{{Short description|East German diplomat and party functionary (1937–2007)}} {{good article}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Manfred Uschner | honorific_suffix = | image = Manfred Uschner.jpg | image_size = | caption = Uschner {{circa|2002}} | order = | office = Deputy Department Head<br />of the Central Committee | term_start = 21 June 1974 | term_end = 23 February 1989 | office1 = Instructor for Latin America in the International Relations Department | 1blankname1 = Head | 1namedata1 = Paul Markowski | term_start1 = 1 September 1968 | term_end1 = 21 June 1974 | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1937|05|16|df=y}} | birth_place = Magdeburg, Province of Saxony, Free State of Prussia, Nazi Germany {{small|(now Saxony-Anhalt, Germany)}} | occupation = {{hlist|Party Functionary|Author|Diplomat}} | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2007|11|13|1937|05|16}} | death_place = Berlin, Germany | resting_place = ''Evangelischer Kirchhof Altglienicke'' | spouse = | children = | party = Socialist Unity Party | other_party = Social Democratic Party<br />{{small|(1995–2007)}} | alma_mater = {{Plainlist| * ''Deutsche Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaften „Walter Ulbricht“'' (Dr. rer. pol.) * "Karl Marx" Party Academy }} | awards = {{hlist|Banner of Labor, 1st class|Patriotic Order of Merit, 1st class}} | website = }}
'''Manfred Uschner''' (16 May 1937 – 13 November 2007) was an East German diplomat and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
Born to a family with a long-standing social democratic tradition, Uschner joined the SED and worked as a diplomat and lecturer in East Germany. He thereafter served as an employee in the apparatus of the Central Committee of the SED for over twenty years, including fifteen years as personal assistant to Hermann Axen, Politburo member and Secretary of the Central Committee responsible for foreign affairs.
In the 1980s, Uschner held close contacts with many politicians of the West German SPD. On the orders of Erich Honecker, he was purged from the Central Committee apparatus on the eve of the Peaceful Revolution for this and for being critical of the SED's leadership. He finally joined the SPD in reunified Germany, also publishing books critical of the SED.
==Life and career== ===Early life=== Manfred Uschner was born on 16 May 1937 in Magdeburg to a working-class family.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Chronik-Biographie: Manfred Uschner |url=https://www.chronikderwende.de/lexikon/biografien/biographie_jsp/key=uschner_manfred.html |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=www.chronikderwende.de |publisher=Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg |language=de}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Uschner |first=Manfred |title=Die zweite Etage: Funktionsweise eines Machtapparates |date= |publisher=Dietz |year=1995 |isbn=978-3-320-01792-7 |edition=2nd |series=Zeitthemen |location=Berlin |language=de}}</ref>{{rp|page=28}} He lost his sister and grandmother during the air raid on Magdeburg on 16 January 1945.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=28 f.}}
Uschner's family had a long social democratic tradition.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=29 f.}}<ref name=":4">{{Cite news |last=Weiland |first=Severin |date=1995-02-07 |title=Das Portrait: Manfred Uschner |url=https://taz.de/Manfred-Uschner/!1521740/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |work=taz. die tageszeitung |language=de |issue=4539 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8">{{Cite news |last=Weiland |first=Severin |date=1994-07-12 |title=Ehemaliger SED-Kader sucht SPD-Ortsverein |url=https://taz.de/Ehemaliger-SED-Kader-sucht-SPD-Ortsverein/!1553642/ |access-date=2025-09-13 |work=taz. die tageszeitung |language=de |issue=4362 |issn=0931-9085}}</ref> His grandfather Paul Uschner was a bodyguard to August Bebel, founding father of the SPD.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news |last=Pragal |first=Peter |date=1995-03-11 |title=Schon sein Opa diente Bebel |url=https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/was-der-fruehere-sed-funktionaer-manfred-uschner-alles-ins-feld-fuehrt-um-die-attacken-auf-sein-spd-mitgliedsbuch-zu-parieren-schon-sein-opa-diente-bebel-li.890460 |archive-date= |access-date=2025-01-19 |work=Berliner Zeitung |language=de}}</ref> Uschner's father Fritz rejoined the SPD after the war and cofounded the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in Magdeburg. Fritz Uschner rose to become a candidate member of the Central Committee of the SED and a member of the Volkskammer in 1950, but was purged by the party in 1953 and only rehabilitated in 1956.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=29 f.}}<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite news |date=1953-05-16 |title=MORE OUSTERS SEEN AMONG GERMAN REDS |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1953/05/16/archives/more-ousters-seen-among-german-reds.html |access-date=2025-09-14 |work=The New York Times |pages=6 |language=en |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref>
Uschner joined the children's association of the Free German Youth (FDJ) in 1947 and became a member of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation upon its founding in 1948.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=29}}
After completing his ''Abitur'', Uschner became one of the first students of the Institute for International Relations of the German Academy of Political Science and Law "Walter Ulbricht" in Potsdam-Babelsberg,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=30 f.}}<ref name=":2" /> ''de facto'' a Marxist–Leninist cadre factory of the ruling SED,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Appelius |first=Stefan |date=2009-08-29 |title=DDR-Kaderschmiede |url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/ddr-kaderschmiede-a-948473.html |access-date=2025-01-19 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref> graduating in 1959.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=31}} On 2 December 1959, Uschner joined the East German Ministry for Foreign Affairs.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=31}}<ref name=":2" /> Not even two years later, on 19 January 1961, he became an attaché of the East German embassy in Budapest.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=31}}<ref name=":2" /> This appointment was short-lived, as he was soon transferred back to the Institute for International Relations as a lecturer,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=31}} where he also received a doctorate (Dr. rer. pol.),<ref name=":10">{{Cite news |date=1987-05-02 |title=Vaterländischer Verdienstorden In Gold |url=https://dfg-viewer.de/show?id=9&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de%2Fzefys%2FSNP2532889X-19870502-0-0-0-0.xml&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=4 |access-date=2025-10-18 |work=Neues Deutschland |department=Inland |publisher=Berlin State Library |pages=4 |language=de |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref> his December 1967 dissertation discussing relations between Brazil and West Germany.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Uschner |first=Manfred |title=Die Beziehungen der westdeutschen Bundesrepublik zu Brasilien: |date=1967-12-21 |access-date=2025-11-08 |publisher=Deutsche Akademie für Staats- und Rechtswissenschaft (DASR) „Walter Ulbricht“ |url=https://portal.dnb.de/opac.htm?method=simpleSearch&cqlMode=true&query=idn%3D482290889 |place=Potsdam}}</ref>
===SED Central Committee=== Against his wishes and despite not being an expert on Latin America, Uschner was poached by the SED, joining the Central Committee apparatus as instructor for Latin America in the International Relations Department on 1 September 1968.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=27 f., 33}}<ref name=":2" /> From 1972 to 1973, he was forced to attend a one-year course at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=135}} Upon his graduation, Stalinist principal Hanna Wolf initially wanted to expel Uschner from the SED for perceived oppositional attitudes.<ref name=":11" />{{rp||pages=140 f.}}
On 15 August 1974,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=45}}<ref>{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 66/74 Umlauf am 21. Juni 1974 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=f2d3a674-dea5-4e07-b84d-4a1d620ce628 |access-date=2025-02-06 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=4. Personelle Veränderung im Büro des Genossen H. Axen (Barth/Uschner)}}</ref> Uschner was promoted to be the second, scientific personal assistant to Hermann Axen, Politburo member and Secretary of the Central Committee responsible for foreign affairs, with the rank of a deputy Central Committee department head.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=42}}<ref name=":10" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Otto |first=Werner |date=1985-03-02 |title=Außenminister Genscher empfing Hermann Äxen |url=https://dfg-viewer.de/show?tx_dlf%5Bdouble%5D=0&tx_dlf%5Bid%5D=https%3A%2F%2Fcontent.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de%2Fzefys%2FSNP2532889X-19850302-0-0-0-0.xml&tx_dlf%5Bpage%5D=2&cHash=8ecd89e7b5dadf73d0858ee7e0fda21f |access-date=2025-01-20 |work=Neues Deutschland |publisher=Berlin State Library |pages=2 |language=de |quote=Gunter Rettner und Manfred Uschner, stellvertretende Abteilungsleiter des ZK der SED}}</ref><ref name=":7">{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 133/87 Umlauf am 1. Dezember 1987 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=a0bd8d0e-da0f-44d1-96c5-404ead141dbb |access-date=2025-02-05 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=2. Teilnahme des Genossen Manfred Uschner, stellvertretender Abteilungsleiter des ZK und Sekretär der Außenpolitischen Kommission beim Politbüro, an einer sicherheitspolitischen Konferenz der SPD Baden-Württemberg am 5. und 6. Dezember 1987 in Heidelberg}}</ref> He succeeded Herbert Barth, who was transferred back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=76}} Axen had previously been responsible for "bringing in line" his father's Magdeburg SED in the early 1950s.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|pages=30, 42}} Starting in 1976, Uschner also served as secretary of the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12}}<ref name=":7" /> In 1983, he rose to first personal assistant.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=135}}
From 1984, Uschner was a member of the ''Joint Security Policy Working Group SED-SPD'',<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12}}<ref name=":9">{{Cite web |title=In Memoriam |url=http://www.willy-brandt-kreis.de/inhalt/inmemoriam.htm |access-date=2025-09-13 |website=www.willy-brandt-kreis.de |series=Über den Willy-Brandt-Kreis |publisher=Willy-Brandt-Kreis e.V. |language=de |quote=Von 1984 bis 1989 Mitglied der "Gemeinsamen Sicherheitspolitischen Arbeitsgruppe" von SED und SPD, wurde Uschner 1989 wegen "Sozialdemokratismus" aus dem Parteiapparat entfernt. Der Verfasser von zahlreichen Büchern und Zeitschriftenbeiträgen war zuletzt ABM-Projektleiter und Geschäftsführer des Kautsky-Bernstein-Kreises e. V. Manfred Uschner starb im Jahr 2007.}}</ref> which mainly worked on disarmament,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=57, 61, 67, 136}} serving as chief of staff for the SED side.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12}}
Uschner analyzed foreign press for Axen,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=65 f.}} also accompanying him on foreign trips,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=54 f.}} most notably to the US in May 1988, where Uschner held discussions with Robert McNamara.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=55–57}} Uschner had increasingly good contacts with politicians of the SPD,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=95 f.}}<ref name=":6">{{Cite news |date=1995-02-12 |title=Mitunter originell |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/mitunter-originell-a-a7df9c07-0002-0001-0000-000009157755 |access-date=2025-01-20 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref> in particular Egon Bahr, whom he befriended.<ref name=":6" /> Unusually for a personal assistant to a Central Committee Secretary, Uschner was allowed to continue to publish, give speeches and appear on TV,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=55}} including in West Germany.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=55, 69}}<ref name=":7" />
Uschner received several state awards during his time in the Central Committee apparatus, ultimately receiving the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold in May 1987.<ref name=":10" />
===Downfall=== After being warned repeatedly,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12, 86 f., 115 f.}}<ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=167}} Uschner was fired by Hermann Axen on the orders of Erich Honecker on 20 February 1989,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12, 140}}<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6" /> the Central Committee Secretariat formally removing him two days later.<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web |year=2007 |editor-last=Räuber |editor-first=Ute |title=Protokoll Nr. 20/89 Umlauf am 23. Februar 1989 |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30sekp/index.htm?kid=2b06e6a2-d0c8-4eed-ad99-5b3127eb56dc |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de |series=Protokolle des Sekretariats des ZK der SED |publisher=German Federal Archives |language=de |publication-place=Berlin |quote=2. Abberufung und Bestätigung von persönlichen Mitarbeitern - (Böhm - Uschner)}}</ref> He was accused of "social democratism" and of holding an "anti-party stance".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=12, 94}}<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":6" /> A Stasi dossier claimed him of having "succumb to enemy influence (SPD)".<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=94}}<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3" />
Honecker had originally called Axen two days earlier with the plan to have him be arrested by the Stasi and imprisoned in their Berlin-Hohenschönhausen political prison, but Axen was able to talk him out of that, arguing it would disrupt the talks with the SPD.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=94}} Similar to the removal of Herbert Häber, Uschner was transferred to the Institute for Marxist–Leninist Philosophy of the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED with a 50% pay cut and under constant surveillance of the Stasi.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=141}}<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8" />
Uschner's removal came as part of a broader wave of about 20,000 party functionaries, including 39 other Central Committee employees, removed from office and 66,000 party members expelled for being critical of the SED's leadership from January to November 1989.<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=15, 93, 141, 144}}<ref name=":11" /> {{rp||page=150}}
Until the Peaceful Revolution, Uschner successfully managed to contact SPD Bundestag member Karsten Voigt. A few days after he received an invitation from the American embassy arranged by Voigt, Uschner's ''Wartburg'' car burned down in front of his son's kindergarten. The responsible Stasi Main Directorate for Reconnaissance had originally planned for the car to explode in the garage, killing Uschner's son above to make sure "Uschner no longer engages in politics after that!".<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Jochum |first=Dietmar |date=2016-03-24 |orig-date=Interview conducted on 2002-02-07 |title=Mielkes Horchposten lauerten überall. |url=https://tp-presseagentur.de/mielkes-horchposten-lauerten-ueberall-interview-mit-dr-manfred-uschner-persoenlicher-mitarbeiter-des-politbueromitgliedes-hermann-axen/ |access-date=2025-01-19 |website=tp-presseagentur.de |publisher=TP-Presseagentur Berlin e.K. |language=de-DE |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref>
===Reunified Germany=== Shortly after his February 1990 rehabilitation,<ref name=":1" />{{rp|page=152}}<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Uschner |first=Manfred |title=Die roten Socken |date= |publisher=Dietz |year=1995 |isbn=978-3-320-01870-2 |location=Berlin |language=de}}</ref>{{rp||page=160}} Uschner left the now-renamed Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=|pages=19, 160}}<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |date=1994-05-22 |title=Warten auf ein Zeichen |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/warten-auf-ein-zeichen-a-e5384984-0002-0001-0000-000013684690 |access-date=2025-01-19 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issue=21/1994 |issn=2195-1349}}</ref> He formed the ''Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis'' (named after German socialists Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky) with other social democratic-minded former SED members,<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=|pages=19, 188}}<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":5" /> who felt that they are being pushed out of the PDS.<ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=|pages=19, 186–188}} He was employed as managing director of the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis, which already had 450 members by 1991,<ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=160}} as part of an employment subsidy scheme,<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":9" /><ref name=":5" /> also publishing various articles and books, including on the SED and the ''Ostpolitik''.<ref name=":9" /><ref name=":3" /> Uschner was also invited by the SPD to speak at the Bundestag's public inquiry on the reappraisal of the SED dictatorship.<ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=74}}
thumb|Uschner's grave in 2026 In the 1990s, Uschner also repeatedly attempted to join the SPD.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> He was initially rejected in 1993 by his local SPD branch in Treptow for being a former SED functionary.<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> His attempt to join the SPD in 1995 via the neighbouring Kreuzberg SPD in former West Berlin caused controversy and a discussion on how to deal with former SED members,<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":2" /><ref name=":8" /><ref name=":6" /><ref name=":3" /> despite Uschner's membership application having the endorsement of Willy Brandt and his friend Egon Bahr.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" /> He was eventually accepted into the SPD via the Kreuzberg branch later that year.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":11" />{{rp||page=221}} Some party members blamed the SPD's loss in the 1995 Berlin state election on Uschner despite lead candidate Ingrid Stahmer having publicly opposed Uschner's membership application.<ref name=":11" />{{rp||pages=220 f.}}
In spite of his own political persecution by the SED and the Stasi, Uschner became critical of the reappraisal done in reunified Germany and the Bundestag's public inquiry in particular by the mid-1990s, among other things arguing against using the term ''Unrechtsstaat'' for East Germany, publishing the names of former Stasi collaborators and the "discrimination" of former SED members.<ref name=":11" />{{rp||pages=25–81}} Uschner faced criticism for offering disgraced former East German SPD leader Ibrahim Böhme, who was revealed to have worked with the Stasi, a job at the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5" />
Manfred Uschner died on 13 November 2007 in Berlin at the age of 70.<ref name=":9" /> He was buried in a communal urn plot in the Altglienicke cemetery.
== Bibliography == * ''Die Beziehungen der westdeutschen Bundesrepublik zu Brasilien'' (1967). * ''Entwicklungspolitik, Expansion, Globalstrategie'' (1969). * ''Lateinamerika – Schauplatz revolutionärer Kämpfe'' (1975). * ''Die Ostpolitik der SPD'' (1991). * ''Die zweite Etage'' (1993). * ''Die roten Socken'' (1995).
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Uschner, Manfred}} Category:1937 births Category:2007 deaths Category:Foreign policy writers Category:Politicians from Magdeburg Category:East German diplomats Category:Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Category:Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver Category:Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold Category:Recipients of the Banner of Labor Category:German communists