Party Leader in E. Germany Out Over Stasi Link

The charismatic head of East Germany’s Social Democratic Party quit his post amid allegations he had links to the hated Stasi secret police, his party announced today.

Ibrahim Boehme, who denies the allegations, said he is resigning because it will take “lengthy investigations” to clear up the accusations, said August Kamilli, a high-ranking Social Democrat.

East Germany has been thrown into a political crisis by charges that many of its politicians had links to the Stasi secret police, which the former hard-line Communist leaders used to control East Germany.

The accusations have seriously overshadowed efforts by the conservative alliance that won East Germany’s March 18 elections to put together a coalition government with the Social Democrats.

Boehme became the second top political leader to give up his post because of allegations of Stasi links. Just before the elections, Wolfgang Schnur admitted former ties to the Communists’ secret police and resigned as head of Democratic Awakening, one of three parties in the Alliance for Germany which won the elections.

Boehme went to the former secret police headquarters in East Berlin on Friday to look at former classified documents, aiming to clear his name.

But according to Kamilli, after viewing the records Boehme decided that a “speedy clarification” was impossible and that he wanted to avoid “burdening the young (East German) democracy and the work of the party.”

Kamilli said a special party congress will convene to name Boehme’s successor but did not say when that will occur. Markus Merkel, the party’s deputy chairman, took over in Boehme’s absence.