1. Hans Modrow presided over a transitional government, paving the way to the first and only free elections in East Germany.
16 Facts About Hans Modrow
1. 2.
Hans Modrow's cabinet was the last over which the SED presided, as well as the first to include opposition members.
3.
Hans Modrow was later convicted of the first charge and was given a nine-month suspended sentence.
4.
Hans Modrow trained as a machinist from 1942 to 1945 when he was filled with intense hatred of the Bolsheviks, whom he deemed as subhumans, inferior to Germans physically and morally.
5.
Hans Modrow later served briefly in the Volkssturm in January 1945, and was captured as a prisoner of war by the Soviet Red Army in Stralsund in May 1945.
6.
Hans Modrow had never heard of him and felt embarrassed that the people he thought of as "subhumans" knew more about German culture than he.
7.
From 1949 to 1961, Hans Modrow worked in various functions for the Free German Youth in Brandenburg, Mecklenburg, and Berlin and in 1952 and 1953 studied at the Komsomol college in Moscow.
8.
Hans Modrow gained his doctorate at the Humboldt University of Berlin in 1966.
9.
Hans Modrow had a long political career in East Germany, serving as a member of the Volkskammer from 1957 to 1990 and in the SED's Central Committee from 1967 to 1989, having previously been a candidate for the ZK from 1958 to 1967.
10.
Hans Modrow was prevented from rising to national office, largely because he was one of the few in leadership to publicly oppose Erich Honecker.
11.
Hans Modrow developed some important contacts with the Soviet Union, including eventual Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
12.
The Hans Modrow government gave orders to destroy incriminating Stasi files.
13.
On 7 December, Hans Modrow's government agreed at the Round Table to hold free elections in May 1990.
14.
The Dresden District Court revoked the decision in August 1995 and Hans Modrow was sentenced to nine months on probation.
15.
Hans Modrow did not directly deny the charges, but argued that the trial was politically motivated and that the court lacked jurisdiction for crimes committed in East Germany.
16.
Hans Modrow was criticised for maintaining contacts with Neo-Stalinist groups.