State Commissioner (Germany)

Then-state commissioner Josef Duchač casting his ballot for the 1990 Thuringian state election. He succeeded himself as Minister-President of Thuringia after his party had won the election.

State Commissioner (German: Landesbevollmächtigter) was the title for the provisional heads of government of the New states of Germany shortly after reunification.

German reunification took effect on 3 October 1990, when the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany as five re-established states. However, elections for the state governments of these five states took place on 14 October 1990 and the Landtag of these states elected the respective Minister-Presidents from late October to early November. Between the reunification and the election of the respective Minister-President, appointed state commissioner took on the role of heads of government,[1] as stipulated by the German Reunification Treaty.[2]

These state commissioner also represented their respective state in the Bundesrat, but only had an advisory vote.[3]

They had been appointed by Minister-President of the GDR Lothar de Maizière on 3 August 1990 as Landessprecher (English: State Speaker).[4] Most state commissioners had previously served as Regierungsbevollmächtigte for one of the Bezirke of the GDR that would later be re-organized to the New states; Brick for Neubrandenburg, Wolf for Potsdam, Krause for Leipzig and Duchač for Erfurt. There was some political controversy as to which Regierungsbevollmächtigter would become Landessprecher.[5]

Except for Karl-Hermann Steinberg, who was revealed to have worked for the East German Stasi, all state commissioners were elected to the respective Landtag and were appointed state ministers:

  • Martin Brick [de] was appointed Minister for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
  • Jochen Wolf was appointed Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Transportation of Brandenburg
  • Rudolf Krause [de] was appointed State Minister of the Interior of Saxony

Josef Duchač succeeded himself as Minister-President of Thuringia.

  1. ^ "Amtsblatt des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt vom 2. Okt. 1990" (in German). Landesbevollmächtigter des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt. 1990. Retrieved 2021-11-22.
  2. ^ Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands, 1990, pp. 6.
  3. ^ Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über die Herstellung der Einheit Deutschlands, 1990, pp. 18.
  4. ^ "Die Wiedereinrichtung der Länder in der DDR" (in German). Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk. 29 November 2021. Retrieved 2022-06-27.
  5. ^ ""Machtpoker um Mitteldeutschland: Die Stunde der Polit-Amateure"". YouTube (in German). 22 September 2020. Retrieved 2022-06-27.