E. German Official Commits Suicide
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EAST BERLIN — Hans Koch, a senior East German cultural official and member of the Communist Party’s policy-making central committee, has committed suicide, the official ADN news agency reported Monday.
It said he had been suffering from depression but gave no other details.
Koch, 59, had been director of the influential Institute for Marxist-Leninist Cultural and Artistic Sciences in the Communist Party’s Academy for Social Sciences since 1977.
In his position he would have played a major role in determining party and government policy on culture, laying down guidelines for East Germany’s strict cultural censorship system.
Western diplomats said it was very unusual for the official media to announce a suicide within the inner circle of the Communist leadership.
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