Horst Pehnert

Horst Pehnert (3 November 1932 – 1 April 2013) was an East German journalist and party official who in 1976 became a long-standing deputy Minister for Culture - effectively the minister for film and cinema.

Life Early years Horst Pehnert was born in the Saxon village of Neunkirchen, a short distance to the south of Leipzig. His father was a tailor.

In 1956, shortly before he emerged with a university degree, Pehnert returned to "", now as a contributing editor. He would remain with the newspaper till 1971, promoted to deputy managing editor in 1962 and succeeding as editor in chief in 1966.

Switch to television In 1971 he was appointed deputy chairman of the National Television Committee, a political body charged with directing and monitoring the national television service on behalf of the ruling party. With the recent introduction of colour television he presided at a time when television output was enjoying growing popularity. since 1954 there had been eight different incumbents. His immediate predecessor had been Hans Starke. Horst Pehnert would stay in post for more than thirteen years.

"We were the producers. And producers, whether private, statutory or governmental have the right now and again to a say, when it costs so much money to produce movies.” "Wir waren die Produzenten! Und Produzenten, ob private, öffentlich-rechtliche oder staatliche, haben nun mal das Recht mitzureden, wenn es darum geht, mit sehr viel Geld Filme herzustellen." though he himself rejected any suggestion of state censorship. over the temporary closing down of the documentary film studio of and , and over the blocking in 1988 of critical Glasnost inspired Soviet films. On a more positive note, successful films of the period included "Solo Sunny" (Wolf and Kohlhaase, 1980), "Die Verlobte" (Günther Rücker, 1980) and "Die Beunruhigung" (Lothar Warneke, 1981).

Later years After the upheavals of 1989 and the ensuing demise of the German Democratic Republic as a separate state, Pehnert took early retirement in 1990. The old Socialist Unity Party reinvented itself for a democratic future, part of which involved rebranding itself as the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). Horst Pehnert remained a member, participating in local government as a town councillor for Zeuthen where he was now living. In addition, he served as a member of the district council for the wider Dahme-Spreewald district.

Pehnert also embarked on a late flowering career as an author: His memoirs appeared in 2009. A reviewer writing in the Berliner Zeitung was disappointed, stating that the book appeared primarily to be "a justification for his own thirteen ministerial years" .