Bernd Gehrke

Bernd Gehrke was born in 1950 and grew up in East Berlin. He now lives as a writer and historian in Berlin. He studied Political Economy in Leipzig and was subsequently local secretary of the Free German Youth (FDJ) and a research assistant at the Academy of Sciences. He was expelled from the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in 1978 for membership of an opposing Marxist group and professionally disbarred. In 1989 he represented the United Left at the Central Round Table and in its constitutional sub-committee. Until 1995 he was a member of staff for the parliamentary group NEW FORUM/Citizens’ Movement in the Berlin Assembly: since then he has been active as a contemporary historian and in educational work within the trade union movement. He has published numerous works on the “Wende” of 1989 within organizations and European workers in 1968 and most recently: “Documents from the Initiative for East German and Berlin Workers’ Councils, Staff Councils and Persons of Trust”, Berlin 2017.

As of February 2019