GDR civil rights activist: Bundestag elects Zupke as commissioner for SED victims

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Evelyn Zupke in the Bundestag: 516 MPs voted yes

Photo: via www.imago-images.de / imago images / Political-Moments

Former GDR oppositionist Evelyn Zupke has been elected federal commissioner for the victims of the SED dictatorship.

On Thursday, the 59-year-old received the required majority in the Bundestag.

516 MPs voted yes, 81 MPs no.

Last Friday, the government factions of Union and SPD announced Zupke as a candidate.

Negotiations between the groups had previously stalled.

According to information from her résumé, Zupke works as a social worker for people with mental illnesses.

At the end of the 1980s she was active in the East Berlin opposition group Weißenseer Friedenskreis.

In May 1989, the East German was instrumental in uncovering the fraud in the GDR local elections.

She regularly appears as a contemporary witness in schools and educational institutions.

After the dissolution of the Stasi records authority, Zupke is supposed to take care of the victims' concerns.

In November 2020, the Bundestag decided to set up the position after the Stasi records authority was dissolved.

Authority head Roland Jahn will be adopted on June 17th.

The papers of the GDR State Security will in future be administered by the Federal Archives.

asa / dpa