Former GDR state and party leader Egon Krenz presented the second volume of his memoirs on Wednesday evening. At an event in the former Berlin home of the newspaper “Neues Deutschland”, the 86-year-old defended the GDR, which was better than its reputation and “much more than a footnote in world history”.
Among other things, Krenz emphasized the Cold War, in which the GDR, with its then so-called policy of peaceful coexistence, contributed to the balance between the blocs and thus to ensuring that a hot war did not arise. “Despite all its imperfections and unfinishedness, undesirable developments and disruptive factors, this GDR was the most peace-loving state that ever existed on German soil,” said Krenz.
Today things are different. “The word peace seems to have become a foreign word for many politicians,” said Krenz. “A genocide is happening in the Gaza Strip before our eyes, and the German government is sending weapons and ammunition to Israel,” he said, without mentioning that Israel responded to the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7, 2023 with the war in the Gaza Strip .
The federal government also supports the “proxy war in Ukraine,” which could expand, criticized Krenz. However, Germany does not have to be capable of war, but rather capable of peace, said the 86-year-old. He failed to mention that Russia attacked Ukraine in February 2022 in violation of international law.
His new book is called “Design and Change. Memories” and covers events between 1974 and 1988. He presented the first part of his memories entitled “Departure and Ascension” in July 2022. It was about the time of his birth in 1937 to 1973. A third part is planned, which will also deal with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
In the fall of 1989, Krenz was the successor to state and party leader Erich Honecker at the head of the GDR for 50 days before resigning during the peaceful revolution. In August 1997, he was sentenced to six years and six months in prison by the Berlin Regional Court for manslaughter because of the fatal shootings on the inner-German border, which he began in 1999.
