The Prime Minister of the GDR began market reforms in the communist part of Germany, but criticized the unification of the country, arguing that it was carried out too hastily .
On Saturday, February 11, Hans Modrow, the last communist leader of East Germany, died at the age of 95. Until April 1990, he served as Prime Minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), his tenure in this post ended with the first and only free elections in the country under the influence of the Kremlin.
The death of the German politician was announced in Twitter parliamentary group of the Left Party, which Hans Modrow continued to advise in his old age.
For 16 years, starting in 1973, this politician of East Germany, which was under the complete control of Moscow, was the chairman of the Communist Party in Dresden. He was distinguished by a penchant for asceticism and criticism of the then communist elite of the GDR for their penchant for luxury. Hans Modrow refused party benefits and insisted on living in an ordinary apartment.
Mein geschätzter Genosse Hans Modrow was Alter von 95 Jahren verstorben. Seiner Familie mein herzliches Beileid! Hans war ein zutiefst aufrichtiger und kämpferischer Socialist. Bis ins hohe Alter war er ein wichtiger Rajeber in unserer Partei, desen Klugheit fehlen wird. pic.twitter.com/FSLENdpEON
— Dietmar Bartsch (@DietmarBartsch) 11 Feb. 2023
In November 1989, a few days after the fall of the Berlin Wall, which marked the beginning of the unification of Germany, Hans Modrow headed the government of the GDR, inviting representatives of the opposition parties to it.
After the resignation of the chairman of the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the chairman of the State Council GDR Egon Krenz in early December of the same year, Modrow became the main political figure in East Germany.
What is the politician remembered for
The Modrow government established an agency in the GDR responsible for East Germany's transition to a market economy. The “Modrow Law” allowed the owners of houses and farms to buy the land on which their property stood.
Hans Modrow left the post of prime minister in April 1990 after the first democratic elections were held.
Later, the former prime minister worked in the Bundestag of the united Germany and the European Parliament. He was a member of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), which was the successor party of the former ruling communists of East Germany (SED) and was later absorbed by the Left Party.
Modrow criticized German reunification, arguing that it was carried out too hastily and that East Germany should have negotiated additional concessions in the process.
In his old age, Modrow continued to advise the Left Party. He said he felt “a permanent responsibility to former citizens of [East Germany]”.
Recall that in November last year, a longtime associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, the former head of the Federal Drug Control Service (FCSN), Viktor Cherkesov. He was 72 years old, the cause of death is unknown.
