Jürgen Zelm

Jürgen Zelm (born 23 January 1953) is a German football official and former politician.

Zelm was a functionary of the Free German Youth (FDJ), the only legal youth movement in East Germany, in Bezirk Neubrandenburg in the 1980s. During the Peaceful Revolution, he rose to become the last First Secretary of the Bezirk Neubrandenburg Socialist Unity Party (SED). He remained politically active in the SED's successor party, the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) even after German reunification, becoming chair of their Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state branch and being elected to the Landtag of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

He left politics in May 1991, after it was revealed he had collaborated with the Stasi. Since then, he has worked as a football trainer and official for the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern State Football Association.

Life and career Early life Zelm was born in 1953 in Anklam, which at the time was part of East Germany, to a working-class family.

After completing Polytechnic Secondary School (POS), he studied at a Institut für Lehrerbildung until 1973 to become a lower school teacher.

Zelm never worked as teacher, instead being made a member of the Anklam district municipal government, responsible for youth issues, physical culture and sports, after his graduation. earning a diploma in political science (Dipl.-Staatswiss.). As First Secretary, he also was an ex officio member of the Secretariat of the Bezirk Neubrandenburg SED. Additionally, he was a member of the FDJ Central Council from 1986 onward. He succeeded Wolfgang Herrmann, who had in turn briefly succeeded deposed longtime First Secretary Johannes Chemnitzer before resigning himself alongside the entire Bezirk Neubrandenburg SED leadership.

Zelm was elected chairman of the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) of the reconstituted state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern on 3 March 1990. He resigned from the Landtag on 31 May 1991, having already stepped down as state party chairman on 4 May in favor of Helmut Holter.

Afterwards, Zelm dabbled in various jobs in the early 1990s, working as a commercial representative, insurance agent, real estate agent and opening a business for sports and leisure products. He eventually became a youth coach at the football club Post Neubrandenburg in 1994.