- Lothar de Maizière
Lothar de Maizière [IPA|də mɛˈzjɛʀ] (born
2 March 1940 ) is a German conservative politician who served as the first and only democratically electedPrime Minister of theGerman Democratic Republic in 1990, and as such was the last leader of an independent East Germany.He was born in
Nordhausen and studied viola at the College of Music "Hanns Eisler" inEast Berlin from 1959 to 1965. He used to be in theBerlin Symphony Orchestra before he went on to study law (distance learning) at theHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin from 1969 to 1975.In 1990 he was elected to the East German
Volkskammer as a member of theChristian Democratic Union (East Germany) . He then became the successor toHans Modrow as Premier and held this position fromApril 12 untilOctober 2 ,1990 - onOctober 3 , the East German state was reunified with the Federal Republic ofGermany (from 1949 to 1990,West Germany ). As premier he had signed the “2+4” treaty which ended the four wartime allied powers' rights and responsibilities in Berlin and Germany, and which preceded the unification. The treaty decreed it would be signed by the four allies and the two Germanys but only the unified Germany and the allies would ratify it.After
German reunification he was appointed Minister for Special Affairs in the CDU government ofHelmut Kohl , until his resignation onDecember 17 ,1990 amid rumors that he had worked for the East GermanStasi .He belongs to a noble family who, as
Huguenot s, had fledFrance for asylum inPrussia in the late 17th century. He is a son of the lawyerClement de Maizière . His uncleUlrich de Maizière was Inspector General of the (West) German Armed Forces and his cousinThomas de Maizière was minister in the state ofSaxony and became Head of the Federal Chancellery (Chef des Bundeskanzleramtes und Minister für besondere Aufgaben) in November 2005.Famous quotes
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