The last GDR Prime Minister of the state party SED, Hans Modrow, is dead. He died overnight at the age of 95, as the left in the German Bundestag announced. After the fall of the Wall, he negotiated the first steps toward rapprochement with the German government. From November 1989 to April 1990, Modrow controlled the fortunes of the GDR.
“Our party is losing an important personality with this,” said parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch and former parliamentary group leader Gregor Gysi. The longtime SED functionary and later PDS and Left Party politician was considered a convinced socialist who had kept a small piece of critical distance to the all-powerful SED during the GDR era.
In the 1970s, Modrow was therefore sent away from the power center in Berlin to become the first district secretary in the provinces of Dresden. After the fall of the Wall, this qualified him for managerial positions in the renewing SED. Just four days later, on November 13, 1989, Modrow was elected Chairman of the GDR Council of Ministers to succeed Willi Stoph – for around 150 days.
Until old age he advised the left as chairman of their council of elders. He made it clear that as a former prime minister he saw himself as “continued to have a responsibility towards the former GDR citizens”.