Christel Wegner

Christel Wegner (16 November 1947 – 11 February 2023 ) was a German communist politician. In 2008, she was elected to the Parliament of Lower Saxony for Die Linke, although she was a member of the German Communist Party (DKP), which has cooperated closely with that party. Shortly after her election, she gained widespread attention when it was claimed by a TV program that she had called for the return of the Stasi and justified the construction of the Berlin Wall, also voicing her support for Margot Honecker. Die Linke distanced itself from her, and on 18 February 2008 she was expelled from the party's parliamentary group.

Controversial statements Wegner gained widespread attention after she made controversial statements during a television interview in February 2008 with the NDR. She said "I believe that, when one creates another kind of society, one will need such a structure again, because one has to protect oneself against other forces, reactionary forces who use the opportunity and weaken such a state from the inside." The program suggested that "such a structure" referred to the GDR Secret Police organisation the Stasi.

In reply, in a personal statement, Wegner declared: "What I really said was that every state has a secret service and that this is of course also the case for a socialist state" and that she did not in fact "want the Stasi back".

The DKP politician also declared that a reason for the construction of the Berlin Wall was to keep West Germans out of the GDR, "both to prevent them from hurting the economy by buying goods cheaply and also to keep out forces one didn't want there."

Expulsion from The Left parliamentary group On 18 February 2008, the Die Linke Lower Saxony parliamentary group issued a statement saying that she had been expelled from their parliamentary group and urged her to give up her seat in the assembly.

Political affiliations Wegner was a member of the German Communist Party (DKP), the Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime (VVN-BdA), the labor union Ver.di and a paying/passive member of Greenpeace.