Manfred Uschner (16 May 1937 – 13 November 2007) was a German diplomat and party functionary of the

Socialist Unity Party The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...

(SED). Uschner served as an employee in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED for over twenty years, including fifteen years as personal assistant to

Hermann Axen Hermann Axen (6 March 1916 – 15 February 1992) was a German political activist who became involved in political resistance during the twelve Nazi years, most of which he spent in state detention. After the war he became a national politician ...

Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...

member and

Secretary of the Central Committee The Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was responsible for managing and directing the day-to-day operations of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, while the Politburo was charged with the ...

responsible for foreign affairs. In the 1980s, Uschner held close contacts with many politicians of the

West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together wi ...

. On the orders of

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 post ...

, he was purged from the Central Committee apparatus on the eve of the

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

for this and for being critical of the SED's leadership.

Life and career

Early career

Uschner was born in 1937 in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...

to a

working-class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family. He lost his sister and grandmother during the air raid on Magdeburg on 16 January 1945. Uschner's family had a long

social democratic Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

tradition. His grandfather Paul Uschner was a bodyguard to

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...

, founding father of the

. Uschner's father Fritz rejoined the SPD after the war and cofounded the

(SED) in Magdeburg. Fritz Uschner rose to become a candidate member of the Central Committee of the SED and a member of the

Volkskammer The Volkskammer (, "People's Chamber") was the supreme power organ of East Germany. It was the only branch of government in the state, and per the principle of unified power, all state organs were subservient to it. The Volkskammer was initia ...

in 1950, but was purged by the party in 1953 and only rehabilitated in 1956. Uschner joined the children's association of the

Free German Youth The Free German Youth (; FDJ) is a youth movement in Germany. Formerly, it was the official youth wing of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. The organization was meant for young adults, both male a ...

(FDJ) in 1947 and became a member of the

Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation The Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation (), consisting of the Young Pioneers and the Thälmann Pioneers, was a youth organisation of schoolchildren aged 6 to 13 in East Germany. They were named after Ernst Thälmann, the former leader of the C ...

upon its founding in 1948. After completing his Abitur, Uschner became one of the first students of the Institute for International Relations of the German Academy of Political Science and Law "Walter Ulbricht" in

Potsdam-Babelsberg Babelsberg () is the largest quarter (urban subdivision), quarter of Potsdam, the capital city of the Germany, German state of Brandenburg. The neighbourhood is named after a small hill on the Havel river. It is the location of Babelsberg Palace an ...

, ''de facto'' a Marxist–Leninist cadre factory of the ruling SED, graduating in 1959. On 2 December 1959, Uschner joined the GDR's

Ministry for Foreign Affairs In many countries, the ministry of foreign affairs (abbreviated as MFA or MOFA) is the highest government department exclusively or primarily responsible for the state's foreign policy and relations, diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral rela ...

. Not even two years later, on 19 January 1961, he became an

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché () is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified ac ...

of the GDR's embassy in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

. This appointment was short-lived, as he soon was transferred back to the Institute for International Relations as a lecturer.

SED Central Committee

Against his wishes and despite not being an expert on

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, Uschner was poached by the SED, joining the Central Committee apparatus as instructor for Latin America in the International Relations Department on 1 September 1968. From 1972 to 1973, he was forced to attend a one-year course at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy. On 15 August 1974, Uschner was promoted to be second, scientific personal assistant to Hermann Axen,

member and

responsible for foreign affairs, with the rank of a deputy department head. Starting in 1976, Uschner also served as secretary of the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo. In 1983, he rose to first personal assistant. From 1984, Uschner was a member of the ''Joint Security Policy Working Group SED-SPD'', which mainly worked on

disarmament Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing Weapon, weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, ...

, serving as chief of staff for the SED side. Uschner analyzed foreign press for Axen, also accompanying him on foreign trips, most notably to the US in May 1988, where Uschner held discussions with

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...

. Uschner had increasingly good contacts with politicians of the SPD, in particular

Egon Bahr Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr (; 18 March 1922 – 19 August 2015) was a German SPD politician. The former journalist was the creator of the ''Ostpolitik'' promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of State in ...

, whom he befriended. Unusually for a personal assistant to a Central Committee Secretary, Uschner was allowed to continue to publish, give speeches and appear on TV, including in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

Downfall

After being warned repeatedly, Uschner was fired by Hermann Axen on the orders of

on 20 February 1989, the Central Committee Secretariat formally removing him two days later. He was accused of "social democratism" and of having an "anti-party stance". A

Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...

dossier claimed him of having "Succumb to enemy influence (SPD)". Honecker had originally called Axen two days earlier with the plan to have him be arrested by the Stasi and imprisoned in their Berlin-Hohenschönhausen political prison, but Axen was able to talk him out of that, arguing it would disrupt the talks with the SPD. Similar to the removal of Herbert Häber, Uschner was transferred to the Institute for Marxist–Leninist Philosophy of the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED with a 50% pay cut and under constant surveillance of the Stasi. Uschner's removal came as part of a broader wave of about 20,000 party functionaries, including 39 other Central Committee employees, removed from office and 66,000 party members expelled for being critical of the SED's leadership from January to November 1989. Until the

, Uschner successfully tried to contact

Karsten Voigt Karsten Dietrich Voigt (born 11 April 1941 in Elmshorn) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Early life and education From 1960–1969, Voigt studied history, German, and Scandinavian languages and literature at the univ ...

. A few days after he received an invitation from the American embassy, Uschner's ''

Wartburg The Wartburg () is a castle originally built in the Middle Ages. It is situated on a precipice of to the southwest of and overlooking the town of Eisenach, in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It was the home of St. Elisabeth of Hungary, the ...

'' car burned down in front of his son's kindergarten. The responsible Stasi

Main Directorate for Reconnaissance The Main Directorate for Reconnaissance (; , ) was the foreign intelligence service of the Ministry of State Security (''Stasi''), the main security agency of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), from 1955 to 1990. The HVA was an in ...

had originally planned for the car to explode in the garage, killing Uschner's son above to make sure "Uschner no longer engages in politics after that!".

Reunified Germany

Despite being rehabilitated on 17 February 1990, Uschner soon left the now-renamed Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), forming the ''Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis'' with other social democratic-minded former SED members. Uschner repeatedly attempted to join the SPD. He was initially rejected in 1993 by the

Treptow Treptow () was a former borough in the southeast of Berlin. It merged with Köpenick to form Treptow-Köpenick in 2001. Geography The district was composed by the localities of Alt-Treptow, Plänterwald, Baumschulenweg, Niederschönewei ...

SPD for being a former SED functionary. His attempt to join the SPD in 1995 via the neighbouring

Kreuzberg Kreuzberg () is a district of Berlin, Germany. It is part of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Berlin-Mitte, Mitte. During the Cold War era, it was one of the poorest areas of West Berlin, but since German reunification in ...

SPD in

West Berlin West Berlin ( or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1 ...

caused controversy and a discussion on how to deal with former SED members, despite Uschner's membership application having the endorsement of

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

and his friend Egon Bahr.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uschner, Manfred 1937 births 2007 deaths Foreign policy writers Politicians from Magdeburg East German diplomats Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold Recipients of the Banner of Labor German communists