Peter Florin

Peter Florin (2 October 1921 – 17 February 2014) was an East German politician and diplomat.

Early life Florin was born in Cologne on 2 October 1921.

His father, Wilhelm Florin (1894–1944), was a leading figure in the pre-war Communist Party of Germany. and, between 1924 and 1933, a member of the Reichstag (national parliament).

Florin left Germany with his parents in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power and began persecuting Communists,

Career

Following the war, Florin entered politics in the German Democratic Republic and served as vice-president of the regional parliament of Wittenberg, while working as chief editor of the daily newspaper Freiheit. Then, from 1949 to 1952, he was an advisor for the East German ministry of foreign affairs. In 1953, he was promoted to the head of the Department for International Relations of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany's central committee. From 1954 to 1971, he was a member of the country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, which he presided over for a time.