Lothar de Maizière

Lothar de Maizière (born 2 March 1940) is a German Christian Democratic politician. In 1990, he served as the only democratically elected prime minister of the German Democratic Republic, and as such was the last leader of an independent East Germany.

Quotes

Remember that Moses led his people through the desert for forty years, and that after twenty years people began to complain... they told Moses that life in the desert was too difficult, and that at least while they were slaves they had had food and water and places to sleep. Moses's friends asked him how long he thought people would be complaining like this, and he replied, "Until the last person born under slavery has died". Our situation is very similar. The psychological gap between eastern and western Germany will last for at least a generation, or perhaps until the last person born under Communism has passed away.
- As quoted in "A Wall of Resentment Now Divides Germany" (14 October 1994), by Stephen Kinzer, New York Times, New York

Communist one-party rule was followed by multi-party politics; while constitutional change gathered pace. On 1 February 1990, Hans Modrow, the new East German Premier, unveiled a plan for a German-German confederation as part of a United Fatherland. Gorbachev responded to Modrow that a unified Germany was acceptable only if it was demilitarised and neutral, but the Americans were unwilling to accept the Soviet proposal for the mutual withdrawal of troops from Germany. Free elections, held in East Germany on 18 March, demonstrated the lack of support for Communism: the East German CDU under Lothar de Mazière won 48.1 per cent of the vote and the SPD 21.8 per cent. Once democratised, Communism had become redundant, and the same process affected the very state of East Germany. Currency union with West Germany took effect on 1 July, East Germany came to an end as a separate state on 3 October, and all-German elections followed on 2 December 1990.
- Jeremy Black, The Cold War: A Military History (2015)