- Rainer Eppelmann
Rainer Eppelmann (born
February 12 ,1943 inBerlin ), is a German politician. He's known for his opposition in theGerman Democratic Republic and is now a member of the CDU.Eppelmann was born to a national socialistic family. Being a member of the SS, his father served as a guard in the concentration camp of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen. His mother was a member of the BDM and the NSDAP.
After dropping out of school in
West Berlin in 1961, he worked as an assistant to a roofer before doing a job training for bricklayer. In 1966, he refused both the regular service and the service as "Bausoldat" (construction soldier) in theNational People's Army . Thus, he was put into prison for eight months.Later, he studied
Theology at the theological school inBerlin , an education he completed in 1974 with two exams. He then worked as aprotestant priest in Berlin-Friedrichshain and took part in the opposition. It has been claimed that during this periode, Eppelmann had contact with theCIA back then [ [http://www.glasnost.de/autoren/behrend/buergerbew.html Paragraph 6 of "DDR-Opposition bis 1989"] ] [ [http://www.vorwaerts.ch/vorwaerts/1997/23hintergrund.html Middle of "Ein Blick zurück"] ] .In 1990, Eppelmann was one of the founding fathers of the
Democratic Awakening , becoming its president. Thus, he took an active part in the round table of 1990, preparing theGerman reunification . From March 18th, 1990 to october 2nd, 1990 (when it ceased to exist) he was a member of theVolkskammer . He became a minister in the cabinet ofHans Modrow and later in the one ofLothar de Maizière . When the DA fusioned with the CDU in August 1990, Eppelmann became a member and later the assisting chairman of the worker's division of the CDU, the CDA.He was a member of the
Bundestag from 1990 to 2005 for the CDU. Here, he was chairman of the commission that coped with the history of theGerman Democratic Republic .Eppelmanns trademark is his "Berliner Schnauze", an
idiom that's supposed to bring him close to the people ofBerlin .He is married and has five children.
ee also
*
Democratic Awakening
*German reunification References
Both retrieved January 2, 2007
External links
* http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/EppelmannRainer/
* http://www.bundestag.de/mdb/mdb15/bio/E/eppelra0.html
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