Horst Jäger (politician, 1940)

Horst Jäger (2nd from right) at the head of a demonstration procession on November 9, 1989

Horst Jäger (born August 23, 1940 in Eisenach ) was a politician ( SED ) and Lord Mayor of Gera from 1988 to 1990 .

Life

After an apprenticeship as an industrial clerk and then a high school diploma, he completed his degree in business administration at the Leipzig Commercial College in 1960 and then began teaching at the Pedagogical Institute in Erfurt. He married in 1962 and was initially a teacher in Wasungen and from 1964 to 1973 a teacher and later director at various schools in Gera.

In 1972 he became a member of the SED and from 1973 to 1979 was the first deputy of the Gera city school council. In November 1980 he became a member of the secretariat of the SED district leadership and completed his studies in political science and law in Potsdam-Babelsberg and in 1985 his studies at the party university "Karl Marx" as a graduate social scientist .

Horst Jäger was elected Lord Mayor on March 15, 1988 by the city council. In December 1988, after difficult negotiations, the 39th German-German town twinning between Gera and Nuremberg was sealed when the Nuremberg Mayor Peter Schönlein and Horst Jäger signed the relevant document.

After the political climate changed dramatically in Gera in the summer of 1989 and led to growing tensions in the autumn, Horst Jäger, on the advice of church circles and with the support of individuals from the citizens' movement, took part in prayers for peace in St. John's Church and the first demonstrations in Gera in October . On October 26th, he and council members answered questions from citizens, the church and opposition groups in the first city hall meeting . He rejected the use of combat groups against the demonstrations.

He played a key role in the transition to the democratic local elections on May 6, 1990 and was elected to the city council himself, but left it a short time later to devote himself to his professional activity.

literature

• Günter Domkowsky: Lord Mayor of the City of Gera. Publishing house Dr. Frank GmbH, Gera 2007, ISBN 978-3-934805-31-6 .
• Klaus Brodale, Heidrun Friedemann: That was the 20th century in Gera. Wartberg-Verlag, Gudensberg-Gleichen 2002, ISBN 3-831-31273-7 .
• Short biography about:  Jäger, Horst . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Museum for Communication Nuremberg, Media Information No. 26  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (from November 26, 2003)