On the death of Jörg Schönbohm: general, mediator, hardliner

When he learned of his biggest job almost thirty years ago, Bundeswehr Lieutenant General Jörg Schönbohm was in the Black Forest. It was the job that was to become his masterpiece. The then Minister of Defense Gerhard Stoltenberg sent a helicopter, ordered Schönbohm to talk - and asked him the so-called Bundeswehr Command East. This is how Schönbohm himself later recalled in a conversation with a contemporary witness.

Bundeswehr Command East, which meant that Schönbohm should dissolve the National People's Army (NVA) of the GDR and partially integrate the Eastern soldiers in the Bundeswehr. "I knew that was a tremendous task," says Schönbohm in retrospect. "But I wanted it." And he did it.

It was a major project: 90,000 soldiers were serving in the NVA, parts of the armaments of the army had to be scrapped. At the same time, the Soviet troops were still in the country. "This was the most exciting time, a game with many unknowns," said Schönbohm around his 80th birthday of the "Märkische Allgemeine".

On the night of this Friday, Jörg Schönbohn died as a result of a heart attack. The Potsdam state parliament president Britta Stark (SPD) stated that Brandenburg had "lost a great politician".

For when Schönbohm had successfully completed his NVA task in the summer of 1991 after nine months, he was still briefly inspector of the army, but then followed a moving career in politics and the CDU.

Critic of Angela Merkel

All over the party, Schönbohm's steadfastness and fairness were praised. He became a critic of Chancellor Angela Merkel, repeatedly accusing her of public error. He no longer understands his party, he said about in 2011 in an interview with SPIEGEL TV. Schoenbohm criticized Merkel's leadership style and her statement that her own path was "no alternative". "A party may accept announcements of no-choice decisions at most in emergencies or crises."

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Jörg Schönbohm as Brandenburg's Minister of the Interior in 2006

His own most important political contribution was probably the pacification of the CDU in Brandenburg. From 1990 to 1997 alone, the state association had five chairmen and two interim chairmen. The party was divided in the state, crashed in state elections within four years by more than ten percentage points.

Then Schönbohm took over. He had made a name for himself as Berlin Interior Senator - the one of a hardliner.

In the federal state from which he had fled to West Germany with his family at the age of eight after the end of the Second World War, he assumed the chairmanship of the CDU in 1998, four years after joining the party. In the state election the following year, he led the Christian Democrats as the leading candidate to a successful result of 26.5 percent.

The SPD lost its absolute majority and went with Prime Minister Manfred Stolpe in a grand coalition with the CDU. Until 2007, Schönbohm will remain State Chairman and Vice Prime Minister, until 2009 Minister of the Interior. Among his successes in this time include a community and police reform. Above all, he strengthened the police.

"German Leitkultur" and "Proletarianization of the East Germans"

But Schönbohm also experienced setbacks. For the 2004 state election, he announced "25 percent plus x", but then missed even the 20 percent mark. The third strongest force behind the former PDS, the CDU again went into a coalition with the SPD. In 2009, the Christian Democrats left the government of Brandenburg after ten years. The SPD opted for a red-red government with the left. The injured Schoenbohm deep.

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CDU chief Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer with Schönbohm in November 2018

With some statements, the politician polarized especially.

In 1998 he used the term "German Leitkultur" in the debate on immigration policy. Four years later, he told the SPIEGEL: "Whoever comes to us, must take over the German Leitkultur."

When in 2005 the remains of nine dead babies were found near Frankfurt on the Oder, for whose death the mother was responsible, Schoenbohm concluded: Violence and loss of value in East Germany are decisive for the "proletarianization" and "forced collectivization" of the people due to the SED dictatorship. For these comments, there was also the CDU sharp criticism.

A career at the federal level was missing: Although he was Secretary of State for several years in the Ministry of Defense, but he could never take over the head of the Ministry. With Brandenburg, however, the name Jörg Schönbohm will remain closely connected even after his death - whether as a military or as a politician.