Lutz Heilmann

Lutz Heilmann (born 7 September 1966 in Zittau, East Germany) is a German politician of the left-wing party Die Linke. He was elected to the Bundestag in the 2005 federal election as a member of the party list in Schleswig-Holstein. Shortly thereafter it was revealed that he had worked for the Stasi (the East German secret police) from 1985 to 1990. Heilmann drew national and international media attention when he caused the website www.wikipedia.de (not the German Wikipedia, but a search portal for it run by Wikimedia Deutschland) to be blocked by a preliminary injunction on 13 November 2008. His Bundestag term ended in 2009, and he failed to be nominated for a second term.

Revelation of Stasi work

Following his election in 2005, strong controversy erupted when it was revealed by the magazine Der Spiegel that he had worked for the Stasi (the East German secret police) from 1985 to 1990. Heilmann is the only official full-time Stasi employee to be elected MP to the Bundestag; although several other Die Linke politicians have been "unofficial" Stasi informants.

Heilmann narrowly survived an impeachment by the party electorate following his untruthfulness about his Stasi career prior to becoming an MP. His employment record at Stasi states that Heilmann joined the Stasi because of political motivation and that he identified with his work and saw his future as a Stasi employee. which he quit after being elected to the Bundestag. In November 2009, he returned to his job as a clerk.

Political activities

He became a member of the communist party of the German Democratic Republic, the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1986, and has remained a member of its successor parties (SED-PDS, PDS, Die Linkspartei.PDS and now Die Linke), although he left the party in 1992 and rejoined in 2000.

Heilmann, who was previously married, has organized participation of the party's queer group at Christopher Street Days.

In the Bundestag, his main activity has focused on transportation policy favoring the environment. He argued for an increase in the LKW-Maut and against a proposed waiver of the motor vehicle tax for new cars.

He has been involved in a fight within Die Linke, trying to get Lübeck party boss Ragnar Lüttke expelled from the party. Four-year-old photographs showing Lüttke at a party celebrating Joseph Stalin's birthday were obtained by a Flensburg newspaper in October 2008. The report also suggests that the Wikipedia article had been repeatedly altered in line with his claims by an anonymous user operating within the Bundestag building, but Heilmann denied having been involved in an edit war.

In October 2008, some German newspapers reported that Heilmann was under investigation for having threatened a former roommate and that the committee on immunity of the Bundestag had lifted his immunity in the matter. Heilmann denied this and had a counter statement published. (According to Die Tageszeitung charges were filed due to attempted coercion ("versuchte Nötigung"). This claim, as well as claims that he had withheld parts of his Stasi records, were also cited by Heilmann as reasons for his action against Wikimedia Deutschland.

After some statements were removed from his German Wikipedia article and after major media coverage, Heilmann announced on 16 November that he would drop the legal proceedings against Wikimedia Deutschland, regretting that many uninvolved users of the encyclopedia had been affected. He vowed to continue his pursuit of the Wikipedia editor who had originally added the allegedly offensive material.

Heilmann later made a public statement on his actions against Wikipedia. "I didn't think it through and didn't anticipate the consequences," he admitted. Wikimedia Germany reported that on the Saturday of the blocking it had received record donations of €16,000, compared to €3,000 on an average day.