Dietrich Koch

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dietrich Koch in the old trading exchange in Leipzig, May 2008

Dietrich Koch (born August 27, 1937 in Leipzig , Saxony ; † March 25, 2020 in Mülheim an der Ruhr , North Rhine-Westphalia ) was a German physicist , philosopher and author, as well as an opposition and political prisoner in the GDR . In 1968 he was involved in a high-profile protest that received international attention.

family

He was the first child of the engineer and later vocational school teacher Walther Koch (born February 1, 1907 in Gnadau ; † March 7, 1973 in Leipzig) and his wife Anna Agnes Gertrud Koch, née. Töpel (born December 20, 1907 in Niesky ; † March 26, 1978), born. His younger siblings are the physicist Eckhard Walter Koch (born April 24, 1940 in Leipzig) and the doctor Gisela Ilse Bergmann, b. Koch (born January 31, 1942 in Leipzig). The family is rooted in the Moravian Brethren .

School and study

Koch graduated from the Leibniz High School in Leipzig in 1955 (Photo: 2013)

Dietrich Koch attended elementary school in Bad Schandau from 1943 to 1945 , then the 34th elementary school in Leipzig until 1951, before he was a student at the Leibniz secondary school in Leipzig until 1955 . There he was taught by Martin Kießig , among others . He completed his Abitur at the Leibniz School and then studied physics from 1955 to 1962 at the Karl Marx University .

Professional development

From 1962 to 1968 he worked as a theoretical physicist at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Leipzig. He had largely completed his dissertation in 1968, but could no longer submit it due to his imprisonment.

In 1972 Koch was deported from the GDR to the Federal Republic, where he studied philosophy at the University of Essen . From 1973 until his retirement in 2002 he was employed in the philosophy faculty of this university. He received his doctorate in 1982 under Klaus Michael Meyer-Abich and Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker on the subject of non-classical realism: quantum theory as a general theory of objectifying experience .

Resistance activity

The former Paulinerkirche (University Church ) in Leipzig

Dietrich Koch protested in front of the Paulinerkirche in Leipzig against its demolition in 1968 . For this reason he was arrested and then dismissed without notice by his employer, the GDR Academy of Sciences.

Shortly afterwards, together with his brother, the physicist Eckhard Koch , he constructed a time-controlled release mechanism that was activated during the closing event of the III. International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in the Leipzig Congress Hall on June 20, 1968, unrolled an approximately 1.5 × 2.5 meter large poster calling for the reconstruction of the Pauline Church. A facsimile of this poster can be seen on the above portrait photo of Dietrich Koch in the background on a board. This protest sparked a scandal and received international attention.

It was not until almost three years later succeeded the State Security Service of the GDR to determine the perpetrators, as they by Bernard Langfermann (IM "Boris book"), Stasi agent and member of the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin , denounced had been. Dietrich Koch was the only one convicted for this act.

As early as 1969 Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker had offered him work at his institute and his support for a legal departure from the GDR. As a result of this contact, Koch was also charged with subversive liaison, subversive group formation, subversive trafficking in human beings and preparation for " illegally crossing the border " and " subversive agitation ". He was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment and subsequent unlimited admission to psychiatry ( Waldheim Psychiatric Detention Hospital ).

The judgment and the report on which it is based were overturned after the end of the GDR in 1992 and classified and recognized as political psychiatric abuse by the Saxon investigative commission .

Publications

  • Non-classical realism: Quantum theory as a general theory of objectifying experience , Philosophical dissertation, University of Essen 1982.
  • The interrogation: Destruction and resistance , Ch. Hille, Dresden 2001, 2 volumes and document volume, ISBN 3-932858-38-7 .
  • with Eckhard Koch: Memorandum for the reconstruction of the Leipzig University Church St. Pauli , Ch. Hille, Dresden 2001.
  • Speech on Augustusplatz in Leipzig on May 30, 2002
  • Redesign of the grounds of the university church, open letter dated October 8, 2003
  • with Eckhard Koch: Kulturkampf in Leipzig , Forum-Verlag Leipzig 2006, ISBN 3-931801-20-9 .
  • Not confessing: The poster protest in the Stasi interrogation , Ch. Hille, Dresden 2006, ISBN 978-3-939025-06-1 .
  • with Eckhard Koch and Klaus-Jürgen Barth: Not confessing - The poster protest during the Stasi interrogation . Book reading and audio version by Dietrich Koch and Eckhard Koch on April 30, 2010 in the Church of St. Martin, Zwochau. 2 CDs with booklet. Pro University Church Leipzig e. V., Leipzig 2012. ISBN 978-3-00-039107-1 .
  • Criticism of Stefan Welzk. Leipzig 1968. From the experience of a Stasi prisoner . Autobiography 1968–1972. Ch.Hille, Dresden 2013, ISBN 978-3-939025-41-2 .
  • Dietrich Koch: The poster against the demolition of the Leipzig University Church during the Stasi interrogation . In: Frank Hoffmann, Silke Flegel (Hrsg.): Vanishing point NRW. Contemporary witness reports on GDR history (= Germany in Europe. Society and Culture ), Vol. 3, LIT Verlag, Berlin 2016. ISBN 978-3-643-13382-3 .

Memberships (excerpt)

Honor

  • 2019 -  Memory of Nations Award from the Czech association Post Bellum

Audios

Video

  • Ceny Paměti národa 2019. (Video, 1:30 hours) In: ČT2 . November 17, 2019(Czech, honor for Dietrich Koch; 43:43 min. To 51:50 min.).;

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice , Leipziger Volkszeitung from April 3, 2020.
  2. ↑ a b The whole action has shaped , on: bundesstiftung-aufteilung.de
  3. ↑ a b Jens Blecher: The Pauline Church and Politics . In: Universitätsarchiv Leipzig, on: uni-leipzig.de
  4. ↑ a b c Uta Schulz: When the Stasi suspected a CIA conspiracy . In: Die Welt from April 4, 2011, on: welt.de
  5. ↑ Non-classical realism: The quantum theory as a general theory of objectifying experience , Philosophical dissertation, University of Essen 1982.
  6. ↑ a b c d e f Dietrich Koch: pi-news.net/2009/12/die-sprengung-der-leipziger-universitaetskirche/ The demolition of the Leipzig University Church . In: PI-News from December 5, 2009, at: pi-news.net
  7. ↑ Dietrich Koch: pi-news.net/2009/12/weihnachten-1970-in-stasi-haft/ Christmas 1970 in Stasi custody . In: PI-News from December 24th, 2009, at: pi-news.net
  8. ↑ The pressure was unbearable . In: Spiegel online from May 31, 2010, at: spiegel.de
  9. ↑ Dr. Dietrich Koch , on: zeitzeugenbuero.de
  10. ↑ Dietrich Koch: pi-news.net/2010/01/antisemitismus-in-der-ddr-stasihaft-197072/ Antisemitism in the GDR - Stasi detention 1970/72 . In: PI-News.net from January 25, 2010, on: pi-news.net
  11. ^ Dietrich Koch: Political preventive detention. Psychiatric abuse in the GDR . In: The Barbed Wire , No. 4/2010, pp. 8–9.
  12. ↑ Speech on Augustusplatz in Leipzig on May 30, 2002 , on: paulinerverein.de (PDF file; 68 kB)
  13. ^ Open letter on the redesign of the grounds of the University Church from October 8, 2003 , to: paulinerverein.de
  14. ^ Dietrich Koch . In: Walter von Baeyer Society for Ethics in Psychiatry e. V., on: psychiatrie-und-ethik.de
  15. ↑ Czech honor for persecuted people from the GDR , on: radio.cz
  16. ↑ Memory of Nations Awards , on: cenypametinaroda.cz
personal data
SURNAME Koch, Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH March 25, 2020
Place of death Mülheim / Ruhr