Edmund Käbisch

Edmund Käbisch (born January 9, 1944 in Waldenburg , Silesia ) is a German Protestant pastor . He is considered a pioneer of the Peaceful Revolution in the city of Zwickau . Since the noughties he has developed extensive journalistic activities based on in-depth study of the MfS files. He organized numerous events in the spirit of reconciliation in truth and received the recognition of the Saxon Prime Minister (Tillich) and the Federal President (Köhler).

Life

Edmund Käbisch comes from Silesia . The father was a soldier, the mother a retail saleswoman.

After the family was expelled from Lower Silesia in August 1946, Käbisch spent his childhood in and around Kamenz near Bautzen. He has four siblings. His father was self-employed after the war, his mother was a helping wife and looked after the five children.

In Kamenz Käbisch attended elementary, middle and evening high school. After an apprenticeship as an electrician , he went to study theology at the University of Leipzig .

In 1964 he refused military service with a weapon in the GDR / NVA, which could have meant the end of his studies or even imprisonment, because alternative military service (" construction soldier ") had only been permitted in the GDR since autumn 1964.

He is married to Renate Käbisch, née Heber, and has three sons. One son is a professor of religious education.

Act

In 1970 Käbisch became pastor in Quesitz near Leipzig. In 1979 he received his doctorate from the University of Leipzig with a thesis on prayer in youth worship services .

In 1981 Käbisch was elected the second pastor ( archdeacon ) at St. Marien Cathedral in Zwickau . Because of his commitment to "problem citizens" (e.g. those released from prison, unemployed, those wishing to leave the country) he was disciplined. The Ministry of State Security put 65 unofficial employees on him over the years. At the State Security, these “ decomposition ” measures were used as part of the “ Opponent ” Operational Process (OV).

In 1999 Käbisch retired at the age of 55. The background was conflicts with his regional church about Käbisch's research on the entanglement of the church with the Ministry for State Security and government agencies in the GDR.

Until 2007 he was a religion teacher at a high school and patient advocate in a city clinic. He is a founding member of the (self-help) association "DAVID against bullying in the Protestant church".

Käbisch also campaigned for the appreciation of the Zwickau painter Tatjana Lietz , who became an honorary citizen of Zwickau in 1998 . At her funeral on March 16, 2001, he gave the funeral speech and also wrote a corresponding contribution to the book "Bilderwelten - Tatjana Lietz" (2002).

As part of his work with young people, he was in charge of their exhibition “Christian Action in the GDR”. Here Edmund Käbisch was nationally known because of the well Käbisch bespitzelnde former unofficial Stasi employees Holm Singer (IM "Schubert"), which the Stasi had recruited in 1980 to infiltrate evangelical youth groups, in March 2008 before the District Court Zwickau an injunction for breach of his Right of personality (naming of the real name). The exhibition had to be canceled for the time being. At the end of March 2010, the court ruled that Käbisch may make the real name of "IM Schubert" public. "The activity of the IM, which had repeatedly admitted its previous actions," said the judge in charge, "was of historical interest" (file number 1 O 1275/08).

Käbisch has been involved in the Zwickau Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance for many years .

In 2019 he published his detailed review (444 pages) of his attempts to find a level of conversation with former adversaries - "Memories of conversations with former officers and unofficial employees of the MfS and SED functionaries".

Works

• 1979: Prayer in youth services. A theological-practical investigation, presented on models in Leipzig. Universität Leipzig., Faculty of Theology, Dissertation A, 1979. DNB 810115352

• 2002: My everyday life as a Protestant pastor in Zwickau. Contribution in: The appearance of normality. Everyday life and rule in the SED dictatorship. Edited by Clemens Vollnhals and Jürgen Weber , Olzog-Verlag, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-7892-8077-1 .

• 2002: Traces from the files of the painter Tatjana Lietz. Contribution in: Tatjana Lietz. Worlds of images. Published by Christian Siegel , Chemnitzer Verlag, Chemnitz 2002, ISBN 978-3-928678-79-7 .

• 2006: memories of my work at the cathedral. Contribution in: Memory belongs to the future. Bildungswerk für Kommunalpolitik Sachsen eV, editor: Ursula Philipp, BKS-Verlag, Hoyerswerda 2006, ISBN 978-3-934534-98-8 .
• 2007: The Falkenstein Fanal. A study about the decomposition of the church by the Stasi after the self-immolation of the pastor Rolf Günther . La Colombe, Moers 2007, ISBN 3-929351-27-7 .
• 2010: Actors of the Peaceful Revolution. Didactic impulses and materials for history, ethics and religion lessons from the Zwickau region. With David Käbisch, preface by Joachim Gauck , La Colombe, Moers 2010, ISBN 978-3-929351-32-3 .
• 2011: Reasonable Truths. Experience with coming to terms with the two German dictatorships in the regional church of Saxony. With Martin Böttger , La Colombe, Moers 2011, ISBN 978-3-929351-34-7 .
• 2011: Politically persecuted people in the GDR. Materials and templates for history, ethics and religion classes from the Zwickau region. Foreword by Martin Böttger . La Colombe, Moers 2011, ISBN 978-3-929351-36-1 .
• 2013: Open your mouth for the weak. Forced sterilization and euthanasia during National Socialism. Working materials and worksheets for history, ethics and religion classes. Preface by Stanislaw Tillich . La Colombe, Moers 2013, ISBN 978-3-929351-39-2 .
• 2015: From Persecution to Resistance. People on the way to the Peaceful Revolution. Materials and master copies for history, ethics and religion classes. Preface by Joachim Gauck , Stanislaw Tillich and Martin Böttger . La Colombe, Moers 2015, ISBN 978-3-929351-44-6 .
• 2019: Long shadows from my Stasi officers. Memories of conversations with former officers and unofficial employees of the MfS as well as SED functionaries. Foreword by Roland Jahn , afterword by Gisela Kittel . La Colombe, Moers 2019, ISBN 978-3-929351-49-1 .

literature

• "Tagesspiegel" -Online, April 22, 2008: Stasi-IM may be mentioned by name.

• "Cicero" (magazine for political culture), May 17th, 2008: What is Pastor Käbisch doing? - From Cathrin Wilhelm

• "Der Spiegel", November 17, 2008, Peter Wensierski: Right to be forgotten? Former Stasi employees are suing those who give their names: their former victims, newspapers, publishers, exhibition organizers and now also a federal authority.

• "Freedom and Law - Half-Year Publication for Controversial Democracy and Resistance to Dictatorship", 3/2010, Hans-Jürgen Grasemann, former Chief Public Prosecutor: Courts give offenders a face - landmark judgments against Stasi informers. - on the website of the "Federation of Resistance and Persecution, Bavaria".

• "Die Welt", January 13, 2020: Stasi victims meet Stasi people: "Not a single one has apologized."

Web links

• Literature by and about Edmund Käbisch in the catalog of the German National Library

• Käbisch homepage

• Website: Actors of the Peaceful Revolution. in the Zwickau region (with informative original Stasi files)

• Käbisch at GDR contemporary witness - a website of various foundations and with the support of the federal government.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Photo of the Federal Press Office in the Freie Presse on January 12, 2005, page 13, with the text: "Handshake of the Federal President. ... during the New Year's reception for deserving citizens in Berlin's Charlottenburg Palace with the former Zwickau cathedral pastor Edmund Käbisch (right). . "
2. ^ Reasonable truths from Frank Dörfelt in Wochenspiegel, Zeitung für Westsachsen, Zwickau edition, April 27, 2011, p. 4
3. ^ Welt.de: The rebel von Reichenbach.
4. ↑ When the Church suppresses the past | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . January 25, 2001, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed on September 13, 2018]).
5. ↑ What is Pastor Käbisch doing? In: Cicero Online . ( cicero.de [accessed on September 13, 2018]).
6. ↑ (Self-help) association against bullying in the Protestant church - david-gegen-mobbing.de
7. ↑ About Tatjana Lietz on Käbisch's homepage .
8. ↑ In dr-kaebisch.de: Exhibition Christian action in the GDR
9. ^ The Irish Times, April 23, 2008, Derek Scally: German court ruling inconclusive as former Stasi spies fight for privacy .
10. ^ Die Welt, April 21, 2008, Uwe Müller: The late triumph of the Stasi perpetrators
11. ^ Report in Spiegel on the demolition of the exhibition.
12. ↑ LVZ, March 24, 2010, Tino Moritz: Ex-Pastor is allowed to use real names of Stasi-IM.
13. ↑ In dr-Kaebisch: Schubert
14. ↑ At MD-Zeitung: Report real names
15. ↑ In dr-Käbisch: Democracy Alliance side - the website Zwickauer-Demokratie-Buendnis.de - and the Wikipedia page .
16. ↑ Käbisch 2002 - Pfarrer in Zwickau , 43 p., Book: 450 p., Foreword by H. Oberreuter , detailed introduction by the editors.
17. ↑ Käbisch 2007 - Book information on the Falkenstein fanal at dr-kaebisch.de - publisher's website : Colombe.de in Moers.
18. ↑ Käbisch 2010 - Portal about actors of the Peaceful Revolution in the Zwickau region.
19. ↑ Käbisch 2011a - Reasonable truths at dr-kaebisch.de
20. ↑ Käbisch 2011b - Politically Persecuted at dr-kaebisch.de