Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, 10 November 1989

Die Wende (German pronunciation: [diː ˈvɛndə], The Change or The Turn) marks the complete process of the change from the rule of the socialist Socialist Unity Party of Germany and centrally planned economy to parliamentary democracy and market economy in East Germany around the years 1989 and 1990. It encompasses several processes and events which later have become synonymous with the overall process. These processes and events are:

• the Peaceful Revolution, a time of massive protest and demonstrations (Montagsdemonstrationen - "Monday demonstrations" and Alexanderplatz demonstration) against the political system of the GDR and for civil and human rights^[1] in the Fall of 1989.
• the Fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 following a press conference held by the Politbüro during which Günter Schabowski announced the opening of the border checkpoints.
• the transition to democracy in East Germany following the Peaceful Revolution, leading to the only democratic elections to the Volkskammer in the GDR on 18 March 1990.^[2]
• the process of German Reunification leading to the Einigungsvertrag (Treaty of Unification) on 31 August 1990, the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany on 12 September 1990 and finally the joining of the five re-established East German Länder to the Federal Republic of Germany.

In hindsight, the German word Wende (meaning "change", "turning point") then took on a new meaning; the phrase Seit der Wende, literally "since the change", means "since reunification" or "since the Wall fell". This period is marked by West German aid to East Germany, a total reaching an estimated $775 billion over 10 years. To some extent, Germany is still in the midst of the "Nachwendezeit" (post-Wende period): differences between East and West still exist, and a process of "inner reunification" is not yet finished.

This "turning point" has marked the reunification of Germany. The term was first used publicly in East Germany on 18 October 1989 in a speech by interim GDR leader Egon Krenz (the term having been used on the cover of influential West German news magazine Der Spiegel two days previously).^[3] Whilst it initially referred to the end of the old East German government, Die Wende has become synonymous with the fall of the Wall and of the East German state, and indeed of the entire Iron Curtain and Eastern Bloc state socialism.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Moments in Time 1989/1990. Films and photos from private collections

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Look up die in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Die usually refers to the cessation of life.

Die may also refer to:

Objects[link]

• Die (manufacturing), a material-shaping device
• Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semiconductor wafer
• One of a set of dice, gambling or game devices
• Tap and die, cutting tools used to create screw threads in solid substances
• Sort (typesetting), a cast die for printing

Other[link]

• Die, Drôme, a village in France, best known for its Clairette de Die
• DIE, German Development Institute
• DiE, pedagogical method Drama in Education
• Die (musician), Japanese musician, guitarist of the band Dir en grey
• Die!, the seventh studio album by rapper Necro.
• DJ Die, British DJ and musician with Reprazent
• D.I.E., a Hong Kong TVB show
• DIES, the name of the solo project of Josh Dies, lead singer of Showbread
• Duplication is evil, programming motto

See also[link]

• dié (disambiguation)
• dye
• Dai (disambiguation)
• Di (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Götz W. Werner

Götz Wolfgang Werner (born February 5, 1944 in Heidelberg) is the founder, co-owner, and member of the advisory board of dm-drogerie markt, a German drugstore chain.^[1] He was leading the company for 35 years. Since October 2003, he is the head of Cross-Department Group for Entrepreneurial Studies at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. He is one of the most influential advocates of basic income in Germany (1000 Euro for everyone^[2][3]).

Werner was born in Heidelberg.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Prof. Götz W. Werner
• Cross-Department Group for Entrepreneurial Studies

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Gregor Gysi
Member of the Bundestag
Incumbent
Assumed office 18th September 2005
Constituency	Berlin Treptow – Köpenick
Personal details
Born	January 16, 1948 East Berlin, Soviet Zone of Germany
Nationality	German
Political party	Die Linke

Dr. Gregor Gysi (German pronunciation: [ˈɡiːzi]; born 16 January 1948) is a German attorney and key politician of the socialist left-wing political party The Left (Die Linke). He played an important role in the end of communist rule in East Germany in 1989^{[citation needed]}, and was a main figure in the post-reunification Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). He is well known for his rhetoric talent and is considered one of the best German public speakers.^[1]

Family background[link]

Gysi was born in East Berlin, Soviet Zone of Germany. His father, Klaus Gysi, was a high-ranking official in East Germany, and had been Minister of Culture from 1966 to 1973. His mother, Irene, was the sister of political activist Gottfried Lessing, who was married to the British writer Doris Lessing during his exile in Southern Rhodesia. The surname "Gysi" is of Swiss-German origin.^[2] Both of his parents were of part Jewish ancestry; his paternal grandmother was Jewish, as was one of his maternal great-grandfathers.^[2][3] One of his maternal great-grandmothers was Russian.^[2]

His sister, Gabriele, is an actress, who left East Germany in 1985. Today, she is chief dramaturge at the Volksbühne in Berlin.

Career[link]

Gysi's political career started in the then-ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) of East Germany, to which he was admitted in 1967. In 1971 he became a licensed attorney, and during the 1970s and 1980s defended several prominent dissidents, including Rudolf Bahro, Robert Havemann, Ulrike Poppe, and Bärbel Bohley.

Gregor Gysi (November 1989)

In addition to his legal work, Gysi emerged as one of East Germany's leading Gorbachev-inspired political reformists within the SED, especially towards the end of the 1980s. In 1989, he and a group of lawyers presented a counter-draft to the government's Travel Bill, which authorised mass public demonstrations. This led to a rally on 4 November in which he spoke and called for various reforms, including free elections. In December 1989, he became a member of a special SED party session investigating official corruption and abuse of power.

He led the transformation of the SED into a democratic socialist party which included the quick resignation of all hardliners from the party's leadership; initially renamed the Socialist Unity Party - Party of Democratic Socialism (SED-PDS), it later became simply the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Gysi served as its chairman starting in 1990, and in March 1990 was elected to the Volkskammer in the first free election of that body, serving there until it was dissolved upon German reunification on 3 October 1990. In the first post-reunification all-German elections, he was elected to the Bundestag, and served there until 2000. He remained chairman of the PDS through 1998, and then from 1998 to 2000 served as chairman of the party's parliamentary group.

In 1992 allegations were brought against him of having been an "unofficial collaborator" (Inoffizieller Mitarbeiter, IM) or informant of East Germany's Ministry for State Security (the Stasi). He denied these allegations, and the matter was largely dropped due to his parliamentary immunity. In 1995 the Hamburg regional court ruled in Gysi's favour in a complaint against Bärbel Bohley, Gysi's former client, who had accused him of Stasi collaboration. However, the allegations were raised again in 1996, and this time the Bundestag voted to revoke his immunity and proceed with an investigation. In 1998 the Bundestag's immunity committee concluded that Gysi had been a collaborator with the Stasi from 1978 to 1989 under the name IM Notar, and fined him 8,000 Deutsche Marks. However, both the Free Democratic Party and his own PDS disputed the verdict, and Gysi appealed against the finding. Despite the affair, he retained his seat in the Bundestag in the 1998 elections.

In 2000 he resigned as chairman of the PDS's parliamentary group, but continued as an active member of the party. Following the victory in Berlin's 2001 municipal elections of a coalition of the PDS and the more moderate Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he was elected Senator for Economics, Labour, and Women's Issues and Deputy Mayor. He emphasised practical issues and advocated the reinstitution of some of what he sees as the better aspects of East Germany's system, such as extended child-care hours and a longer school day. After a scandal involving his use of airline "bonus miles" he had acquired on trips as a Bundestag member, he resigned on 31 July 2002 from the Berlin city government. The resignation was a blow to his public "can-do" image, but he has recovered from that to some extent in the wake of increasing public opposition to a number of new policies of the federal government, like the Hartz reforms lowering unemployment benefits to the levels of mere subsistence welfare, which he strongly opposes.

Oskar Lafontaine (left) and Gregor Gysi, election poster, Alexanderplatz, Berlin, 2005

In late 2004 he survived brain surgery and a heart attack. Formerly a heavy smoker, Gysi quit smoking after the crisis on his doctors' advice.

Gysi remained the PDS undisputed front man in many people's minds and continued to appear in public. In May 2005, when Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder announced plans to call an early election in September, many prominent PDS leaders including chair Lothar Bisky called on Gysi to front their campaign. He was a lead candidate of the PDS, winning direct election to the Bundestag for the Berlin Treptow – Köpenick constituency. The PDS fought the election in an alliance with the new western-based Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (WASG), under the new name The Left Party.PDS, with Gysi at times sharing a platform with WASG leader Oskar Lafontaine, former finance minister and formerly party leader of the SPD. In June 2007, the PDS and WASG formally merged to form a united party called The Left.

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gregor Gysi

• Will Germany Go Left of the Left? by Markus Deggerich, Der Spiegel, Sept 25 2009
• Portrait at the website of the parliamentary group of the Left Party
• Biography at Deutsches Historisches Museum