[1] His name hit the headlines in 1997 over the "Bake-oven affair" which ended his ministerial career and eventually, in 2004, left him with an eleven-month suspended sentence for "Subsidy Fraud" ("Subventionsbetrug").
[1] He attended the Polytechnic Secondary School in nearby Hohenbucko and then undertook an apprenticeship as a tractor and agricultural machinery mechanic at the Science and Technical Centre (WTZ) in Schlieben.
Between 1969 and 1970 Zimmermann worked as a lathe operator with the PGH Agricultural Machinery factory in Dahme and then in 1970 was briefly employed in an administrative function with the local police in Herzberg District.
[3] The succession of events leading to German reunification can be dated from November 1989 when the wall through Berlin was breached, and this was also the month in which Zimmermann participated in the refounding of the SPD in Dahme and in the surrounding Luchau district.
On 1 November 1990, after German reunification had become a reality, he was appointed Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forestry for Brandenburg, in the regional government headed up by Manfred Stolpe.
Allegations of bad faith and cheating were made against Zimmermann in connection with the so-called "Bake-oven affair", over which he resigned his ministerial office on 14 November 1997.
[7] In February 2004, after a further trial lasting fifteen days, the Potsdam District Court gave Zimmermann an eleven-month suspended sentence and ordered him to pay €5,000 to a charitable organisation.