East Germany

Central planning agencies 1921–2010 ○ Died

The GDR State Planning Commission chief who warned of bankruptcy but could not save the system

When I warned Honecker against this policy in the Politburo I was brushed aside as a 'saboteur'.

Gerhard Schürer was the economic official who chaired the GDR State Planning Commission from 1965 to 1989. He warned that Honecker's 'unity of economic and social policy' was tilting the country toward insolvency by favouring consumption over investment, but was denounced as a 'saboteur' in the Politburo and remained a candidate member for 18 years. Summoned by Egon Krenz, on 30 October 1989 he presented the 'Analysis of the Economic Condition of the GDR' revealing 49 billion Valutamark in Western debt and impending insolvency, and proposed looser border controls in exchange for West German loans: a document that laid bare the regime's desperation. After reunification he was jailed for 18 days on charges of 'breach of trust,' released without trial, and later published his memoir Gewagt und verloren (Dared and Lost).

Socialist-bloc reform leader 1943– ○ Dismissed after reunification

From border controller to the officer who ordered the Wall opened

“That’s why I gave my people the order: Open the barrier!”

Harald Jäger was a border-control officer who served the East German Ministry for State Security, enforcing the state’s travel controls and intelligence work. On 9 November 1989, without clear direction from his superiors, he faced a growing crowd and the danger of violence at Bornholmer Straße. He belonged to the machinery of control, yet that night he ordered the barrier opened, allowing thousands of East German citizens into West Berlin. He later acknowledged both the GDR’s inner contradictions and the freedom brought by the Wall’s fall.