# Manfred Uschner

Manfred Uschner (16 May 1937 – 13 November 2007) was a German diplomat and party functionary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
Uschner 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.

## Life and career
### Early career

Uschner was born in 1937 in Magdeburg to a working-class family.$^{:28}$ He lost his sister and grandmother during the air raid on Magdeburg on 16 January 1945.$^{:28f.}$
Uschner's family had a long social democratic tradition.$^{:29f.}$ His grandfather Paul Uschner was a bodyguard to August Bebel, founding father of the SPD. 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.$^{:29f.}$
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.$^{:29}$
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,$^{:30f.}$ de facto a Marxist–Leninist cadre factory of the ruling SED, graduating in 1959.$^{:31}$ On 2 December 1959, Uschner joined the GDR's Ministry for Foreign Affairs.$^{:31}$ Not even two years later, on 19 January 1961, he became an attaché of the GDR's embassy in Budapest.$^{:31}$ This appointment was short-lived, as he soon was transferred back to the Institute for International Relations as a lecturer.$^{:31}$

### 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 Department for International Relations on 1 September 1968.$^{:27f.,33}$ From 1972 to 1973, he was forced to attend a one-year course at the "Karl Marx" Party Academy.$^{:135}$
On 15 August 1974,$^{:45}$ Uschner was promoted to be 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 department head.$^{:42}$ Starting in 1976, Uschner also served as secretary of the Foreign Policy Commission at the Politburo.$^{:12}$ In 1983, he rose to first personal assistant.$^{:135}$
From 1984, Uschner was a member of the Joint Security Policy Working Group SED-SPD,$^{:12}$ which mainly worked on disarmament,$^{:57,61,67,136}$ serving as chief of staff for the SED side.$^{:12}$
Uschner analyzed foreign press for Axen,$^{:65f.}$ also accompanying him on foreign trips,$^{:54f.}$ most notably to the US in May 1988, where Uschner held discussions with Robert McNamara.$^{:55–57}$ Uschner had increasingly good contacts with politicians of the SPD,$^{:95f.}$ in particular Egon Bahr, whom he befriended. Unusually for a personal assistant to a Central Committee Secretary, Uschner was allowed to continue to publish, give speeches and appear on TV,$^{:55}$ including in West Germany.$^{:55,69}$

### Downfall

After being warned repeatedly,$^{:12,86f.,115f.}$ Uschner was fired by Hermann Axen on the orders of Erich Honecker on 20 February 1989,$^{:12,140}$ the Central Committee Secretariat formally removing him two days later. He was accused of "social democratism" and of having an "anti-party stance".$^{:12,94}$ A Stasi dossier claimed him of having "Succumb to enemy influence (SPD)".$^{:94}$
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.$^{:94}$
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.$^{:141}$
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.$^{:15,93,141,144}$
Until the Peaceful Revolution, Uschner successfully tried to contact Karsten Voigt. A few days after he received an invitation from the American embassy, 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!".

### Reunified Germany

Despite being rehabilitated on 17 February 1990,$^{:152}$ Uschner soon left the now-renamed Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS), forming the Bernstein-Kautsky-Kreis with other social democratic-minded former SED members.
Uschner repeatedly attempted to join the SPD. He was initially rejected in 1993 by the Treptow SPD for being a former SED functionary. His attempt to join the SPD in 1995 via the neighbouring Kreuzberg SPD in West Berlin caused controversy and a discussion on how to deal with former SED members, despite Uschner's membership application having the endorsement of Willy Brandt and his friend Egon Bahr.