who headed a ‘grand coalition’ between the SPD and CDU.

After the 1969 elections the Liberals decided to support the SPD for the first time, which enabled its party leader, Brandt, to become Chancellor. He inaugurated a new, conciliatory approach towards East Germany of dialogue and compromise, which henceforth became the basis of German internal relations. This policy was even maintained by Kohl after he took over from Brandt's successor, Schmidt, in 1982, as a result of which relations with East Germany, though always fragile, improved markedly during those years. Indeed, Kohl recognized the opportunity presented by the disintegration of East Germany for German unification more clearly than most other West Germans, many of whom had abandoned the goal of reunification long before.

German political unification was completed by 1990. For the rest of the decade, unification in the economic and cultural sphere was the major theme in politics and society, as was the new role which a united Germany would have to play on the world stage. German troops began to serve in multinational military peacekeeping operations in Bosnia, Kosovo (1999), and Afghanistan (2002). By contrast, the economic effects of unification still loomed large. Transfer payments from western to eastern Germany augmented an already high tax burden without achieving its goals of economic recovery in the eastern states, while many of the additional costs of unification had been financed through debt. These factors contributed to sluggish economic growth and persistently high structural unemployment, especially in the eastern states. In 1998, Schröder was elected chancellor to head the country's first coalition between Social Democrats and the Green Party. His reforms, however, failed to revive the economy.

German Question; Saarland

Table 10. Twentieth-century German leaders

Emperor

Friedrich Wilhelm II

1888–1918

Presidents of the Weimar Republic

Friedrich Ebert

1919–25

Paul von Hindenburg

1925–34

Leader of the Third Reich

Adolf Hitler

1933–45

German Democratic Republic (East Germany)

communist party leaders:

Wilhelm Pieck

1949–50

Walter Ulbricht

1950–71

Erich Honecker

1971–89

Egon Krenz

1989

prime ministers:

Hans Modrow

1989–90

Lothar de Maizière

1990

Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany)

chancellors:

Konrad Adenauer

1949–63

Ludwid Erhard

1963–6

Kurt Kiesinger

1966–9

Willy Brandt

1969–74

Helmut Schmidt

1974–82

Helmut Kohl

1982–98

Gerhard Schröder

1998– 


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Free newspaper and magazine articles

Free Article Eastern hopes and illusions. (East Germans and reunification)
Magazine article from: National Review; 8/6/1990
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Magazine article from: National Review; 5/14/1990
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News Wire article from: AP Worldstream; 4/5/2008

Related articles from newspapers, magazines, and more

The East's rising stars. (East German politicians Ibrahim Bohme, Lothar de Maiziere, Wolfgang Schnur) (Europe)
Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 3/10/1990; 700+ words ; ...in his career has discovered what he does best. Mr Lothar de Maiziere, by contrast, is a politician by duty rather than...fled to Berlin from France to escape persecution. Lothar's uncle, for instance, became a top officer in...
Former East German Prime Minister Quits Cabinet Over Spying Charges; De Maiziere Unable to Disprove Alleged Links to Secret Police
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 12/18/1990; ; 700+ words ; Lothar de Maiziere, East Germany's first and last...resignation with regret. "I respect Lothar de Maiziere's decision," Kohl said. "It has moved me deeply. Lothar de Maiziere has won my full trust, and even...
The `Little Prussian' of East Germany; Prime Minister de Maiziere's Tough Transition to the New Order
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 10/3/1990; ; 700+ words ; ...TV with the sound turned off. Lothar de Maiziere is an almost impossibly slight...David and Goliath battles that de Maiziere had no right to win but sometimes...countrymen lost their jobs, Lothar de Maiziere has changed not one whit. He...
Last E. German Premier Quits Bonn Party Post;Secret Police Charges Pursue de Maiziere
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 9/7/1991; ; 700+ words ; Lothar de Maiziere, East Germany's only freely elected...calculatedly spread suspicions," de Maiziere quit his post as Chancellor Helmut Kohl...Germany. In a bitter statement, de Maiziere - a former professional viola player...
East Berlin, Soviets Split On NATO; Premier de Maiziere Defends Membership For United Germany
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 4/30/1990; ; 700+ words ; ...Gorbachev, East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere told reporters that the two long...in NATO was unacceptable," de Maiziere said. "We stressed that we would...discussions with West Germany." De Maiziere said, however, that NATO was...
Fiddling with the voting. (East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maizaire)
Magazine article from: The Economist (US); 7/28/1990; 700+ words ; ...sought to play first fiddle, Mr Lothar de Maizidre hardly looks the...German tempers-and Mr de Maiziere's nerve-as nothing else...joins before, which Mr de Maiziere opposes, the whole of Germany...came after the poll, as Mr de Maiziere insists, East and West Germany...
Merkel shares history with aide Her career is intertwined with that of new chief of staff
Newspaper article from: International Herald Tribune; 10/19/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...spokeswoman for Lothar de Maiziere, a cousin of Thomas...experts was Thomas de Maiziere, a lawyer from...East German cousin Lothar, descended from...Democrats. But Lothar's star fell after...even though de Maiziere denied ever informing...
Merkel and aide share political past Her career is intertwined with that of new chief of staff
Newspaper article from: International Herald Tribune; 10/20/2005; ; 700+ words ; ...spokeswoman for Lothar de Maiziere, a cousin of Thomas...experts was Thomas de Maiziere, a lawyer from...East German cousin Lothar, descended from...Democrats. But Lothar's star fell after...even though de Maiziere denied ever informing...
Ex-East German Premier Denies He Was Informer
Newspaper article from: The Washington Post; 12/9/1990; ; 645 words ; ...former East German prime minister Lothar de Maiziere, now a minister in Chancellor...the code name "Czerny." De Maiziere, as he did when similar charges...Dieter Vogel said Kohl summoned de Maiziere to his office Thursday after a...
Top German pol quits posts after informer charge
Newspaper article from: Chicago Sun-Times; 12/18/1990; ; 691 words ; BONN Lothar de Maiziere, top politician in the old East Germany, quit his Cabinet...expressed regret and said he had no reason to doubt de Maiziere's word. "For Lothar de Maiziere, too, the general legal principle must be respected that...

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