Torsten Koplin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torsten Koplin

Torsten Koplin (born July 26, 1962 in Neubrandenburg ) is a German politician ( PDS , Die Linke ). He has been a member of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament since 1998 , where he was chairman of the finance committee from November 2011 to 2016. Together with Wenke Brüdgam, he has been chairman of the state executive committee of the party Die Linke since 2017 .

He was an unofficial employee of the GDR State Security .

education and profession

In 1979 Koplin graduated from a polytechnic high school (POS). He then completed an apprenticeship as a locksmith at VEB Kraftverkehr Neubrandenburg. He then signed up for three years with the Feliks Dzierzynski Guard Regiment . According to the records, Koplin served from October 1, 1981 to September 27, 1984. The guard regiment was a structural unit of the Ministry of State Security , and its appointment was on a voluntary basis. According to the service career regulations of the MfS, soldiers and NCOs who performed “temporary service” were members of the MfS and were in full-time employment with it. In accordance with Section 6, Paragraph 4, No. 1 of the Stasi Records Act , they are accordingly considered full-time employees of the State Security Service while performing this "temporary service".

From 1984 to 1988 he was secretary for culture and sport in the FDJ district leadership in Neubrandenburg. As a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall, he completed his studies at the former SED party college after three of a total of six semesters at the end of June 1990 with a "certificate of university degree", which is not recognized as an academic title. Nevertheless, until November 2008 he misleadingly presented them as university degrees (" political scientist " or " political scientist "). After he had been managing director of a service company from 1990 to 1992, he went into self-employment. From 1996 to 1998 he was group leader of a wholesale company. In 2010 he obtained the academic degree of a business graduate (FH) and in 2014 a master's degree in health management.

politics

Koplin was a member of the SED from 1981 , and later the PDS and the Left. From 1994 to 1998 Koplin sat for the PDS as a member of the Neubrandenburg city council.

Since 1998 Koplin has been a member of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania state parliament for the PDS and the Left. He was always elected via the state list. He was unable to secure a direct mandate in his Mecklenburg-Strelitz I constituency . From 1998 to 2002 he was Vice-Chairman and from 2002 to 2006 Chairman of the Committee on Health, Social Affairs, Family, Women, Seniors, Youth and Sport. In March 2006 Koplin signed the founding appeal of the anti-capitalist left (AKL), which was observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and classified as left-wing extremist . He is spokesman for the “Die Linke” parliamentary group for cultural policy. From November 2006 to September 2011 he was Vice-Chairman of the Committee on Education, Science and Culture.

On the sidelines of a “Die Linke” state party conference in October 2008, he caused criticism in his own party by saying that although there had been injustice in the GDR, it was not an injustice state . In 2011, together with Barbara Borchardt and other leading leftists of his regional association, he signed a paper in which the construction of the Berlin Wall was praised and described as "for the tours of the Soviet Union and the GDR without any reasonable alternative". Democratic West Berlin had been used to “destabilize the GDR”. The Iron Curtain stands for "a period of peaceful coexistence in Europe".

In the 2009 federal election , his candidacy in the federal constituency of Neubrandenburg - Mecklenburg-Strelitz - Uecker-Randow narrowly failed . Koplin received 32.8% of the vote and was defeated by Christoph Poland (CDU), who had received 33%.

As the only member of the anti-capitalist left, Torsten Koplin was elected to a promising place on the list (sixth place) for the state election in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania in 2011 and moved back into the state parliament through this.

In the federal election 2013 he entered the federal constituency Mecklenburgische Seenplatte I - Vorpommern-Greifswald II and lost with 23.9% to Matthias Lietz from the CDU, who achieved 45.9%.

In March 2014, like three other functionaries of the left, he was an observer of the referendum during the Crimean crisis on March 16 in Crimea , without having agreed with his party. In the same capacity, functionaries and members of the Lega Nord , Front National and other right-wing parties traveled to Crimea through the mediation of the Alliance of European National Movements . The OSCE refused to observe the referendum, which was later declared invalid by the UN General Assembly. Koplin's observer trip was also heavily criticized by party friends.

In March 2015, Koplin was defeated as a candidate in the election for Lord Mayor of Neubrandenburg in the runoff election to the non-party applicant Silvio Witt . In the first ballot, Koplin came second with 26.8 percent, while Witt received 43 percent of the vote. In the runoff election on March 15, Witt received 69.7 percent of the vote, according to the preliminary final result; Torsten Koplin came to 30.3 percent with a turnout of 42.1 percent.

Unofficial employee of the State Security

According to his own statements, Koplin signed an obligation as an unofficial employee (IM) for the State Security on January 21, 1987. The reason at that time was his plan to organize a park concert, and the approval was made dependent on his participation in the MfS. According to the Stasi documents, the aim of Koplin's recruitment was to use his help to penetrate the FDJ's full-time apparatus, to obtain assessments of leadership and management activities and to gain information on the moods and opinions of young people. By autumn 1988, when Koplin began his studies at the SED party college, he delivered six handwritten reports to the Neubrandenburg State Security as "IM Martin". The documents also contain 18 reports from the commanding officers with verbal information from Koplin and 22 meeting reports from the commanding officers; Koplin received twice as gifts of 100 marks . Koplin also compiled information for the MfS on several people who were processed by the State Security Service in operational identity checks (OPK). According to Koplin, he revealed his involvement with the Stasi at an event held by his youth club in December 1989. With the beginning of the course in the autumn of 1988 the collaboration “due to temporary unsuitability” ended; However, there was a plan to continue to use Koplin unofficially after completing his studies; working with him is effective .

family

Koplin is divorced and has two children.

Web links

Commons : Torsten Koplin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Torsten Koplin. The Linke Landesverband Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, accessed on October 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Final report of the Landtag commission in accordance with Section 48 of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Deputies Act , accessed on 19 December 2017
  3. ^ Frank Wilhelm: New trouble for Torsten Koplin. (No longer available online.) In: neubrandenblog. November 19, 2008, archived from the original on April 21, 2009 ; Retrieved April 14, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / neubrandenblog.blog.de
  4. ^ Short biography on the Landtag website
  5. ↑ Founding appeal “For an anti-capitalist left”. (PDF) March 2006, accessed May 24, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Frank Wilhelm: Who is wrong here? (No longer available online.) In: neubrandenblog. October 27, 2008, archived from the original on December 1, 2008 ; Retrieved April 14, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / neubrandenblog.blog.de
  7. ↑ Frank Pergande, Schwerin: The test balloon crashed. In: FAZ.net . March 24, 2009, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  8. ↑ Lisa Caspari: uprising of the left Fundis. In: Zeit Online . 4th August 2011 .;
  9. ^ Theses on the 50th anniversary of the Berlin Wall. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
  10. ↑ ostsee-zeitung.de: Top ten MV left with a real majority ( Memento from March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (April 10, 2011).
  11. ↑ Left, the Crimea and an unloaded Gysi. In: tagesspiegel.de. March 17, 2014, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  12. ^ Conflicts: Left-wing MPs as election observers in the Crimean referendum - criticism. In: Focus Online. March 17, 2014, accessed December 16, 2014 .
  13. ↑ Silvio Witt - from zero to 43 percent , NDR, March 2, 2015
  14. ↑ Mayor election: Silvio Witt rules the town hall , Nordkurier from March 16, 2015
  15. ↑ PDS deputy wants to keep mandate despite Stasi participation. In: welt.de . December 29, 1998, accessed December 16, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Koplin, Torsten
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (Die Linke), MdL, unofficial employee of the GDR State Security
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Neubrandenburg