William Borm

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William Borm (born July 7, 1895 in Hamburg , † September 2, 1987 in Bonn ) was a German politician ( FDP ). The entrepreneur was a member of the German Bundestag from 1965 to 1972 and a member of the FDP federal executive committee from 1960 to 1982. Since the late 1950s, he was agent of the GDR - Ministry of State Security (Stasi), as only years became known after his death.

Life

Origin and professional life

William Borm was born the son of a furniture merchant and grew up with his uncle in Bautzen . In 1914 he graduated from high school. During the First World War he was a volunteer in a hussar regiment from 1915 to 1918. He studied economics at the Berlin University . In 1929 he founded an electroacoustic company. During the Second World War in 1940 he was appointed military economic leader. After 1945 he became chairman of the industry committee in the Berlin US sector .

Political career

From 1924 to 1933 Borm was a member of the German People's Party (DVP). In 1945 he joined the LDP and became chairman of the industry committee. From 1948 to 1950 he was deputy LDP state chairman.

In 1950 he became the German Democratic Republic - East German police at the border crossing Eisenach-Wartha arrested on the transit highway and two years later by the district court Greifswald for war and incitement to boycott sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He was in the Bützow-Dreibergen , Luckau and Cottbus penal institutions . At the end of the 1950s, he undertook to cooperate with the main administration and was released early on August 28, 1959.

Between 1960 and 1969 he was state chairman, from 1972 to 1982 honorary chairman of the Berlin FDP , 1960 to 1982 member of the FDP federal executive committee, 1963 to 1967 member of the Berlin House of Representatives and from 1965 to 1972 member of the Bundestag . On October 20, 1969, he opened the first session of the 6th German Bundestag as senior president . In 1967 he co-founded the Republican Club . After the break of the social-liberal coalition in 1982, he left the FDP and took part in the founding of the Liberal Democrats (LD), a little later he left active politics.

Borm was awarded the Great Federal Cross of Merit in 1970 and the Great Cross of Merit with a Star in 1975, the Ernst Reuter Plaque of the State of Berlin in silver in 1975 and the Carl von Ossietzky Medal in 1982. In 1980 he became city ​​elder of Berlin . In September 1985 he received an honorary doctorate from the Karl Marx University in Leipzig .

Agent activity for the MfS

During the entire time, Borm kept in close contact with the Stasi under the code name IM Olaf, and met regularly with the head of the foreign intelligence service, Markus Wolf, and command officers in the GDR. According to MfS Lieutenant Colonel Günter Bohnsack , the GDR secret service wrote many of its Bundestag speeches and articles in the 1960s. The address as senior president of the German Bundestag on October 20, 1969 had been edited by Wolf. After Borm had already been assigned the Stasi spy Johanna Olbrich alias Sonja Lüneburg as secretary in 1969, the Stasi foreign espionage ("Headquarters Enlightenment" - HV A) brought political scientist Jürgen-Bernd Runge into Borms Bonn office as personal secretary in 1978 under. Those involved did not know anything about the unofficial cooperation of the other with the Stasi.

Politically, Borm campaigned for an understanding with the GDR, and in 1963 presented a controversial plan for Germany . In 1966 he suggested negotiating with the GDR about the re-admission of the KPD in exchange for more freedom of travel for West Berliners. In 1979 he demanded recognition of GDR citizenship . In 1981 he was publicly involved in the peace movement against the NATO double resolution , and spoke to 250,000 people in Bonn's Hofgarten on October 10th. In the same year he took a stand against Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher , accusing him of working towards the reunification of Germany, which was contrary to the policy of détente in Europe.

Although he publicly advocated political liberalism , Borm declared in a secret conversation with the head of the West Department at the Central Committee of the SED Herbert Häber in 1979 that the idea of socialism was correct. Although the form in the GDR is not yet sufficiently attractive, it should not be understood as a criticism.

Death and grave

Grave of William Borm in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin

William Borm died in Bonn in 1987 at the age of 92. He was buried in the Zehlendorf cemetery in Berlin (field 20-183).

Since Borm had carried the title of “City Elder”, he was entitled to the direct dedication of his final resting place as the honorary grave of the State of Berlin , which took place in the year of his death. According to the legal situation at the time, this dedication was limited to forty years for city elders, but could then have been extended by resolution of the Berlin Senate . Even the allegations of agent activity for the GDR, first brought against Borm in the early 1990s, did not change the honorary status of the grave for over a decade and a half.

In the form of one with "honorary grave for Stasi?" Titled " Little request " to the Senate August 7 In 2009, Michael Brown , a member of the CDU parliamentary group of the Berlin House of Representatives , the continued appreciation Borms for discussion.

The Senate then commissioned the Birthler authority to examine the allegations against Borm. The report came to the conclusion that Borms' activity for the MfS was “not clearly verifiable”, especially because essential files in this regard had been destroyed in 1990 with the approval of the GDR government. Nevertheless, in its session on September 8, 2009, the Senate decided "due to the high probability that the allegations existing against William Borm are correct" to shorten the period of recognition of Borm's final resting place as an "honorary grave" from 40 to 20 years, which the usual rest period in Berlin cemeteries. Since this period had already expired, the Senate resolution resulted in William Borm's immediate revocation of honorary grave status.

Private

Borm was married and has a son and a daughter. He was a member of the Berlin Masonic Lodge Am Berge der Schönheit . Because of his gentleman demeanor, he was nicknamed Sir William by his friends and the head of the GDR Enlightenment .

literature

  • Werner Breunig, Andreas Herbst (ed.): Biographical handbook of the Berlin parliamentarians 1963–1995 and city councilors 1990/1991 (= series of publications of the Berlin State Archives. Volume 19). Landesarchiv Berlin, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9803303-5-0 , p. 101 f.
  • Hubertus Knabe: The infiltrated republic. Ullstein Taschenbuch 36284, 2001, ISBN 3-548-36284-2 .
  • Hubertus Knabe u. a .: West work of the MfS. The interplay of 'education' and 'defense'. Analyzes and Documents (Scientific Series of the BStU), Vol. 18; Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-86153-182-8 .
  • Markus Wolf: Friends don't die . Das Neue Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-360-00983-5 .
  • Klaus Marxen , Gerhard Werle (ed.): Criminal justice and GDR injustice: Documentation. Espionage. Volume 4. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89949-080-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Senate examines the grave of honor for William Borm. In: BILD . June 15, 2009, last accessed November 11, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Recognition period for Borms grave of honor shortened , press release of the Berlin Senate Chancellery of September 8, 2009.
  3. ↑ Plenary minutes of the German Bundestag 06/1, [1] (PDF).
  4. ↑ a b Borm, William . In: Martin Schumacher (Ed.): MdB - The People's Representation 1946–1972. - [Baack to Bychel] (=  KGParl online publications ). Commission for the History of Parliamentarism and Political Parties e. V., Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-00-020703-7 , pp. 134–135 , urn : nbn: de: 101: 1-2014070812574 ( kgparl.de [PDF; 568 kB ; accessed on June 19, 2017]).
  5. ^ Karl-Heinz Baum : Stasi and Bundestag. More ex-MPs in focus . In: Frankfurter Hefte . No. 5 , 2007, p. 41 ( [2] [PDF; accessed on May 2, 2010]).
  6. ^ Wolfgang Hartmann:  Olbrich, Johanna . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  7. ↑ The Stasi espionage in the "operational area" - contemporary witnesses report on the work of the HV A in the west , contemporary witness interview on September 25, 2012 in the education center of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic (BStU) in Berlin, accessed on 13 November 2015.
  8. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 671.
  9. ↑ Small question from MP Michael Braun (CDU) of August 7th, 2009 (received by the House of Representatives on August 10th, 2009) and answer 'Honor grave for Stasi informers'? . Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 16/13 637 from September 23, 2009 (accessed on March 16, 2019).
  10. ↑ Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 16/13 637 of September 23, 2009.
  11. ↑ Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 16/13 637 of September 23, 2009.
personal data
SURNAME Borm, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politicians (DVP, LDP, FDP, LD), MdA, MdB, GDR agent
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH 2nd September 1987
Place of death Bonn