Peter Florin | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Florin andKurt Waldheim in 1973 | |||||||||||||
| President of the United Nations General Assembly | |||||||||||||
| In office 1987–1988 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Humayun Rashid Choudhury | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Dante Caputo | ||||||||||||
| East German Ambassador to the United Nations | |||||||||||||
| In office 1973–1982 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Horst Grunert | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Harry Ott | ||||||||||||
| East German Ambassador to Czechoslovakia | |||||||||||||
| In office 1967–1969 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Heinz Willmann | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Herbert Krolikowski | ||||||||||||
| Head of theInternational Relations Department of theCentral Committee | |||||||||||||
| In office 1953–1966 | |||||||||||||
| Secretary | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Grete Keilson | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Paul Markowski | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | (1921-10-02)2 October 1921 Cologne,Rhine Province,Free State of Prussia,Weimar Republic(nowNorth Rhine-Westphalia,Germany) | ||||||||||||
| Died | 17 February 2014(2014-02-17) (aged 92) Berlin,Germany | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Socialist Unity Party (1946–1989) | ||||||||||||
| Other political affiliations | Communist Party of Germany (1945–1946) | ||||||||||||
| Parent |
| ||||||||||||
| Alma mater | D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology (Dipl.-Ing.) | ||||||||||||
| Occupation |
| ||||||||||||
| Awards | |||||||||||||
| Military Service | |||||||||||||
| Allegiance | Soviet Union | ||||||||||||
| Service | Red Army | ||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1941–1944 | ||||||||||||
| Battles / wars | Second World War | ||||||||||||
Central institution membership
Other offices held
| |||||||||||||
Peter Florin (2 October 1921 – 17 February 2014) was anEast German politician and diplomat.
Florin was born inCologne on 2 October 1921.[1]
His father,Wilhelm Florin (1894–1944), was a leading figure in the pre-warCommunist Party of Germany.[2] and, between 1924 and 1933, a member of theReichstag (national parliament).[3]
Florin left Germany with his parents in 1933, whenAdolf Hitler came to power and began persecutingCommunists,[2] moving first toFrance and then to theSoviet Union, where he attended theKarl Liebknecht School. There, he studiedchemistry at theD. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology.[1]
During theSecond World War, he fought with theSoviet partisans inBelarus. In 1944, Florin became editor ofFreies Deutschland, a weekly anti-Nazi newspaper.[1] At the end of the war, he returned to Germany as a member of theAckermann Group, one of the regional groups sent to lay the groundwork for theSoviet Military Administration in Germany.[4]
Following the war, Florin entered politics in theGerman Democratic Republic and served as vice-president of the regional parliament ofWittenberg, while working as chief editor of the daily newspaperFreiheit. Then, from 1949 to 1952, he was an advisor for the East German ministry of foreign affairs. In 1953, he was promoted to the head of theDepartment for International Relations of theSocialist Unity Party of Germany's central committee. From 1954 to 1971, he was a member of the country's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, which he presided over for a time.[1]
From 1967 to 1969, Florin was East Germany's ambassador toCzechoslovakia.[1] He supported the Soviet crushing of thePrague Spring uprising in 1968.[2] In 1969, he was named secretary of state and first deputy foreign minister.[1]
From 1973 to 1982, Florin was the German Democratic Republic's permanent representative to theUnited Nations. In 1982, he became president of the national commission forUNESCO in East Germany. In 1987 and 1988, he presided over the forty-second session of theUnited Nations General Assembly.[1]
Peter Florin was married, and had three children.[1] His wife Edel was, in the late 1980s, a professor ofRussian literature atHumboldt University inEast Berlin.[2]
Florin spoke fluentGerman,Russian andEnglish, and goodFrench. During his presidency of the United Nations General Assembly, he was, according to theNew York Times, "nicknamed 'ComradeGlasnost' by delegates, who s[aw] him as him a symbol of the modern Communist of theGorbachev era."[2]
He died on 17 February 2014, aged 92.[5]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | President of the United Nations General Assembly 1987–1988 | Succeeded by |
| 1940s | |
|---|---|
| 1950s | |
| 1960s | |
| 1970s |
|
| 1980s | |
| 1990s | |
| 2000s | |
| 2010s | |
| 2020s | |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
