Hans Modrow

During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Modrow ordered thousands of Volkspolizei, Stasi, Combat Groups of the Working Class, and National People's Army troops to crush a demonstration at the Dresden Hauptbahnhof on 4–5 October. Some 1,300 people were arrested. In a top secret and encrypted telex to Honecker on 9 October, Modrow reported: "With the determined commitment of the comrades of the security organs, anti-state terrorist riots were suppressed".^[16]

When Honecker was toppled on 18 October, Gorbachev hoped that Modrow would become the new leader of the SED. Egon Krenz was selected instead.^[17] He became premier following the resignation of Willi Stoph on 13 November, four days after the Berlin Wall fell. The SED formally abandoned power on 1 December. Krenz resigned two days later, on 3 December. Since the premiership was the highest state post in East Germany, Modrow became the de facto leader of the country.^[18][19]

To defeat the opposition's demand for the complete dissolution of the Stasi, it was renamed as the "Office for National Security" (Amt für Nationale Sicherheit – AfNS) on 17 November 1989. Modrow's attempt to re-brand it further as the "Office for the Protection of the Constitution of the GDR" (Verfassungsschutz der DDR) failed due to pressure from the public and the opposition parties and the AfNS was dissolved on 13 January 1990.^[20] The Modrow government gave orders to destroy incriminating Stasi files.^[16]

On 7 December 1989, Modrow accepted the proposal of the East German Round Table opposition groups to hold free elections within six months. Modrow and the Round Table agreed on 28 January to bring the elections forward to 18 March. By this time, the SED had added "Party of Democratic Socialism" to its name; the SED portion was dropped altogether in February. Some of the Round Table parties strove for a "third way" model of democratic socialism and therefore agreed with Modrow to slow down or block a reunification with capitalist West Germany. As the SED-PDS regime grew weaker, Modrow on 1 February 1990 proposed a slow, three-stage process that would create a neutral German confederation and continued to oppose "rapid" reunification. The collapse of the East German state and economy in early 1990 and the approaching East German free elections allowed Helmut Kohl's government in Bonn to disregard Modrow's demand for neutrality.^[21]

From 5 February 1990 on, Modrow included eight representatives of opposition parties and civil liberties groups as ministers without portfolio in his cabinet. On 13 February 1990, Modrow met with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, asking for an accommodation loan of 15 billion DM, which was rejected by Kohl.^[22] Modrow remained premier until the 18 March 1990 elections.^[5] The PDS expelled Honecker, Krenz, and other Communist-era leaders in February 1990.^[23]

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  Modrow addressing the Volkskammer on 17 November 1989
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  Modrow with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl during the opening of the Brandenburg Gate on 22 December 1989
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  Modrow giving a speech at a rally on 13 March 1990
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  Modrow congratulating his successor, Lothar de Maizière, on his election as Minister-President

Criminal sentence

On 27 May 1993, the Dresden District Court found Modrow guilty of electoral fraud committed in the Dresden municipal elections in May 1989, specifically, understating the percentage of voters who refused to vote for the official slate.^[24] The judge declined to impose a prison sentence or a fine.^[24] The Dresden District Court revoked the decision in August 1995 and Modrow was sentenced to nine months on probation.^[25][26] Modrow did not directly deny the charges, but argued that the trial was politically motivated and that the court lacked jurisdiction for crimes committed in East Germany. "We were all members of a political system," he said, speaking to the court in Dresden. "Some perhaps had the good fortune not to come into contact with manipulation, while others could not or were not allowed to turn away."^[24]

Later life and death

After German reunification, Modrow served as a member of the Bundestag (1990–1994)^[5] and of the European Parliament (1999–2004).^[27] After leaving office, he wrote a number of books on his political experiences, his continued Marxist political views, and his disappointment at the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc.^[28][29] Although a supporter of Gorbachev's reforms in the 1980s, after the fall of Communism he criticised them for weakening the Eastern Bloc's economy.^[7] In 2006, he suggested both West Germany and East Germany were responsible for the killings of East Germans by the communist regime at the Berlin Wall, and later defended the construction of the wall as a necessary measure to prevent a war over West Berlin.^[30] He also called East Germany an "effective democracy".^[31] He was criticised for maintaining contacts with Neo-Stalinist groups.^[32] In 2018, he sued the Federal Intelligence Service for access to West German intelligence files on him from the Cold War.^[33] In 2019 he criticised the enlargement of NATO, which he also opposed reunified Germany's membership in.^[30] Modrow died on 10 February 2023, aged 95.^[34][35] He was buried at Dorotheenstadt Cemetery.^[36]

Citations