Peter Porsch (born 15 October 1944 in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
) is a German academic and politician. From 1990 till 2009 he was a member of the
Parliament of Saxony for the far-left party
Die Linke
Die Linke (; ), also known as the Left Party ( ), is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The party was founded in 2007 as the result of the merger of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) and Labour and Social Justice – The ...
. He headed the parliamentary group of his party between 1994 and 2009.
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Biography
He was raised in Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
, but settled in the German Democratic Republic
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...
in 1973, taking East German
East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from its formation on 7 October 1949 until its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on 3 October 1990. Until 1989, it was generally vie ...
citizenship in 1979. From 1970 until the 1980s he was an informant
An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a "snitch", "rat", "canary", "stool pigeon", "stoolie", "tout" or "grass", among other terms) is a person who provides privileged information, or (usually damaging) information inten ...
for the 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 ...
under the code name '' IM Christoph'', as was later established by the Commissioner for the Stasi Archives.Leipzig
Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
, initially as a research assistant and later as a senior researcher in the Department for German Studies
German studies is an academic field that researches, documents and disseminates German language, literature, and culture in its historic and present forms. Academic departments of German studies therefore often focus on German culture, German h ...
/ Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, which he had already studied for his first degree at Vienna University
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
from 1962 till 1968.[ He pursued his academic career at Leipzig for more than three decades, obtaining his ]habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...
in 1981 for work on "Text evaluation as a Method for gathering language-communicative norms" and obtaining a professorship in 1988.[ after his Stasi past was revealed.Stasi-Verdacht: Peter Porsch gefeuert - Deutschland - FOCUS Online]
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Porsch became a member of the SED in 1982. From 1991 to 1995 and from 1997 to 2001 he was chairman of the Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus in Saxony, and was elected to the Parliament of Saxony in 1990, and has headed the PDS/Die Linke faction since 1994. He was vice president of the PDS from 2000 to 2003.
On 11 May 2006 the Parliament of Saxony decided with great majority to open a case against Porsch at the Constitutional Court of Saxony in order to revoke his parliamentary seat, according to article 118 of the Saxon Constitution, as a consequence of his Stasi past. The case was denied in November that year for formal reasons, since the time limit to open a case had lapsed.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Porsch, Peter
1944 births
Living people
Die Linke politicians
Members of the Landtag of Saxony
Stasi informants