Roland Woetzel

Roland Wötzel (born June 3, 1938 in Plauen ) was a member of the SED district leadership in Leipzig at the time of reunification in the GDR . He was best known as one of the Leipzig Six , whose appeal on October 9, 1989, read out by Kurt Masur , made a significant contribution to the fact that the Leipzig Monday demonstration could take place for the first time without violence on the part of the state leadership.

Life

Roland Wötzel grew up with three siblings - another was a victim of Nazi "euthanasia" - in simple circumstances in the Vogtland. He was able to attend high school and studied economics and law until 1960. He graduated with a degree in economics and law. He joined the SED as early as 1959 . Initially worked in the export department of the Leunawerke combine , then came to the central planning commission and later became the first deputy chairman of the Leipzig district planning commission . In 1971 he became chairman and also became deputy chairman of the Leipzig District Council. He held both positions until 1977. In addition, he had been a member of the SED district management and a member of the district assembly since 1971. In 1977 and 1978 he studied at the party college of the CPSU . He then became 1st secretary of the SED district leadership in Leipzig-Stadt and in 1984 secretary for science and education of the SED district leadership in Leipzig. Wötzel, who was considered ready for reform in the Gorbachev era, was never able to assert himself within the district leadership under the chairman Horst Schumann and the second secretary Helmut Hackenberg . When the opposition grew stronger in the late summer of 1989, Wötzel was one of the first high SED functionaries to be ready for talks. An attempt at a dialogue made by the critical cabaret artist Bernd-Lutz Lange , who is well known with Wötzel, was thwarted by the ban on the New Forum , as Wötzel also submitted to party discipline.

October 9, 1989

While the SED leadership defamed the Monday demonstrations that began in August after the traditional peace prayer in the Nikolaikirche as counterrevolutionary gatherings controlled by the West and acted against the demonstrators with the People's Police and State Security , Wötzel was well informed about the real circumstances. When a violent suppression of the demonstration threatened on October 9, Wötzel sat down with his SED colleague Kurt Meyer , who was also reform-oriented and, as cultural secretary, had good connections with the Gewandhaus orchestra leader Kurt Masur , and Jochen Pommert , who was the secretary for agitation and propaganda was partly responsible for the unobjective coverage and threats of violence in the press, together to seek means of preventing the escalation of violence. Masur Meyer had previously called to look for a solution. The three secretaries then drove to Masur after Wozel had called in Lange and the theologian Peter Zimmermann from the University of Leipzig to write a call for non-violence that was to be read out in the churches and on the city ​​radio . In view of the violent police operation two days earlier, Lange and Wötzel had agreed to meet on Monday, although they had also thought of a conversation in the Nikolaikirche . The three SED secretaries, the cabaret artist and the theologian met with Masur in his house in Leutzsch to write the appeal. This was read out in all churches open to prayers for peace, and broadcast in a version read by Masur on radio and city radio, which was also made possible by Wötzel's influence. The appeal had a relieving effect on many demonstrators, but the fact that the largest demonstration in Leipzig to date was able to proceed peacefully was primarily due to the large number of demonstrators and their consistent peacefulness. As could be documented later, the majority of the riot police, which consisted of conscripts in the GDR, were not ready to physically deploy against the demonstrators.

SED district chief

On November 4, the previous Leipzig district leadership resigned. Wötzel was appointed the new 1st Secretary. Although he was known as a reformer and for his role on October 9, which was so crucial for the city and the success of the citizens' movement, he could no longer set any decisive accents, as the final disempowerment of the SED was now the main goal of the demonstrators and Wötzel as Representatives of the SED were no longer heard. His attempt to speak to the demonstrators at the Monday demonstration on November 6th was lost in a whistling concert. Wötzel's political career, who later founded a law firm , also ended with the dissolution of the Leipzig district in the course of the new consolidation of the East German states .

Awards

• 1973 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR . 4th revised and expanded edition, Dietz, Berlin [et al.] 1987
• DH: Woetzel, Roland . In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 .
• New Forum Leipzig [Michael Arnold u. a.]: Now or never: Democracy. Forum Verlag Leipzig 1989.
• Ekkehard Kuhn: The day of the decision. Leipzig, October 9, 1989. Ullstein, Berlin, 1992.
• Christoph Links u. a. (Red.): The wonderful year of anarchy . Publishing house Ch. Links, Berlin, 2005.
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Wötzel, Roland . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Bernd-Lutz Lange , Sascha Lange : David versus Goliath - memories of the Peaceful Revolution . Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-351-03787-1 (221 pages).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Neues Deutschland , October 6, 1973, p. 5

Web links

• Literature by and about Roland Wötzel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Attorney Dr. Roland Woetzel