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a post on the SED Central Committee in 1973 and he caught the attention of General Secretary ERICH HONECKER, who adopted him as a protégé. Krenz enjoyed a well-deserved reputation as a loyal apparatchik and continued his meteoric climb through the party hierarchy with Honecker’s patronage. By 1983 he was a full voting member of the Politburo, East Germany’s highest decision-making body, and assumed the portfolios of security, sports, and youth affairs. His appointment to security affairs proved ominous, for he was now responsible for running the notorious East German secret police (Stasi). In addition to repressing political dissent, the Stasi’s duties included shooting all citizens attempting to flee for West Germany. In May 1989 Krenz was present in Beijing, China, in the aftermath of the massacre at Tiananmen Square, and he congratulated his hosts for restoring order. East Germany, however, was also undergoing a rising tide of popular resentment against communist tyranny and it became Krenz’s responsibility to crack down. The tumult only increased after Soviet premier MIKHAIL GORBACHEV began promoting greater political freedom for all East European satellite states. Honecker, a hard-line communist, denounced such liberalization and refused to depart from the failed policies of the past. Krenz then unceremoniously ended his mentor’s 18-year reign as head of East Germany by deposing Honecker in a party coup on October 18, 1989. Krenz was now party general secretary and prime minister of East Germany. His political instincts gravitated toward reforming the ossified political system before an open revolt occurred. He traveled the country widely, listened to grievances, and promised immediate reform. “My motto remains work, work, work, and more work,” he declared, “but work that should be pleasant and serve all the people.” However, Krenz was so closely identified with the communist leadership that nobody believed him. Massive public demonstrations erupted throughout East Germany, demanding an end to communism and freedom to travel abroad. Under intense pressure and unwilling to have security forces fire upon the citizenry again, Krenz opened the borders to West Germany on November 9, 1989. When the infamous Berlin Wall was literally torn down by exasperated and joyous Germans from both sides of the border, East Germany—and Krenz—were doomed. On December 1, 1989, the SED People’s Chamber stripped him of his rank and power, expelling him from the
party; he had been in power for only 46 days. East Germany did not long outlast him for it was voted out of existence and amalgamated into the German Federal Republic the following spring. Krenz’s problems did not end there. In August 1997 he was held responsible for the notorious “shoot to kill” policy at the Berlin Wall. Since 1961 more than 1,000 German citizens were slain while trying to escape in Berlin and elsewhere along the border. Krenz professed his innocence and insisted that the policy was more the responsibility of the Soviet Union than East Germany, but on August 25, 1997, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to six and a half years in prison. “I am starting my sentence, not as a criminal, but as a victim of political persecution,” he declared. Krenz was jailed in January 2000 and on March 22, 2001, the European Court of Human Rights upheld his conviction. He is slated to remain behind bars at Berlin’s Hakenfelde prison until 2006, the last communist leader of the Democratic German Republic. Further Reading Childs, Timothy. The Fall of the German Democratic Republic: Germany’s Road to Unity. New York: Longman, 2000. Dennis, Mike. The Rise and Fall of the German Democratic Republic, 1945–1990. New York: Longman, 2000. Grix, Jonathan. The Role of the Masses in the Collapse of the German Democratic Republic. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Hough, Dan. The Rise and Fall of the PDS in Eastern Germany. Birmingham, England: University of Birmingham Press, 2001. Peterson, Edward N. The Secret Police and the Revolution: The Fall of the German Democratic Republic. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2002. Ross, Corvey. The East German Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives in the Interpretation of the GDR. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Kubitschek, Juscelino (1902–1976) president of Brazil Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira was born in Diamantina, Brazil, on September 12, 1902, a descendant of Czech immigrants. He was educated at a local seminary and decided to pursue medicine while work-