Wolfgang Schwanitz (26 June 1930 – 1 February 2022) was a German intelligence official, who was the last head of the Stasi, the East German secret police. It was officially renamed the "Office for National Security" on 17 November 1989. Unlike his predecessor,

Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Stasi, from 1957 u ...

, he did not hold the title "Minister of State Security", but held the title of "Leader of the Office for National Security". Following the German reunification, he was active as an author of works that sought to portray the Stasi in a positive light.

Karl Wilhelm Fricke Karl Wilhelm Fricke (born 3 September 1929) is a German political journalist and author. He has produced several of the standard works on resistance and state repression in the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). In 1955 he became one of s ...

:
Geschichtsrevisionismus aus MfS-Perspektive
', Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, 2006

Career in East Germany

Early developments

Schwanitz was born in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. He became a member of the Free German Youth when the German Democratic Republic was founded. In 1950, he became a member of the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (german: Gesellschaft für Deutsch-Sowjetische Freundschaft), and in 1953, of the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...

, the ruling East German communist party. He worked for the Stasi from 1951, and studied at the college of the Stasi, where he earned a doctorate with a dissertation on "combating hostile tendencies among the youth" (german: Bekämpfung feindlicher Erscheinungen unter Jugendlichen) (the doctorate is not recognized in present-day Germany). Between 1974 and 1986, he was head of Stasi in East Berlin. In 1986, he was appointed Stasi Lieutenant General and deputy of the Minister for State Security

Appointment as the "Leader of the Office of National Security"

During the collapse of the communist regime in the autumn of 1989, both the long-time Head of State of East Germany,

Erich Honecker Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...

, and the long-time head of the Stasi, Erich Mielke, resigned from their positions. Schwanitz was appointed the successor of Mielke as Leader of the Office for National Security and member of the Council of Ministers. The Stasi was dissolved on 31 March 1990. Since German reunification, Schwanitz was a leading member of the

historical revisionist In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...

organisation Gesellschaft zur Rechtlichen und Humanitären Unterstützung, consisting of Stasi veterans who defend the communist regime and the Stasi.

Personal life and death

Schwanitz died on 1 February 2022, at the age of 91.

References

Literature

* * Hubertus Knabe, ''Die Täter sind unter uns. Über das Schönreden der SED-Diktatur'', Propyläen, Berlin 2007, {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwanitz, Wolfgang 1930 births 2022 deaths Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Stasi officers Politicians from Berlin