Member of the Liberal Democratic Party

You were born in 1957 to a family of West German industrialists in Frankfurt. Your family owns a company of over 10,000 employees. You were raised to believe in Adam Smith and Ayn Rand. You attended Schloss Salem, a private school for the well-to-do, and studied economics in Munich and Cologne. You have an extensive network of powerful friends, dating back to your days at Salem. Your family's lawyer managed to keep you out of military service and civil service, so you didn't have to spend 15 or 18 months cleaning trucks or nursing sick people. Your education in the German school system has turned you into a pacifist, and your political views make you think that any German mark spent on the military is a German mark wasted. You are convinced that there is no limit to human endeavors and that human genius can overcome all obstacles.

In your childhood, your family often visited your Uncle Thomas in East Germany. He used to run one of the family's factories, located close to Leipzig. You are named after him. During these visits, your father never failed to provoke his brother's neighbor, a long-time SED member: he showed him his 280S Mercedes and asked him what communist-built car he could hold against that.

During the 60s, the SED gradually pushed your uncle aside in the management of his factory. He finally ended up as an assembly line worker in the plant he had built. That's why he decided to leave the GDR. In 1973 he tried to cross the border to West Germany in the Harz region in a hot air balloon. The balloon was shot down by border guards and he died.

As a member of the FDP, the liberal party which has formed a coalition with the CDU, you are assigned to monitor the resolution of issues relating to the National People's Army, the Stasi and the border guards. In particular, you are responsible for the preliminary budget estimate for any problems relating to the NPA, for example the cost of unemployment benefits for former NPA officers and soldiers and the cost of environmental clean-up at former NPA installations. You want to try to keep the costs as low as possible, as this would boost your career within the FDP and would also lessen the financial burden on the government. The issue of border guards is very close to your heart; you feel that they should be made responsible for their shootings.

Using your significant bank accounts and your political influence, you have more than once bribed other politicians. The opening of East Germany has given your company a great opportunity for buying up facilities and real estate in Saxony. You have just spent DM 500,000 to ensure that an extensive industrial park just outside of Leipzig will be sold to your company far under value.

*Additional off-site links -

Border Guards

• Border Guard Cases
• Order 101: Shooting to kill at the Berlin Wall

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