New East German leader Egon Krenz is a dedicated jogger who lives modestly and sends his wife flowers every week, according to the woman who knows him best.
The wives of East Germany's Communist leadership have usually shunned the limelight but Erika Krenz broke with tradition when she gave an interview to the West German mass circulation daily Bild.The Krenz family, according to the interview published Friday, live in a modest six-room bungalow in the East Berlin suburb of Pankow. There is a park close by where the party leader goes running.
Members of the discredited former leadership lived in a guarded compound north of the city, off limits to ordinary people.
"We don't have a vacation home, or a yacht, not even a garden of our own," Erika Krenz told Bild.
"My husband earns 4,000 marks ($2,162 at official exchange rates) - a month and we rent our house," she said.
Erika Krenz admitted that the family had once lived in the luxury compound at Wandlitz, whose residents include deposed former leader Erich Honecker.
"We would have stayed in Wandlitz if we'd always wanted to be surrounded by guards, but that was no life," she said.
Erika Krenz revealed that she was aware of Western press reports which have branded her husband an alcoholic who had undergone expensive major surgery in the United States.
"It's amazing what lies have been written about my husband, these stories just make me so sick," she said.
"At least once a week he brings me roses or a few small orchids because he knows it makes me happy."
Krenz's elder son Thorsten, 28, told Bild that his father was far happier now that he was able to put his own ideas into effect as party leader.
Krenz has been forced to make repeated concessions since taking over last month from Honecker, his former mentor, although party officials say he is committed to genuine reforms.