Gregor Gysi

Gregor Gysi (IPA: [ˈgiːzi]; born January 16, 1948) is a German politician of the Left Party. He played an important role in the end of communist rule in East Germany in 1989, and is a key figure in the post-reunification Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 582 pixelsFull resolution (3200 × 2327 pixel, file size: 1. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 582 pixelsFull resolution (3200 × 2327 pixel, file size: 1. ... Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ... is the 16th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... This article is about the state which existed from 1949 to 1990. ... Party of Democratic Socialism is a political party in India; see Party of Democratic Socialism (India) the former name of a German political party; see Left Party (Germany). ...

Family background

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 Gottfried Lessing, who was married to the British writer Doris Lessing during his exile in Southern Rhodesia. Doris Lessing, CH, OBE (born October 22, 1919), is a British writer, born Doris May Taylor in Kermanshah, Persia (Iran). ... Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated immediately to the north of South Africa, known today as Zimbabwe. ...

During his many election campaigns, especially for the first post-unification all-German Bundestag, Gysi was the object of antisemitic attacks and rumour mongering. Gysi is not Jewish himself. However, his father had a Jewish mother, and Gysi's mother had a single Jewish grandparent.

His sister Gabriele is an actor, who left East Germany in 1985. Today, she is chief dramaturge at the Volksbühne. In the theater, a dramaturg holds a position that gained its modern-day function through the innovations of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, a playwright and theater practitioner who worked in Germany in the 18th century. ... Volksbühne, Berlin The Volksbühne (German for Peoples Theatre) is a theatre in Berlin, Germany. ...

Career

Gysi's political career started in the then-ruling Socialist Unity Party (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 notable dissidents, including Rudolf Bahro, Robert Havemann, Ulrike Poppe, and Bärbel Bohley. The party emblem represented the handshake between Communist Wilhelm Pieck and Social Democrat Otto Grotewohl when their parties merged in 1946 The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) was the governing party of East Germany from its formation in 1949 until the elections of 1990. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Rudolf Bahro (18 November 1935 – 5 December 1997) was born in 1935 in Bad Flinsberg (now in Poland). ... Robert Havemann (11 March 1910 - 9 April 1982) was a chemist, communist and an East German dissident. ... Ulrike Poppe (born 26 January 1953) was a member of the East German opposition. ... Bärbel Bohley (born 24 May 1945) was an East German opposition figure and artist. ...

In addition to his legal defence of dissidents, 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 November 4 in which he spoke and called for various reforms, including free elections. In December of 1989, he became a member of a special SED party session investigating official corruption and abuse of power. Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev (Russian: ), surname more accurately romanized as Gorbachyov; (born 2 March 1931) is a Russian politician. ...

Seeing himself as a reformist, he led the transformation of the SED into a more 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 October 3, 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. Party of Democratic Socialism is a political party in India; see Party of Democratic Socialism (India) the former name of a German political party; see Left Party (Germany). ... The Volkskammer (Peoples Chamber) was the de jure Legislature of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). ... Type Lower house President of the Bundestag Dr. Norbert Lammert, CDU since October 18, 2005 Members 614 Political groups (as of September 18, 2005 elections) Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union of Bavaria Bloc (226), Social Democratic Party of Germany (222), Free Democratic Party (61), The Left Party. ...

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 infamous 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 FDP 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. Logo of East Germanys Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS or Stasi) / Ministry for State Security This article is about Stasi, the secret police of East Germany. ... The Deutsche Mark (DM, DEM) was the official currency of West and, from 1990, unified Germany. ... Categories: Politics stubs | Liberal related stubs | German political parties | Liberal parties ...

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 (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 July 31, 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 a lowering of unemployment benefits to the levels of mere welfare, which he strongly opposes. This article is about the capital of Germany. ... SPD redirects here. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with loyalty program. ...

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. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 1932 KB) Election poster, Berlin 2005 I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high-resolution version (2560x1920, 1932 KB) Election poster, Berlin 2005 I, the creator of this work, hereby grant the permission to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1. ...

Gysi remains the PDS's undisputed front man in many people's minds and continues 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 from a Berlin constituency. The PDS fought the election in an alliance with the new western German Electoral Alternative for Labor and Social Justice, under the new name "Linkspartei" Left Party/PDS, with Gysi at times somewhat uneasily sharing a platform with Labour and Social Justice Party leader Oskar Lafontaine.   [] (born April 7, 1944), German politician, was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. ... Lothar Bisky Lothar Bisky (born August 17, 1941 in Rummelsburg, Germany, now Miastko, Poland) is the chairman of the Left Party. ... Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative (German: or WASG) is a German political party founded in 2005 by activists disenchanted with the Social Democratic-Green government. ... The Left Party (In German: , officially with a period at the end), formerly Party of Democratic Socialism (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus, PDS) is a left-wing socialist political party in Germany. ... Oskar Lafontaine (born September 16, 1943 in Saarlouis-Roden) is a left-wing German politician and a leading member of the Left Party. ...

External link

• Portrait at the website of the parliamentary group of the Left Party
• Biography at Deutsches Historisches Museum