Carlo Jordan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carlo Jordan at the opening of the exhibition "Faces of the Peaceful Revolution"
Carlo Jordan 1990

Carlo Jordan (actually Karl-Heinz Jordan ; born February 5, 1951 in Berlin ) is a former GDR civil rights activist, environmentalist and politician. In 1989 he co-founded the Green Party in the GDR and was its spokesman. Between 1994 and 1995 he worked for Alliance 90 / The Greens member of the Berlin House of Representatives .

biography

Jordan is the son of a baker and grew up in Berlin-Friedrichshain . After leaving school, he completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter and completed a degree in civil engineering . He then worked as a site manager . In the 1970s, Jordan took part in protests against the SED regime and in 1976, together with others, lodged a written protest with Erich Honecker about the self-immolation of Oskar Brüsewitz , for which he was arrested. He also took part in protests against Wolf Biermann's expatriation . From 1978, Jordan completed a distance learning course in history and philosophy at the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1982, however, he was expelled from the university for lack of ties to the GDR.

In the 1980s Jordan increasingly turned to the GDR environmental movement and from 1982 worked in various environmental groups. From 1985 to 1989 he was a lecturer at the Evangelical Church in Potsdam . In 1986 he co-founded the Berlin Environmental Library and wrote articles for the underground magazine Umweltblätter . From 1987 he also worked on documentaries denouncing the pollution in the GDR. In 1988 Jordan left the environmental library because of disputes about the further strategy of the GDR environmental movement and founded the green-ecological network Arche with other members of the environmental library who had resigned . The aim was to network the GDR environmental movement. In 1988 Jordan was also one of the co-signers of an open letter to the CSCE successor conference demanding freedom of travel for GDR citizens.

During the GDR era, Jordan traveled illegally to the Soviet Union several times with the help of a transit visa. Such trips are known under the title Unrecognized by Freundesland ; Jordan is one of the protagonists in the documentary of the same name and wrote a contribution for the book of the same name.

In 1989 he co-founded the Green Party in the GDR with Carola Stabe and others and became its party spokesman. As such, he was also a member of the round table . In January 1990 he took part in the assault on the Berlin Stasi headquarters and was elected to the East Berlin city council in May of the same year . From 1994 to 1995 he was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen. In 2000 he did his doctorate under Bernd Rabehl with a thesis on the history of the Humboldt University in Berlin in the GDR.

Today he campaigns against the phenomenon of Ostalgie , which suggests a “fairytale picture of a country with cheap rents, secure jobs, equal educational opportunities and clear future prospects”. He works as a freelance lecturer and is a board member of the sponsoring association of the Normannenstrasse research and memorial site in Berlin.

Publications (selection)

  • Carlo Jordan: Kaderschmiede Humboldt University in Berlin. Revolt, purges and militarization 1945–1989 . Ch. Links, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-86153-253-0
  • Carlo Jordan, Hans Michael Kloth (ed.): Arche Nova - Opposition in the GDR. The "Green-Ecological Network Arche" 1988-90 . Basis Druck, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-86163-069-9
  • Individual trips to the Soviet Union In: Cornelia Klauß, Frank Böttcher (Ed.): Unrecognized by Freundesland. Illegal travel through the Soviet empire. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86732-076-4 .

literature

  • Werner Breunig, Andreas Herbst (ed.): Biographical handbook of the Berlin parliamentarians 1963–1995 and city councilors 1990/1991 (= series of publications of the Berlin State Archives. Volume 19). Landesarchiv Berlin, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9803303-5-0 , p. 196.
  • Silvia Müller:  Jordan, Carlo . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • "Dissolving ideas that support the state", Carlo Jordan, co-founder of the Green Party, in conversation with Marie Sagenschneider . In: Helmut Drück (Ed.): Paths of Life - People in Germany . Ch.links, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-86153-050-3 , p. 139-148 .

Web links

Commons : Carlo Jordan  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carlo Jordan: Kaderschmiede Humboldt University in Berlin. Revolt, purges and militarization 1945-1989. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2001
  2. ↑ Explanation: "Intellectuals in the murky floods of Ostalgie" from May 5, 2005 (accessed December 30, 2008)
personal data
SURNAME Jordan, Carlo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jordan, Karl-Heinz (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil rights activist, GDR environmental activist, historian, politician (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), MdA
DATE OF BIRTH 5th February 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin