Cornelius Weiss

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Cornelius Weiss at the Leipzig Book Fair 2012

Cornelius Weiss (born March 14, 1933 in Berlin ; † October 27, 2020 in Leipzig ) was a German chemist and politician ( SPD ). From 1991 to 1997 he was rector of the University of Leipzig , from 1999 to 2009 a member of the parliament and, most recently, senior president of the Saxon state parliament .

Scientific career

Cornelius Weiss was the eldest son of the atomic physicist Carl Friedrich Weiss and his wife Hildegard. He attended schools in Berlin, Rittersgrün (where his grandfather came from) and Ronneburg . From 1945 to 1955, his father had to work under storage conditions in the construction of nuclear power plants in the USSR . From 1946 Weiss was interned there along with his parents and two siblings. In 1952 he passed his Abitur at the Obninsk camp school . Weiss then studied chemistry in Minsk and Rostow-on-Don from 1953 and graduated in Leipzig in 1960 . After receiving his doctorate in 1964, he initially worked as a teacher for theoretical chemistry , of which he is considered to be one of the founders in Leipzig. In 1970 he was appointed lecturer. In 1973 he acquired the Dr. sc. nat. (in the GDR equivalent to a habilitation ) with a thesis on quantum chemistry . Weiss refused to join the SED or any other bloc party.

It was not until 1989 that he received an extraordinary professorship in Leipzig - while still in the GDR. In 1990 Weiss became director of the chemistry section.

On February 13, 1991, the first freely elected council appointed him rector of the University of Leipzig , an office he held until 1997. One of his major tasks was the personnel and structural renewal of the university in the shortest possible time. In that capacity, he had the university's staff numbers, not just officials but also skilled workers, to reduce thousands. From 1993 to 1997 Weiss was chairman of the State University Conference of Saxony and since 1996 Vice-President of the German University Rectors' Conference as well as a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences .

In 1990 Weiss was a co-founder of the “Initiative group for the democratic renewal of the university”. Weiss was “stunned” when the University Church St. Pauli was blown up in 1968, but was opposed to an “original” reconstruction. In 1999 Weiss was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class. His autobiography Risse in der Zeit was published in March 2012 . Most recently, in July 2020, he answered questions for the podcast series “The University in the Storm of Revolution” , which was published on the occasion of 30 years of German unity .

Political career

Cornelius Weiss was a member of the SPD from the end of 1997 and was a member of the Saxon state parliament from September 1999 to September 2009 . In the third electoral term (1999 to 2004) he became deputy chairman and spokesman for science and university policy of the SPD parliamentary group. In November 2004 he became chairman of his parliamentary group, and in 2007 he resigned from this position. Most recently he sat as a member of the Committee for School and Sport, the Petitions Committee and the special committee “Demographic development and its effects on the areas of life of the people in the Free State of Saxony and its consequences for political fields of action”.

From 2018 onwards, Cornelius Weiss was actively involved in the Leipzig branch of the left-wing collection movement “ Stand Up ”.

Personal

Weiss was married and had three children.

Awards

literature

  • Hans-Georg Bartel:  Weiss, Cornelius . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Cornelius Weiss: Cracks in Time. A life between east and west . (Autobiography). Rowohlt-Verlag, 2012
  • Stefan Locke: Yes, it was bad (Cornelius Weiss' résumé based on an interview and his autobiography), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, March 30, 2013, p. 3.
  • University of Leipzig: A born diplomat . University in the Storm of the Revolution (Podcast). University of Leipzig, 2020.

Web links

Commons : Cornelius Weiss  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Former university director Cornelius Weiss has died. MDR, October 28, 2020, accessed October 28, 2020 .
  2. ^ University of Leipzig: Mourning the former rector Cornelius Weiss. October 29, 2020, accessed October 29, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Hardwin Jungclaussen : Free in three dictatorships - How I experienced my life and how I found my happiness. Autobiography. trafo publishing group Dr. Wolfgang Weist, trafo Literaturverlag, Autobiographies Volume 48, Berlin 2015, p. 109, ISBN 978-3-86465-050-5 .
  4. ^ University of Leipzig: Mourning the former rector Cornelius Weiss. October 29, 2020, accessed October 29, 2020 .
  5. ^ University of Leipzig: Mourning the former rector Cornelius Weiss. October 29, 2020, accessed October 29, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Cornelius Weiss: cracks in time. A life between east and west . Rowohlt, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-498-07374-9 .
  7. ^ University of Leipzig: Mourning the former rector Cornelius Weiss. October 29, 2020, accessed October 29, 2020 .
  8. ↑ First demo was a complete success for "get up" Leipzig. In: Leipziger Internet Zeitung, November 4, 2018. Accessed March 7, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Supporters - Prof. Dr. Cornelius Weiss. In: website of get up . Retrieved March 7, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Weiss, Cornelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German scientist and politician (SPD), MdL
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 2020
Place of death Leipzig