Ehrhart Neubert

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Ehrhart Neubert , pseudonym Christian Joachim , (born August 2, 1940 in Herschdorf ) is a German theologian and GDR oppositionist . He was a co-founder of the “ Bürgerbüro Berlin e. V. “and was active in various committees and as an author with works on coming to terms with the SED dictatorship.

Life

Neubert comes from a Protestant parsonage, attended high school and, after graduating from high school in 1958, began studying Protestant theology at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . From 1964 to 1984 he worked first as a vicar and later as a pastor in Niedersynderstedt near Weimar . From 1973 he was also a student pastor in Weimar. In 1976 he joined the GDR CDU , which he left in 1984. From 1984 he was a consultant for community sociology in the theological study department at the Federation of Evangelical Churches in the GDR in Berlin.

Neubert belonged to opposition circles in the GDR and sympathized with the civil rights demands of Robert Havemann . He had worked in various Thuringian peace circles since 1979 and, in the context of the “ Swords to Plowshares ” movement, came into conflict not only with state authorities, but also with his own church leadership. The Thuringian peace, women, emigration and environmental groups, which, despite strong fluctuation due to disintegration measures by the Ministry for State Security (MfS) and emigration in the years from 1984, networked with one another to form a general democracy movement, also included voting members of the Christian Peace Conference ( CFK), an organization that was "almost completely controlled by the MfS and the SED". The CFK was able to successfully penetrate the networks of the opposition groups and "break off political actions." In April 1986, Neubert gave a lecture at an INFO weekend of the CFK Thuringia in Kapellendorf . The host was Pastor Peter Franz , an unofficial employee of the MfS, to whom the participating Pastor Ulrich Krum from West Berlin also worked. Neubert's work appeared in the West under the pseudonym "Christian Joachim".

During the Peaceful Revolution in 1989, Neubert was one of the founders of the Democratic Awakening and worked on the program of the new party, of which he was deputy chairman. He represented the democratic awakening at some meetings of the Central Round Table and participated in various investigative commissions. In January 1990 he left the party after internal power struggles. He was involved in the “Free Baltic States” committee. From 1992 to 1995 he was a member of Bündnis 90 in Brandenburg (later Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen ).

In the “Initiative Law and Reconciliation” he advocated the rights of Stasi victims and a consistent processing of Stasi entanglements in the Evangelical Church. In 1992 the Brandenburg parliamentary group of Bündnis 90 appointed him to work on the Stolpe Investigation Committee, of which he was a member until 1994. In 1996 Neubert became a member of the CDU . In the same year Neubert received his doctorate as Dr. phil. at the Free University of Berlin with a thesis on the history of the GDR opposition from 1949 to 1989.

From 1997, Neubert worked as a department head in the education and research department at the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR . Together with Joachim Gauck , Neubert is the author of the German contribution to the 1997 German-language edition of the Black Book of Communism . He is also the author of a large number of writings on resistance and opposition as well as the religious situation in the GDR. From 1998 to 2003 he was an honorary member of the board of the Federal Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship . Since 1996 Neubert has been a founding member of the “ Bürgerbüro Berlin e. V. , Association for the Processing of Consequential Damage of the SED Dictatorship ”for the concerns of the victims of GDR socialism. He succeeds Bärbel Bohley as its chairman.

Ehrhart Neubert has been retired since 2005. He performs duties as a pastor on a voluntary basis, for example in Limlingerode . After separating from his first wife, Neubert lives with his second wife Hildigund in Erfurt , where she was the Thuringian state commissioner for the Stasi documents from 2003-2013.

Fonts

Awards

Ehrhart Neubert received the Federal Cross of Merit in 2005 . In 2010 he was awarded the Friedrich Schiedel Literature Prize.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jan Wielgohs:  Neubert, Ehrhart . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  2. ↑ Ehrhart Neubert, Thomas Auerbach: It can be different. Opposition and resistance in Thuringia 1945–1989 . Böhlau, Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-412-08804-8 , pp. 153–155, there also the quotations
  3. ^ Neue Zeit , April 12, 1986 (Volume 42, Issue 86), Page 5, without specifying the content of the lecture
  4. ^ Website of the Citizens' Office .
  5. ^ Literature prize goes to GDR oppositionists . Schwäbische Zeitung from September 21, 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Neubert, Ehrhart
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joachim, Christian (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian, GDR opposition activist and politician (CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH 2nd August 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Herschdorf