Herbert Graf (political scientist)

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Herbert Graf (born April 21, 1930 in Egeln ; † September 8, 2019 ) was Walter Ulbricht's employee in the State Council of the GDR , political scientist at the Academy for Political Science and Law of the GDR and author.

Life

Herbert Graf was born in 1930 in the Magdeburg Börde . His father was a roofer ; his mother worked in agriculture. At the age of 15 he began an apprenticeship as a butcher, which he completed as a journeyman in 1948. In the same year he became a member of the SED . He passed the Abitur at the workers and farmers faculty in Halle (Saale) and then studied economics at the University of Economics in Berlin-Karlshorst . He then became an employee of Walter Ulbricht in the office of the State Council of the GDR , which he remained until its disempowerment in 1971. At the same time he studied law by distance learning and did his doctorate at the Martin Luther University in Halle . During his time in the State Council, he was instrumental in the reforms in the 1960s and the development of the New Economic System of Planning and Management .

From 1971 he held the chair of constitutional law for young nation states at the German Academy for State and Law, which was wound up in 1990 (from 1973: Academy for Political Science and Law of the GDR) . In the 1970s and 1980s Graf worked as a consultant and teacher in various countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

In 1975, Graf traveled through all eleven provinces of Mozambique at the head of a commission of experts and made suggestions for the political and economic restructuring of the country. He was there when Machel proclaimed Mozambique's independence on June 25, 1975 at midnight in the Machava Stadium in Lourenço Marques .

In 1977/78 Graf headed a coordination group in the staff of Werner Lamberz in Addis Ababa on conspiratorial peace talks between Ethiopia and Eritrea. The talks had been initiated by the GDR foreign intelligence service, Headquarters Enlightenment (HVA), but were unsuccessful. The documents were shredded by the HVA in 1989/90. Graf described his memories of the conversations in the book Eritrea. Oasis on the Red Sea. A young state on new paths. Beginning of peace and end of sanctions.

Fonts (selection)

  • Eritrea: Oasis on the Red Sea: a young state on new paths - the beginning of peace and the end of sanctions , Verlag am Park, 2019, ISBN 978-3-947094-38-7 .
  • My life - my boss Ulbricht - my view of things. Memories , Das Neue Berlin, 2008, ISBN 978-3-360-01097-1 .
  • The Dissident's Son: Memories and Reflections 1930-1948; Childhood and Youth in Egeln , 2005, ISBN 978-3-00-015846-9 .
  • Constitutional law of young nation states. Floor plan , Staatsverlag der DDR, 1988, ISBN 3-329-00179-8 .
  • with Detlef Joseph: People's Republic of Moçambique. Becoming and growing a young state , Staatsverlag der DDR, 1984, DNB 840734859 .
  • with Günther Seiler: Election and suffrage in the class struggle , Staatsverlag der DDR, 1971, DNB 770143814 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Frank Schumann : key figure. Goodbye, Herbert Graf. In: Neues Deutschland from October 18, 2019, p. 7
  2. ↑ Publisher's page on the book
personal data
SURNAME Graf, Herbert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German political scientist and author
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Leeches
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 2019