Manfred Uschner

Manfred Uschner (16 May 1937 – 13 November 2007) was an East German diplomat and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).

Born to a family with a long-standing social democratic tradition, Uschner joined the SED and worked as a diplomat and lecturer in East Germany. He thereafter served as an employee in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED for over twenty years, including fifteen years as personal assistant to Hermann Axen, Politburo member and Secretary of the Central Committee responsible for foreign affairs.

In the 1980s, Uschner held close contacts with many politicians of the West German SPD. On the orders of Erich Honecker, he was purged from the Central Committee apparatus on the eve of the Peaceful Revolution for this and for being critical of the SED's leadership. He finally joined the SPD in reunified Germany, also publishing books critical of the SED.

Life and career Early life Manfred Uschner was born on 16 May 1937 in Magdeburg to a working-class family. He lost his sister and grandmother during the air raid on Magdeburg on 16 January 1945. His grandfather Paul Uschner was a bodyguard to August Bebel, founding father of the SPD. Uschner's father Fritz rejoined the SPD after the war and cofounded the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in Magdeburg. Fritz Uschner rose to become a candidate member of the Central Committee of the SED and a member of the Volkskammer in 1950, but was purged by the party in 1953 and only rehabilitated in 1956.

Uschner joined the children's association of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in 1947 and became a member of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation upon its founding in 1948. graduating in 1959. his December 1967 dissertation discussing relations between Brazil and West Germany.

SED Central Committee Against his wishes and despite not being an expert on Latin America, Uschner was poached by the SED, joining the Central Committee apparatus as instructor for Latin America in the International Relations Department on 1 September 1968. Uschner was promoted to be the second, scientific personal assistant to Hermann Axen, Politburo member and Secretary of the Central Committee responsible for foreign affairs, with the rank of a deputy Central Committee department head. He succeeded Herbert Barth, who was transferred back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. which mainly worked on disarmament, in particular Egon Bahr, whom he befriended. He was accused of "social democratism" and of holding an "anti-party stance".

Reunified Germany Shortly after his February 1990 rehabilitation, Uschner left the now-renamed Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS). He formed the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis (named after German socialists Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky) with other social democratic-minded former SED members, who felt that they are being pushed out of the PDS. He was employed as managing director of the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis, which already had 450 members by 1991, as part of an employment subsidy scheme, also publishing various articles and books, including on the SED and the Ostpolitik. Uschner was also invited by the SPD to speak at the Bundestag's public inquiry on the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship.

In the 1990s, Uschner also repeatedly attempted to join the SPD. He was initially rejected in 1993 by his local SPD branch in Treptow for being a former SED functionary. His attempt to join the SPD in 1995 via the neighbouring Kreuzberg SPD in former West Berlin caused controversy and a discussion on how to deal with former SED members, despite Uschner's membership application having the endorsement of Willy Brandt and his friend Egon Bahr. He was eventually accepted into the SPD via the Kreuzberg branch later that year. Some party members blamed the SPD's loss in the 1995 Berlin state election on Uschner despite lead candidate Ingrid Stahmer having publicly opposed Uschner's membership application.

In spite of his own political persecution by the SED and the Stasi, Uschner became critical of the reappraisal done in reunified Germany and the Bundestag's public inquiry in particular by the mid-1990s, among other things arguing against using the term Unrechtsstaat for East Germany, publishing the names of former Stasi collaborators and the "discrimination" of former SED members. Uschner faced criticism for offering disgraced former East German SPD leader Ibrahim Böhme, who was revealed to have worked with the Stasi, a job at the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis.

Manfred Uschner died on 13 November 2007 in Berlin at the age of 70. He was buried in a communal urn plot in the Altglienicke cemetery.