Edwin Zimmermann

Edwin Zimmermann (15 August 1948 – 1 October 2024) was a German engineer and politician who was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

After the German reunification, between November 1990 and December 1997, he was regional Minister of Food, Agriculture and Forestry in Brandenburg.

Life and career Early years Edwin Zimmermann was born in the Schöna district of Dahme, some 100 km (62 miles) south of Berlin in the Soviet occupation zone of what had been Germany, a region which was by now becoming the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). His parents were farmers.

Politics The succession of events leading to German reunification can be dated from November 1989 when the wall through Berlin was breached, and this was also the month in which Zimmermann participated in the refounding of the SPD in Dahme and in the surrounding Luchau district. In April 1990 he became chairman of the party's regional board in Cottbus, and at the same time he was elected deputy SPD party chairman for Brandenburg. On 1 November 1990, after German reunification had become a reality, he was appointed Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forestry for Brandenburg, in the regional government headed up by Manfred Stolpe.

At the end of 1998 the Potsdam district prosecutor launched proceedings against Zimmermann, alleging "Deception and Subsidy Fraud" ("Untreue und Subventionsbetrug"). The former minister's offices were searched, but he firmly rejected the charges. The trial was initially dropped, but proceedings were restarted in Summer 2000. On 22 February 2002 Zimmermann, together with two other defendants, was acquitted by the Potsdam District Court. The Prosecutor appealed the verdict, however, and at a further hearing that ended in April 2003 the acquittal was revoked. In February 2004, after a further trial lasting fifteen days, the Potsdam District Court gave Zimmermann an eleven-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay €5,000 to a charitable organisation. On 16 June 2005, the Federal Court upheld the conviction and rejected Zimmermann's appeal.

Death Zimmermann died in Cottbus, Brandenburg on 1 October 2024, at the age of 76.