Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg

Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg 2016

Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg (born April 9, 1954 in Annaberg-Buchholz ) is a German politician ( SED , PDS , Die Linke ). Until 1985 he was an unofficial employee of the Ministry for State Security of the GDR . Between 2004 and 2019 he was a member of the Brandenburg state parliament .

Life and work

After graduating from high school and doing basic military service with the NVA , Scharfenberg completed a degree in political science from 1974 to 1978 at the Academy for Political Science and Law in Potsdam-Babelsberg. From 1978 to 1985 he was a research assistant, later a senior assistant at the Chair of Constitutional Law of Capitalist States and received his doctorate in 1982.

In September 1985, Scharfenberg received, according to his case officer , the Medal of Merit of the GDR . Scharfenberg himself claims that he did not receive the medal in recognition of his work as an unofficial employee of the State Security, but for special services in honorary office.

From 1986 to mid-1989, Scharfenberg was deputy party secretary at the Academy for Political Science and Law in the GDR. From 1991 to 2004 he was an employee of the PDS state parliamentary group in the Brandenburg state parliament, in particular with responsibility for domestic and legal policy.

Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg is married and has three children.

politics

Scharfenberg has been a member of the Potsdam city ​​council since 1990 and became chairman of the PDS parliamentary group there in 1995 . In 2002 he ran for the office of Lord Mayor of the City of Potsdam , but lost the runoff to Jann Jakobs ( SPD ).

In the 2004 state elections , Scharfenberg entered the Brandenburg state parliament via the state list . There he was chairman of the committee for home affairs and domestic policy spokesman for his group.

In January 2008 it became known that an employee of his constituency office was giving advice to ZDF journalists investigating undercover how to hide income that is subject to credit as a recipient of unemployment benefit II and how to obtain social benefits by stealth.

Scharfenberg won the direct mandate in the Potsdam II state electoral district (constituency 22) in the Brandenburg state elections in 2009 .

In 2010 Scharfenberg ran again for the office of Lord Mayor of Potsdam. In the first ballot on September 19, 2010, he came in second with 33.1 percent, behind incumbent Jann Jakobs (SPD). In the runoff election on October 3, Scharfenberg was defeated by his competitor with a result of 39.2 percent to 60.8 percent of the vote.

State Security staff

Since 1978 Scharfenberg was registered with the Ministry for State Security of the GDR as IM- Vorlauf "Johnson" . He signed a declaration of commitment as an unofficial employee (IM) "Hans-Jürgen" in 1980. Scharfenberg reported regularly on colleagues, superiors and neighbors. He was assessed as honest and sincere towards the MfS and demanded that political opponents willing to leave the country must be fought with “suitable means”. In addition, Scharfenberg is said to have reported on "homosexual inclinations" of work colleagues and "excesses with women" in the vicinity of the Academy for Political Science and Law. Scharfenberg was released from service in 1985 because at that time he was working full-time in the apparatus of the SED. In 1992 he tried to prevent his exposure by refusing a Stasi investigation. Scharfenberg disclosed his MfS activities in 1995 when he became parliamentary group chairman in the Potsdam city council, but without giving details of his collaboration. In the course of his candidacy for the mayor's office in Potsdam, the party Die Linke demanded proof from Scharfenberg that he had actually disclosed his Stasi activities in accordance with a party conference resolution of the PDS from 1991 .

With regard to his 300-page Stasi files, the Brandenburg dictatorship commissioner Ulrike Poppe advised him not to run for mayoral election because “someone with such a past [...] [should] ask himself what kind of signal this would send to them political culture means “. The Association of Victims of Stalinism (VOS) warned against the election of Scharfenberg under the motto “Potsdam, don't let yourselves be left!”.

Others

Scharfenberg is honorary chairman of the volleyball department at SC Potsdam .

Web links

Commons : Hans-Jürgen Scharfenberg  - Collection of images

• Biography page for the 7th electoral term in the Brandenburg state parliament

Individual evidence

1. ^ A medal for "Stalin" - GDR Merit Medal . In: Focus , September 27, 2010
2. ^ OB candidate denies medal for Stasi work . In: Potsdam Latest News , September 27, 2010
3. ↑ Martin Klesmann: Left politician regrets recommendation to break the law . In: Berliner Zeitung , January 21, 2008
4. ↑ Hubertus Knabe : Honecker's heirs. The truth about the left . Propylaea, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-549-07329-2
5. ↑ ^{a b} Scharfenberg continues to come under pressure - the Left Board wants proof of disclosure of the IM time according to the party resolution of 1991 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) In: Märkische Allgemeine .
6. ↑ Stasi exposure prevented for years . In: Der Tagesspiegel .
7. ↑ PDS parliamentary group leader comes out . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 7, 1995
8. ↑ Candidate Scharfenberg: Stasi spy wants to become Potsdam's mayor . In: Die Welt , September 18, 2010.
9. ↑ Poppe advises against Scharfenberg: Stasi commissioner on the signal of an OB candidacy of the left-wing politician . ( Memento from May 7, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Märkische Allgemeine , May 5, 2010.
10. ↑ Press release of the Federal Board of the Association of Victims of Stalinism e. V. of September 17, 2010 ( PDF  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) 86 kB).