BERLIN, (Reuters) – Hans Modrow, who as the last Communist prime minister of East Germany oversaw democratic reforms that opened the way to German reunification, has died at age 95, Germany’s hard-left Die Linke party said yesterday.
“Last night Hans Modrow left us at the age of 95. With this, our party loses an important personality,” the party, successor to the East German Communist Party, said in a statement.
Modrow had said he would help turn East Germany into a democracy when he became prime minister of a communist-led transition government on Nov. 13, 1989, four days after the opening of the Berlin Wall that had divided East and West Berlin for 28 years.
The previous communist leadership had been forced out as protesters across East Germany demanded democracy and freedom, echoing calls for change across Soviet-dominated eastern Europe following Mikhail Gorbachev’s rise to power in the Soviet Union.
