Peter Florin

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Peter Florin (left) with Kurt Waldheim in 1973 in New York

Peter Florin (born October 2, 1921 in Cologne-Poll ; † February 17, 2014 in Berlin ) was a German politician ( SED ). He was deputy foreign minister and permanent representative of the GDR at the United Nations in New York City .

Life

Florin, son of the KPD functionary and Reichstag member Wilhelm Florin , attended elementary and secondary schools in Essen and Berlin from 1927 to 1933 . The family emigrated to France in 1933 . After his mother was arrested in Paris, he was brought to Moscow by the International Red Aid , where he attended the Karl Liebknecht School . In 1938 he joined the Komsomol . In the same year, his German citizenship was revoked. From 1940 he studied at the Mendeleev University of Technology in Moscow, volunteered as a soldier in the Red Army in 1941 and attended a special course at the Comintern School in Kuschnarenkowo for four months in 1942 , where he met Wolfgang Leonhard and Markus Wolf, among others . From 1943 to 1944 he was a partisan in Belarus . He then worked for the National Committee Free Germany until 1945 .

He returned to Germany in 1945 with the KPD initiative group for Saxony under Anton Ackermann and for a short time became district administrator in the district of Wittenberg . He then became editor-in-chief of the “Volkszeitung” and later of “ Freiheit ” in Halle as well as a member of the secretariat of the SED state executive committee for Saxony-Anhalt . After a serious illness in 1948 and 1949, he was Deputy Secretary of the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED from September 1949 until the beginning of 1950 and from October 1949 deputy head of the Office or the International Relations Department at the SED Central Committee . From January 1950 to 1952 deputy head of the main department for political affairs at the Foreign Ministry of the GDR, at the same time head of the main department of the USSR or the so-called main department I, which dealt with relations with the Soviet Union and the “people's democracies”. From 1953 to 1966 he was head of the International Relations Department at the Central Committee of the SED.

Florin became a candidate for the SED Central Committee in 1954 and a member of the SED Central Committee from 1958 to 1989. From 1954 to 1990 he was a member of the People's Chamber , where he served as chairman from 1954 to 1963, as deputy chairman from 1963 to 1967 and as a simple member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs from 1967 to 1971.

In 1959 he participated as a member of the GDR delegation at the Geneva Foreign Ministers' Conference of the great powers. From 1967 to 1969, and thus during the Prague Spring , he was the GDR's ambassador to the ČSSR , then State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry until 1973 and Deputy Foreign Minister until 1989.

Florin represented the GDR in the accession negotiations to the United Nations in 1972/1973 and then remained permanent representative of the GDR at the United Nations in New York until 1981. From 1980 to 1981 he represented the GDR in the UN Security Council. From 1982 to 1988, Florin was chairman of the UNESCO Commission of the GDR. He was President of the General Assembly of the United Nations in its 42nd session in 1987 and during its 15th special session in 1988. From 1988 to 1990 he was an elected member of the State Council of the GDR . In 1990 he was for a short time chairman of the provisional board of the committee of anti-fascist resistance fighters .

Florin received numerous awards: including the Order of the Red Star in the USSR in 1944 , the Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver on May 6, 1955 and the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1970, the Medal for Fighters against Fascism in 1958 , the Order of the Labor Banner in 1965 , 1970 the Soviet Order of the Great Patriotic War , 1971 the Honor Clasp for the Patriotic Order of Merit, 1981 the Karl Marx Order , 1985 the Great Star of Friendship between Nations and 1986 the title Hero of Labor .

Florin had been married to Edel Mirowa (1921–2012) since 1945 and had three children.

Fonts

  • On the foreign policy of the sovereign socialist GDR . Berlin, 1966

literature

Web links

Commons : Peter Florin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GDR diplomat Peter Florin died , message on Die Welt from February 17, 2014
personal data
SURNAME Florin, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SED), Member of the Bundestag, deputy foreign minister and permanent representative of the GDR at the United Nations
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne , Germany
DATE OF DEATH 17th February 2014
Place of death Berlin