Wolfgang Herger

Wolfgang Herger (born 10 August 1935) is a German former politician and civil servant of the Socialist Unity Party (SED). In the German Democratic Republic, he served as the longtime head of the powerful Department of Security Affairs at the Central Committee. During the Wende, he also briefly served in the Politburo.

Wolfgang Herger
Herger in 1976
Secretary for Security Affairs of the
Central Committee Secretariat
In office
10 November 1989 – 3 December 1989
General Secretary
Preceded byEgon Krenz
Succeeded byPosition abolished
Head of the Department for Security Affairs of the Central Committee
In office
1985–1989
Secretary
Deputy
  • Fritz Renckwitz
  • Peter Miethe
Preceded byHerbert Scheibe
Succeeded byPeter Miethe
Member of the Volkskammer
for Görlitz-Stadt, Görlitz-Land, Zittau
In office
14 November 1971 – 5 April 1990
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byConstituency abolished
Personal details
Born
Wolfgang Herger

(1935-08-10) 10 August 1935
Rudolstadt, Free State of Thuringia, Nazi Germany
Political partySocialist Unity Party
(1957–1989)
Alma materUniversity of Jena (Dr. phil)
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Civil Servant
  • Academic
AwardsPatriotic Order of Merit
Central institution membership
Other offices held

Life and career

Herger pursued a degree in philosophy from 1953 to 1958 at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.[1] Until 1962, he worked as an assistant at the Institute of Philosophy while also being active in the FDJ and later the SED.[2] In 1963, he earned his Ph.D. from the University of Jena with a thesis titled "On the Dialectics of Social Necessity and Moral Freedom in Our Era: Investigations into Fundamental Questions of Marxist-Leninist Ethics."[2]

After the Wende, Herger became unemployed and worked as a gatekeeper and employee of various trading companies. In November 1992, Herger briefly worked as a recreational supervisor at a Civilian Service school of the Federal Office for Civilian Service in Kablow-Ziegelei, south of Berlin.

Political career

East Germany

Wolfgang Herger became a member of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in 1949 and joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1957.

From 1964 to 1976, Herger served as a secretary in the Central Council of the FDJ, and from 1971 to 1990, he was a member of the Volkskammer. During his time in the Volkskammer, he served various roles, including as a member of the Committee for National Defense (1971-1976), chairman of the Youth Committee (1976-1985), and deputy chairman/chairman of the Committee for National Defense (1986-1990).[1]

Herger was also a member of the Central Committee of the SED from 1976 to 1989, where he led the Youth Department from 1976 to 1985 and the Department of Security Issues from 1985 to 1989. In both roles, he worked under the supervision of Secretary Egon Krenz. Additionally, he served in the Collegium of the Ministry of National Defence from 1985 to 1989 and the National Defence Council of the GDR from 1986 to 1989.

In recognition of his service, Herger was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1973.

During the Wende, Herger succeeded Krenz, now General Secretary of the SED, as Security Secretary, also being elected as a member of the Politburo.[1]

Alongside Krenz, he played a role in ensuring the peaceful transition of events in the autumn of 1989.

Germany

In the Mauerschützenprozesse (Berlin Wall shooting trials) on 24 July 1998, Herger was convicted by the Berlin Regional Court of "complicity in manslaughter" (political responsibility for the fatal shootings at the Berlin Wall) and sentenced to 22 months of suspended imprisonment. Alongside Herger, the former Deputy Minister of Defence Horst Brünner and two other prominent DDR military figures (Manfred Grätz and Heinz Tappert) were also convicted. The court held these four defendants partially responsible for the GDR's fundamental orders regarding "border security," arguing that they had tacitly accepted the deaths of refugees.[3][1]

References
  1. "Herger, Wolfgang | Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur". www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  2. "Wolfgang Herger - Munzinger Biographie". www.munzinger.de. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
  3. "Gericht verurteilt hohe DDR-Funktionäre - WELT". DIE WELT (in German). 2011-11-15. Retrieved 2023-09-23.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.