German politician (1933–2024)
Klaus Thielmann (29 October 1933 – 25 January 2024) was a German physician, civil servant and politician of the Socialist Unity Party (SED).
He notably served as the GDR's penultimate Health Minister, being appointed on the eve of and serving during the Peaceful Revolution.
Thielmann was of Sorbian descent and the only Sorb to ever hold a ministerial position in the GDR and, to date, Germany on a national level.
Life and career
Early career
Thielmann grew up as the son of a family of physicians in Quoos, graduated from the Sorbian High School in Bautzen, and studied medicine from 1952 to 1957 at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig and the Medical Academy in Erfurt.[1]
In 1957, he earned his doctorate in medicine (Dr. med.), worked for one year as an assistant doctor at the district hospital in Stralsund, and from 1958 to 1959, served as a ship's doctor for the Deutsche Seereederei (DSR).[1]
Academic career
From 1959 to 1963, Thielmann worked as a scientific assistant at the Institutes of Physiological Chemistry at the universities of Greifswald and Jena.[1]
At Friedrich Schiller University Jena, he was appointed senior physician in 1963 and became a university lecturer after his habilitation in 1965.[1]
From 1968 to 1971, Thielmann was a guest professor at the Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas (CNIC) in Havana (Cuba).[1]
In 1974, he was appointed a full professor at the Medical Academy in Erfurt and served as prorector for Natural Sciences and Medical Research there from 1976 to 1982.[1]
Thielmann joined the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in 1978.[1]
Health minister
In 1982, he was appointed deputy minister in the Ministry of Higher and Technical Education. In January 1989, he became minister of health, succeeding retiring party colleague and fellow physician Ludwig Mecklinger.[1][2] With this, Thielmann was the only Sorb to ever hold a ministerial position in the GDR and Germany as a whole.
During Thielmann's tenure, the GDR's health care system had been crumbling for several years, many hospitals being in a state of disrepair and suffering from outdated technical equipment, high workloads on medical and nursing staff and severe labor and material shortages.[3][4][5] These problems were exacerbated by the wave of refugees in the summer of 1989.[3][4][5] Thielmann encouraged open discussion, holding the first GDR National Health Conference in September 1989.[4]
Peaceful Revolution
During the Peaceful Revolution, Thielmann was one of only a few Ministers kept by the new transitional government of Hans Modrow, additionally taking on the responsibility for social affairs.[1]
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Thielmann requested help from West Germany in late 1989, directly writing to Chancellor Helmut Kohl.[6] In cooperation with the German Red Cross and the Federal Government, an emergency aid programme was initiated in February 1990, which saw the Federal Government providing the GDR with 500 million DM for the purchase of medicines, highly specialised medical technology, medical consumables and rehabilitation technology.[4][6]
Thielmann additionally deployed 2,000 National People's Army members in the health sector in all Bezirke from December 1989.[3][4][5]
His ministerial career ended in April 1990 after the first free elections in the GDR, when Jürgen Kleditzsch was appointed as successor. Out of office, Thielmann expressed shame for the SED's failures, accusing them of having abused the public's trust.[7]
Reunified Germany
After that, he was a full professor at the Institute of Pathology of the Medical Faculty (Charité) of Humboldt University in Berlin until October 1991.[1]
From 1992 to 1994, Thielmann worked as a management consultant at the International Finance and Banking School in Moscow on behalf of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD, London), and from 1994 to 1997, he was on a similar mission at the Regional Bank Training Center for the Central Asian region (Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan) in Tashkent.[1]
From 1998 to 2001, Thielmann led an EU project in Moscow to support the management and leadership of the Russian healthcare system (EU/TACIS: ‘Support to Health Care Management in the Russian Federation’).[1]
From 2001 to 2004, Thielmann was involved in the implementation of several international projects aimed at reforming the Russian healthcare system. Concurrently and afterwards, Thielmann dedicated himself to his extensive publication and lecture activities.[1]
Personal life
Thielmann passed away in early 2024 at the age of 90.[8]
Thielmann was fluent in English, Spanish, Russian, and French, in addition to his native German and Sorbian. He was married and had six children.
References
- ^ Minister of Health from January 1989 to November 1989
