Last East German communist leader Hans Modrow dead at 95

Hans Modrow, the final communist leader of East Germany before the country’s postwar reunification, died this week at 95. 

The German left party Die Linke tweeted the news on Saturday. “We mourn Hans Modrow, who passed away at the age of 95. Our party loses an important personality,” the party wrote. 

“Without Hans, the peaceful course of 1989 would not have been possible,” they wrote further.

Modrow came to power shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall and attempted to manage the communist government of East Germany until pressure for reunification forced the eastern and western states to merge. 

The politician spent the last years of his life as chairman of Die Linke’s Council of the Elders.