Gerhard Schönherr

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Gerhard Schönherr (born October 7, 1926 in Chemnitz ; † 2016 ) was a German officer and economist . He was major general and deputy minister for foreign trade in the GDR .

Life

Schönherr, the son of a hosiery weaver, attended elementary school and, after graduating from high school, learned the trade of machine fitter from 1941 to 1943. He first joined the Reich Labor Service (RAD) in 1944 and served in the Wehrmacht from 1944 to 1945 , most recently as a private in an air force field regiment.

After the Second World War he worked as a locksmith and joined the SPD in 1945 . From 1945 to 1946 he studied at the Ilmenau engineering school. In 1946 he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and worked again as a locksmith in 1946/47. From 1947 to 1949 he was a student at the workers and farmers faculty in Chemnitz and from 1949 to 1953 at the Technical University of Dresden . From 1953 to 1955 he was a consultant or department head at the State Secretariat for Universities in Berlin. On January 1, 1956, he joined the Kasernierte Volkspolizei (KVP) and attended the KVP officers' college. In the same year he found employment as an officer in the administration of the engineering service in the Ministry for National Defense of the GDR . From 1961 to 1965 he acted as head of the procurement department of the engineering main administration of the Ministry for Foreign and Inner German Trade, from 1965 to 1966 as deputy head of the main administration engineering and head of the special foreign trade department (BSA) in the ministry for foreign and inner German trade . From 1966 to 1975 he was head of this department in the Ministry of Foreign Trade and from 1975 to 1981 in the Ministry of Foreign Trade. On October 2, 1980 he was appointed major general by the chairman of the GDR's National Defense Council , Erich Honecker . In 1981 he became Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade and continued to head the Special Foreign Trade Division (BSA) which, according to the “Special Export Regulations” of September 30, 1986, an order of the Council of Ministers, carried out the scheduled transport of military equipment abroad. On June 30, 1988, he was released from military service and replaced in the Ministry of Foreign Trade by Colonel Hans-Ulrich Metzler.

Schönherr was heard as a witness in the 1st Committee of Inquiry into Commercial Coordination of the German Bundestag on November 3, 1992. In May 2015 he was one of the signatories of the appeal “Soldiers for Peace”, in which u. a. Cooperation instead of confrontation with Russia was called for.

Schönherr last lived as a veteran in Königs Wusterhausen . He died at the age of 89 and was buried in the cemetery in Königs Wusterhausen.

Awards

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Honecker appointed NVA officers as generals . In: Neues Deutschland , October 3, 1980, p. 1.
  2. ↑ From the report of the 1st committee of inquiry of the German Bundestag, 12th electoral period, pp. 162f. (accessed on March 17, 2017).
  3. ^ Call for "Soldiers for Peace" in the Association for the Maintenance of the Traditions of the National People's Army and the Border Troops of the GDR e. V. (accessed March 17, 2017).
  4. ↑ Congratulations on your 85th birthday . In: Rathaus Aktuell, p. 7. (accessed on March 17, 2017).
  5. ^ Obituary notice in the Märkische Allgemeine from September 10, 2016.
  6. ↑ Prague People's Newspaper of October 31, 1986.
personal data
SURNAME Schönherr, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German officer, most recently major general
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH 2016