Manfred Döring

Manfred Döring (18 November 1932 – 25 December 2023) was a Major general (Generalmajor) with the East German Ministry for State Security (Stasi).

Biography Döring was born in Oberfrohna, a small town, not far away from the west of Chemnitz (known before 1990 as Karl-Marx-Stadt) that had grown up as a centre for textiles based industries. His father was a tailor. Döring's region of Germany was by now part of the German Democratic Republic, a Soviet sponsored state created in 1949 out of what had previously been known as the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. Following military defeat in 1945 there had been agreement between the winning powers that there should be no more German armies, and the quasi-military KVP was, for East Germany, the closest thing to a national army permitted by the Soviets. In 1953 Döring was accepted as a junior KVP officer. Despite its military character the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment operated not as part of the National People's Army, but under the direct control of the Ministry for State Security. Outside times of crisis, it was mandated to protect public buildings and the homes of party leaders. The regiment was a politically reliable internal security force that could also be deployed to suppress rebellion and unrest. In Summer 1971 Döring was promoted at short notice, becoming principal Deputy to the regimental commander, Heinz Gronau. to be succeeded in the top job by Bernhard Elsner.

During 1975/76 he spent a year at the Karl Marx Academy, He took over at a time when relations between the ruling parties in East Germany and in the Soviet Union were becoming strained in ways that many outsiders missed at the time, and there was a corresponding loss of confidence within the East German political establishment.