Hans-Joachim Böhme

Hans-Joachim "Achim"

Bezirk Halle SED career Böhme moved to the Bezirk Halle SED in 1963, working his way up in the department for agitation and propaganda, eventually becoming department head.

A year later, he succeeded Werner Felfe as Secretary for Agitation and Propaganda of the Bezirk party and when Dieter Itzerott was transferred to study at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy in February 1974, Böhme succeeded him as Second Secretary.

On 4 May 1981, incumbent Werner Felfe joining the Central Committee Secretariat as Secretary responsible for Agriculture.

From April 1981 (X. Party Congress) until its collective resignation in December 1989, Böhme was a full member of the Central Committee of the SED. From 21 April 1986 (XI. Party Congress) until his resignation in November 1989, he was also a full member of the SED Politburo, the de facto highest leadership body in East Germany, Bezirk Halle being an important center of the chemical industry. then the district of Merseburg.

Böhme's eight-year absolute rule over Bezirk Halle was viewed extremely negatively. His leadership style was authoritarian, occasionally described as absolutist, Only a day later, the Bezirk Halle SED removed him, 64 to 4, Böhme's removal was a topic of Günter Schabowski's press conference that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Böhme consequently resigned from the Politburo he had just been reelected to.

Böhme did not take any personal responsibility for the failure of the SED, instead blaming the other members of the SED Bezirk Halle Secretariat.

Reunified Germany Like other former Politburo members, Böhme was charged with "complicity in manslaughter" (political responsibility for the fatal shootings at the Berlin Wall) by the Berlin Regional Court in the Berlin Wall shooting trials. After initially being acquitted in 2000, Böhme was convicted on 6 August 2004, receiving a suspended sentence, 15 months of probation. Böhme at no point offered an explanation for his activities in the East Germany.

He lived withdrawn as a retiree in Halle-Neustadt, dying after long illness in a nursing home in the early morning hours of 4 September 2012 at age 82. The Volksstimme described him as "The Little King of Halle" in their obituary.