Christa Luft
Christa Luft | |||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 18 November 1989 – 12 April 1990 Serving with Peter Moreth, Lothar de Maizière | |||||||||||||||||||||
Chairman | Hans Modrow | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Günther Kleiber Alfred Neumann | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Peter-Michael Diestel | ||||||||||||||||||||
Minister of Economics | |||||||||||||||||||||
In office 18 November 1989 – 12 April 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||
Chairman of the Council of Ministers | Hans Modrow | ||||||||||||||||||||
Preceded by | Position established | ||||||||||||||||||||
Succeeded by | Gerhard Pohl | ||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Christa Hecht 22 February 1938 Krakow am See, Nazi Germany (now Germany) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Political party | Independent | ||||||||||||||||||||
Other political affiliations | The Left (2007–2022) Party of Democratic Socialism (1989–2007) Socialist Unity Party (1958–1989) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
Residence | Berlin | ||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation |
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Christa Luft (née Hecht; 22 February 1938) is a German economist and politician of the SED/PDS.[1] Luft joined the SED in 1958. From 18 November 1989 to 18 March 1990, she was the Minister of Economics in the Modrow government.[2] From 1994 to 2002 she was member of the Bundestag for the PDS.
From 1963 to 1971 Luft was registered as a Stasi informant under the code name IM Gisela.[3][4]
Life
Provenance and early years
Christa Hecht was born into a working-class family at
Shortly before the end of her penultimate year at secondary school she was one of four students – two boys and two girls – picked out by the school director to complete her schooling at the prestigious
Staying on at the Berlin Economics College ("Hochschule für Ökonomie Berlin" / HfÖ)
Following her graduation she stayed on at the HfÖ as a research assistant, working for her doctorate which she received in 1964. Her doctoral dissertation concerned "The key influences of socialist international division of labour and foreign trade on the beneficial impact for societal labour (investigated using an East German example)" (" Die wesentlichen Einflüsse der sozialistischen internationalen Arbeitsteilung und des Außenhandels auf den Nutzeffekt gesellschaftlicher Arbeit (untersucht am Beispiel der Empfängerröhrenindustrie der DDR)"). Her supervisors were Gertrud Gräbig and
Between 1967 and 1970 she worked as assistant dean ("Prodekanin") for
More than twenty years later Christa Luft told an interviewer that by October 1988 it had been clear that there were "only a couple of blockheads, who did not want to see what was happening, and how unrest was increasing among the general population, not simply because of the shortages, but because people were spiritually at the end of their tethers. [by the time she returned from a visit to the Soviet Union earlier that year she was convinced that one had a particular responsibility to do something] if you carried responsibility for the spiritual awakening of a new generation of students.[a] Her speech of acceptance when she was appointed rector at the HfÖ was addressed to the new cohort of students: in the East German context, it was intriguingly prescient and strangely uncoded:
- "I should like to see the massive potential which we have here among the teaching staff and among the students, well used. When we will look back [on these times] we should not simply have to celebrate how wisely the party leadership implemented their decisions, but that we were ourselves to the fore in working collaboratively on solving the problems [of the country]."
- "Ich möchte, dass dieses große Potenzial, das wir im Lehrkörper und unter den Studenten haben, richtig genutzt wird, dass wir nicht im Nachhinein immer bejubeln müssen, wie weise die Parteiführung wieder Beschlüsse gefasst hat, sondern ich möchte, dass wir im Vorfeld an der Lösung der Probleme mitarbeiten können."[6]
Christa Luft, October 1988, quoted by Rainer Burchhardt in 2011
By 1988 the HfÖ in
National politics
In 1989 Christa Luft entered politics at a time of national transition. Between 18 November 1989 and 18 March 1990 she served as first of the three vice-chair of the East German
During her time as a national politician Christa Luft retained her links with the HfÖ, in charge of the "East European Economics" ("Osteuropawirtschaft") teaching chair till 1 October 1991, which was when the Berlin senate, a couple of days ahead of reunification, closed down the entire institution.[11]
After reunification
Between 1 October 1991 and 31 October 1994 Luft was a member of the governing executive and a lecturer at the "Berlin Institute for International Education" ("Institut für Internationale Bildung Berlin e.V.") of which she was a co-founder. The focus was to educate a generation Russian speaking economics experts from Russia and the surrounding post-Soviet successor states, especially from Bulgaria and also from China.
As part of the unification process 144 members of the East German Volkskammer, including 24 of the PDS members, transferred to the enlarged Bundestag of a reunited Germany. Christa Luft was not one of them. However, she stood for election in the 1994, when the PDS experienced a modest recovery, increasing the number of its seats from 17 to 30. Luft's candidacy, which was as a "directly elected" member for the Berlin-Friedrichshain-Lichtenberg electoral district, was successful, with 44.4% of the first preference votes: between 1994 and 2002 she served as a PDS member of the Bundestag.[17] Between 1998 and 2002 she served as chair of the PDS group in the chamber and as the party's parliamentary spokesperson on Economics and budgetary matters.[4]
Later years
Christa Luft regularly wrote a column on politics and economics in
Memberships
Christa Luft has been a member of the Learned Leibnitz Society since 1993. She is a member of the German Association for East European Studies ("Deutsche Gesellschaft für Osteuropakunde") and of the OWUS ("(Offener Wirtschaftsverband von kleinen und mittelständischen Unternehmen, Freiberuflern und Selbständigen e. V.)"). She was the first chairperson of the OWUS.[19]
Between 2002 and 2008 Christa Luft chaired the Kuratorium (loosely, "board of trustees") of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. For the subsequent five years, till 2013, she was an elected member of the foundation's executive committee.[20]
Stasi shadows
During her time as a member of the
Luft was a member of the Bundestag between 1994 and 2002: the nature and extent of any past associations she might have had with the Stasi were naturally of interest to the parliamentary authorities. An investigation by the Parliamentary Committee for Election verification, Immunity and Procedure resulted in a careful and detailed report which was published in June 1998. It was established that between 1963 and 1971 Christa Luft had been registered under the cover name "IM Gisela" in connection with an operation undertaken by the Stasi's Main Directorate for Reconnaissance ("Hauptverwaltung Aufklärung" / HVA) section.[23] She had been recruited shortly before receiving her doctorate. On 31 October 1963 she had signed a handwritten "declaration of obligation" statement, of the kind frequently used for informants (" inoffizieller Mitarbeiter") recruited by the Stasi. Later in 1963 she had delivered several (three) "background reports in support of the unmasking of an alleged western spy. However, this was only a 'dummy case' case, used to test her reliability".[b][23] Luft never denied the existence of the assignment, although her recollections of it, at a detailed level, were differently nuanced:
- "It was 1963. Two men came to my student lodging and showed me their identity badges. I had no idea what the badges were. They asked me: 'Is it right that you're about to receive your doctorate, and you love the college where you study and are maybe interested in staying on there?' I answered, 'Yes'. 'That is what we thought. Well, we suspect there is someone from somewhere or other in the west who is an intelligence agent who is taking a very close interest in the college. Could you maybe meet up with him sometime and see what he wants?' I was without suspicion and I was very attached to my college. [I had no sense of being pressured or blackmailed.] ... so there I was, where I had been told, in the Coffee/Milk Bar in central Berlin for the tea dance. And there he was sitting at a table .... to cut a long story short, yes. ... What was he doing there? what were his interests? he likes drinking cognac and Pipapo, that sort of stuff .... I met him two or three times, and then I said I had other things to do. Then I was confronted in 1995 with ....".[6][c]
The investigating Parliamentary Committee reported in addition that Luft had declared herself, "from 1965, prepared to act as a 'cover address' for receiving postal items on behalf of the Mfs. From the available papers [the enquiry could find no sign that] she ever actually had forwarded anything to them", however.[23] They thought she had probably contributed by identifying people who might be recruited for MfS "operational work". The enquiry reported that "from the middle of 1966 till 1971, the point of formal termination on Stasi operations in connection with "IM Gisela", no documents had been provided evidencing "IM activity" by Luft.[23]
By 1995 the
Awards and honours
- 1981 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze[24]
Notes
- ^ "In der zweiten Hälfte der 80er-Jahre gab es nur noch ein paar ganz Betonköpfige, die das nicht sehen wollten, was geschah, wie es unruhiger wurde in der Bevölkerung, und gar nicht mal wegen irgendwelcher Versorgungsprobleme, sondern weil man es geistig satt hatte. Ich bin, also als ich aus der Sowjetunion zurückgekommen bin, war eine meiner Schlussfolgerungen, Du musst etwas tun, dort, wo Du Verantwortung trägst für geistige Öffnung der Studenten, und habe dann mit Unterstützung des Außenhandelsministers Beil und des Hochschulministers, aber besonders von Beil, es geschafft, dass zwölf, dreizehn Studenten aus jedem Studienjahr ins Ausland gehen konnten, zunächst ein halbes Jahr und dann ein ganzes Jahr."[6]
- ^ "dem MfS vor dem Hintergrund der Enttarnung eines angeblichen westlichen Spions […] mehrere (drei) Berichte. Hierbei handelte es sich jedoch lediglich um eine sogenannte Legende, mit deren Hilfe die Zuverlässigkeit […] geprüft werden sollte."
- ^ "Das war 63, da kamen mal an einem Abend, ich wohnte noch zur Untermiete, zwei Männer zu mir und zeigten mir da irgend so eine Marke, ich hatte keine Ahnung, was das für eine Marke ist, und dann fragten die mich: Sie sind doch, stehen kurz vor der Promotion, und Sie lieben doch sicher Ihre Hochschule und interessieren sich für das, was dort vor sich geht? Ich sage, ja. Na ja, wir haben den Verdacht, da ist jemand, der kommt von irgendwo aus dem Westen und der ist so ein Agent und der interessiert sich für vieles an der Hochschule. Können Sie sich nicht mal mit dem treffen und gucken, was der überhaupt will? Ich war ohne Argwohn, und an meiner Hochschule hing ich wirklich. ... Und ich habe mich also mit diesem Mann in der Mokka-Milch-Eisbar auf der Karl-Marx-Allee in Berlin zum Tanztee war ich dorthin bestellt. Und da saß der an so einem am Tisch. ... Und ich will das alles abkürzen, ja, der interessierte sich dann .... Was macht denn der und was hat denn der für ein Faible und trinkt der gern Cognac und Pipapo, solche Sachen. ..... Ich habe zwei, drei Mal mich mit diesem Mann getroffen, und dann habe ich gesagt, ich habe anderes zu tun. Als ich konfrontiert worden bin 1995 ..."[6]
References
- ^ "Natürlich habe ich gesehen, was in der DDR leider alles schiefläuft". Deutschlandfunk (in German). 29 December 2011.
- ^ "Sie lernt ja täglich dazu". Der Spiegel (in German). 12 February 1990. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ Dieter Wiefelspütz (19 June 1998). "Bericht des Deutschen Bundestags: Drucksache 13/11104 vom 19.06.1998" (in German). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Helmut Müller-Enbergs. "Luft, Christa geb. geb. Hecht * 22.02.1938 Stellv. Vorsitzende des Ministerrats u. Ministerin für Wirtschaft". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- )
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rainer Burchhardt (29 December 2011). "Natürlich habe ich gesehen, was in der DDR leider alles schiefläuft". Christa Luft über das Ende der DDR, die Wiedervereinigung und die Geburtsfehler des Euro. Deutschlandradio, Köln. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Erzählsalon ... mit Herbert Roloff, Generaldirektor des VEB Außenhandelsbetriebes Industrieanlagen-Import (AHB IAI)". Verein zur Förderung lebensgeschichtlichen Erinnerns und biografischen Erzählens e.V., Berlin. 7 February 2013. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ a b Tom Strohschneider (21 February 2018). "Die mit Wirtschaft was am Hut hat". Die Ökonomin Christa Luft wird 80 – ihr Leben bleibt der linken Ökonomie gewidmet. Neues Deutschland, Berlin. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Christa Luft, deutsche Wirtschaftswissenschaftlerin; Ministerin in der DDR (1989–1990); DIE LINKE; Prof.; Dr. rer. oec". Munzinger Archiv GmbH, Ravensburg. Retrieved 5 November 2018.
- ^ "Großmeister des Genitivs". In der DDR wimmelt es von Doktoren aller Art. Sie dürfen die geliebten Titel auch nach der Vereinigung behalten. Der Spiegel (online). 1 October 1990. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
- ^ a b c Christine Gohsmann, Katharina Köpping, Jens Möllenbeck, Jochen Weichold and Udo Wolter (compilers). "Bestand: Prof. Dr. Christa Luft, MdB (1994 bis 2002)" (PDF). Archiv Demokratischer Sozialismus. Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Sie lernt ja täglich dazu". Der Spiegel. 12 February 1990. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "9 January1990". Chronik der Mauer. Zentrum für Zeithistorische Forschung e.V., Potsdam. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Mo. 5. Februar 1990". Chronik. Neues Deutschland, Berlin & Erhard Kleps, Berlin. 6 February 1990. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Wird die D-Mark parallele oder keine DDR-Währung?". Unterschiedliche Standpunkte von BRD-Politikern. Neues Deutschland, Berlin. 7 February 1990. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs. "Pohl, Gerhard * 16.8.1937, † 30.5.2012 Minister für Wirtschaft in der Regierung de Maizière". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 7 November 2018.
- ^ "Christa Luft". 25 Jahre Wiedervereinigung. Präsidenten des Bundesarchivs, Koblenz. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ^ Kurt Stenger (6 August 2012). "Neue Kolumne im "nd": Der Krisenstab". Christa Luft, Harry Nick und Rudolf Hickel werden Autor(inn)en unserer Zeitung bleiben. nd-Leser können sich auf die neuen Kolumnisten freuen, ohne die »alten« gänzlich missen zu müssen. Neues Deutschland, Berlin. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ^ Gerald Bindig, OWUS Sachsen (March 2008). "OWUS gratuliert...Prof. Dr. Christa Luft & Christa Luft vor Ort in Leipzig" (PDF). OWUS aktuell. OWUS e.V., V.i.S.d.P. Renate Vehlow, Berlin. pp. 1 & 2. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ISSN 2194-0916. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ^ a b c Hans Halter (9 October 1995). "Alle hatten glänzende Augen". Der Spiegel (online). Retrieved 10 November 2018.
- ^ "Manfred Süß (MfS)". DDR-Lexikon. Katja Ebert Medien und Kommunikation, Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Bericht des Ausschusses für Wahlprüfung, Immunität und Geschäftsordnung (1. Ausschuß) zu dem Überprüfungsverfahren der Abgeordneten Dr. Christa Luft gemäß § 44b Abs. 2 des Abgeordnetengesetzes (AbgG)" (PDF). Drucksache 13/11104 ... (Überprüfung auf eine Tätigkeit oder eine politische Verantwortung für das Ministerium für Staatssicherheit/Amt für Nationale Sicherheit der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik). 19 June 1998. Retrieved 10 November 2018.
- ^ Berliner Zeitung. 28. April 1981, p. 4.