Lutz Heilmann

Lutz Heilmann (born 7 September 1966 in Zittau, East Germany) is a German politician of the left-wing party Die Linke.

Heilmann drew national and international media attention when he caused the website www.wikipedia.de (not the German Wikipedia, but a search portal for it run by Wikimedia Deutschland) to be blocked by a preliminary injunction on 13 November 2008.

Following his election in 2005, strong controversy erupted when it was revealed by the magazine Der Spiegel that he had worked for the Stasi (the East German secret police) from 1985 to 1990.

The nomination of Lutz Heilmann as an MP by the Left Party has been strongly criticized by Hubertus Knabe, the director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial.

[1] After a period of being unemployed (2004–2005) he obtained a position as articled clerk (Rechtsreferendar) at the Landgericht (an intermediate court) in Lübeck[7] which he quit after being elected to the Bundestag.

[11] The report also suggests that the Wikipedia article had been repeatedly altered in line with his claims by an anonymous user operating within the Bundestag building, but Heilmann denied having been involved in an edit war.

[11] Heilmann's response fits this explanation as he states that the committee on immunity of the Bundestag has dealt on 17 October with the matter in question related to short messages he sent to his former roommate.)

[16] After some statements were removed from his German Wikipedia article and after major media coverage, Heilmann announced on 16 November that he would drop the legal proceedings against Wikimedia Deutschland, regretting that many uninvolved users of the encyclopedia had been affected.