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Wolfgang Schnur | |
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.jpg) Schnur in 1990 | |
| Leader of the Democratic Beginning | |
| In office 16 December 1989 – 14 March 1990 | |
| General Secretary | Oswald Wutzke |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Rainer Eppelmann |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 8 June 1944 Stettin, Pomerania, Nazi Germany (now Szczecin, Poland) |
| Died | 16 January 2016 (aged 71) Vienna, Austria |
| Political party | Democratic Beginning (1989–1990) |
| Children | 11 |
| Alma mater | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Occupation |
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Wolfgang Schnur (8 June 1944 – 16 January 2016) was an East German civil rights lawyer and a longtime informer of the East German Stasi. He was closely involved with the Association of Evangelical Churches ("Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen" / BEK) and worked on many of the cases in which the BEK's leading figures were involved. He also became well networked, on more than one level, with the country's political establishment.[1][2]
East Germany was a one-party dictatorship. During the 1970s and 1980s, the churches increasingly provided an outlet for alternative political views which, under a more decentralised system, would have been expressed through an effective multi-party parliamentary structure. Schnur was a founding member of the oppositional "Demokratischer Aufbruch" (loosely "Democratic Awakening" / DA) in October 1989. He was one of the "new party" leadership team's most attractive and dynamic members: over the next few months there was talk of Wolfgang Schnur becoming prime minister in a new genuinely democratic German Democratic Republic. In February 1990 he appointed Angela Merkel as a press spokeswoman, the start of a remarkable political career. Wolfgang Schnur's political career had peaked, however. On 8 March 1990 he rejected allegations that he had been a Stasi informer. On 14 March 1990, less than a week before East Germany's first (and only) free parliamentary election, it was reported that Schnur had resigned from the presidency of Democratic Awakening. He was expelled from the party the next day.[1][2][3][4][5]
- ^ a b Helmut Müller-Enbergs. "Schnur, Wolfgang * 8.6.1944, † 16.1.2016 Vorsitzender der Partei Demokratischer Aufbruch". Wer war wer in der DDR?. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ a b Alexander Kobylinski (26 February 2015). "Aus purem Egoismus". In der DDR war Wolfgang Schnur mein Anwalt. 1990 flog er als Stasi-Spitzel auf – und löste so ein politisches Beben aus. Jahre später traf ich ihn wieder. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ Alexander Kobylinski (26 January 2016). Der verratene Verräter: Wolfgang Schnur: Bürgerrechtsanwalt und Spitzenspitzel. Mitteldeutscher Verlag. ISBN 978-3-95462-679-3. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ "Wolfgang Schnur". DDR 1989/90. Erhard Kleps, Berlin. Retrieved 23 March 2019.
- ^ George Packer (1 December 2014). "The Quiet German". The astonishing rise of Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world. The New Yorker. Retrieved 23 March 2019.