Michael Heinze (politician)

Michael Heinze (* 1956 in Halle ) is a German politician ( Die Linke ) and was an unofficial employee of the GDR State Security . He was mayor of Schönberg from 2004 to 2009 , before he was removed from office because of false information about his Stasi past. His dismissal led to a discussion about how to deal with former employees of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in public offices. From February 2012 until he was voted out of office in May 2014, after several court decisions, he resumed his office as Mayor of Schönberg.

Life

In 1975 Heinze joined the North Stendal border command of the GDR border troops . From 1978 he was first a platoon leader of a border company near Salzwedel , from 1980 as a company commander in Henningen (today a district of Salzwedel). He later switched to Grenzregiment 24 and attended the NVA military academy in Dresden between 1983 and 1986 . He then became a staff officer in the regimental staff and deputy chief of staff of the 24th border regiment. In 1988 he was transferred to the 6th border regiment in Schönberg, where he was the deputy commander and chief of staff. Most recently, as a major, he was in command of the Grevesmühlen - Gadebusch border district command in Schönberg. According to his own statements, he worked for the MfS as IM "Richard" from 1988 to 1989.

In 2004 Heinze was elected Mayor of Schönberg with almost 55 percent of the vote. Before being appointed, he had to fill out a form stating, among other things, whether he had worked for the State Security. Heinze did not answer this question. When asked for clarification, he withheld the questionnaire, but was nevertheless appointed mayor, contrary to the law. He later stated that he had secretly hoped that the red-red state government of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania would stop the regular reviews of MfS activities. According to his own statement, he also made his Stasi activities public in 2005. In the local elections on June 7, 2009 , Heinze was confirmed in office with 72 percent of the votes (with a turnout of 32 percent). Shortly before, the Northwest Mecklenburg District President Ulrich Born ( CDU ) had announced the cooperation of Heinzes with the State Security in a public meeting of the district council. The artist Helmut Preller , who has lived in Schönberg since 2004 , objected to the validity of the election. On July 6, 2009, after looking at the 2004 election documents and the statements of the chief administrative officer, it was proven that Heinze had concealed his IM work. Heinze was thus proven to have been a "fraudulent deception" by concealing his work for the former Ministry for State Security of the GDR. On June 14, 2009, the city council of Schönberg decided to withdraw his appointment as honorary official. Since then, the deputy mayor Jörn Stange ( SPD ) has been in charge of Schönberg's official business.

During the meeting there were protests by Schoenberg citizens who criticized his dismissal as undemocratic with regard to the high level of approval in the election. The impeachment came about not because of criticism of his work, but rather for reasons of power politics. For the opposition, however, Heinze is no longer acceptable as mayor. They see his choice as proof that the Stasi continues to work in the place where half of the residents once worked for the border troops 20 years after the fall of the Wall. For example, a sticker was placed on a wall newspaper from the opposition leader Preller, who wanted to use the fate of a schoolchildren killed at the border to provide information about Heinze's problem with the inscription “Isolate? But right! ”Which means the internment of dissenters in Stasi jargon. The incident is now on record with the police and also known to the Ministry of the Interior in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. In January 2010, Heinze supporters called the police at a reading by the historian Roman Grafe in Schönberg and reported the author for insulting the ex-mayor.

In 2011, the Schwerin Administrative Court declared the proceedings that led to Heinze's removal from office to be invalid. The state commissioner for the Stasi files, Marita Pagels-Heineking, described the judgment as a "slap in the face of the victims of the SED dictatorship." The city council and the incumbent mayor Lutz Götze appealed to the Higher Administrative Court in Greifswald. This was rejected in January 2012. On February 16, 2012 he was sworn in as mayor again. The expense allowance as honorary mayor has also been paid to him retrospectively since 2009. In the mayoral election on May 25, 2014 Michael Heinze lost 46% of the non-party candidate Lutz Götze.

Web links

• the daily newspaper : The Wessi should go
• A city wants to keep its Stasi mayor , Die Welt

• The wall is back! , Deutschlandradio , November 5, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ^ Result of the documents of the BStU , announced May 19, 2009
2. ↑ Wessi should go. In: taz.de. July 16, 2009. Retrieved July 26, 2009 . 
3. ↑ Cf. Lübecker Nachrichten of June 8th, 2009: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Michael Heinze: The left, whom the citizens trust .
4. ^ Fourth mayor in six months: Lutz Götze takes up honorary post in Schönberg. In: Schweriner People's Newspaper . November 14, 2009, accessed February 16, 2015 . 
5. ↑ See Neues Deutschland from July 24, 2009: "We have already voted"
6. ↑ See Ostsee-Zeitung of June 25, 2009: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Debate about the mayor's involvement in the Stasi .
7. ↑ Almuth Knigge: The wall is back! Border dispute in Schönberg. In: dradio.de. Deutschlandfunk, November 5, 2009, accessed on February 16, 2015 . 
8. ^ Steffen Oldbod: listeners reported Roman Grafe. January 24, 2010; Archived from the original on January 24, 2010 ; Retrieved January 24, 2010 . 
9. ↑ See Ostsee-Zeitung of June 9, 2011: Page no longer available , search in web archives: Schönberg's mayor complains back to office , viewed on June 14, 2011.
10. ↑ State commissioner criticizes the verdict on the stasi-burdened mayor. After the court ruling in favor of the former mayor of Schönberg, who was affected by the Stasi, the state commissioner for the Stasi files, Marita Pagels-Heineking, expects some violent reactions from victims of the SED regime. For those affected, the verdict was 'a slap in the face,' said Pagels-Heineking of the news agency dapd. In: Ad Hoc News. June 10, 2011, archived from the original on June 13, 2011 ; Retrieved June 14, 2011 . 
11. ↑ Page no longer available , search in web archives: Jürgen Lenz: District discontinues proceedings against Heinze: Authority sees no legal basis. In: Lübecker Nachrichten of March 21, 2012, accessed on April 3, 2012
12. ^ Jürgen Lenz: Change of power in Schönberg: Götze replaces Heinze. Lübecker Nachrichten, May 26, 2014