The unknown political negotiators in the upheaval of Europe

After the Volkskammer elections, the last and only democratically elected government of the GDR under Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière was sworn in on 12 April 1990. Its aim was to negotiate and work out the domestic and foreign policy framework conditions for the GDR's accession to the Federal Republic. To this end, 22 ministries were newly formed or restructured. Each ministry had at least one, but usually several, state secretaries or parliamentary state secretaries, who, however, are hardly aware of the public as political actors in the political transformation process of the GDR.
The project »The unknown political negotiators in the upheaval of Europe« sheds light on the last time and the last decisions of the GDR government with interviews and at the same time secures important sources. 

To this end, it conducted five detailed interviews with contemporary witnesses with five state secretaries of the last GDR government. The project is renamed the Leibniz Institute for European History (IEG) in Mainz.

A scientific publication is planned for autumn 2021.

The public closing event with the aforementioned state secretaries, at which a summary of the eyewitness interviews will also be shown, has been postponed to 30 September 2021. It will take place in the Federal Foundation for Reappraisal.

The interviews were conducted by Dr. Katharina Kunter in cooperation with Michael Günter von Mind in Motion, recorded as eyewitness interviews in the video and transcribed. The interviewed were:

1) Hans Misselwitz, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

2) Dr. Helmut Domke, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

3) Dr. Petra Erler, State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister

4) Almuth Berger, State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister

5) Helga Kreft, State Secretary in the Ministry of Family Affairs and Women's Affairs