Elisabeth Zaisser

Elisabeth "Else" Auguste Zaisser , b. Elisabeth Auguste Knipp (born November 16, 1898 in Düsseldorf , † December 15, 1987 in Berlin ) was a German politician and minister for popular education in the GDR .

Life

Else Zaisser attended the Catholic elementary school from 1905 to 1908, the high school for girls until 1915, the upper lyceum until 1918, passed the teaching examination in 1919 and then worked as a teacher in Essen. In 1922 she was dismissed from school, married Wilhelm Zaisser on June 6, 1922 and lived as a housewife until 1932. She joined the KPD in 1926 and lived with her husband in Mukden , China , from 1928 to 1930 .

After her return she worked for the KPD sub-district Berlin / Köpenick until 1932 . From 1932 to 1933 she was a teacher at the Karl Liebknecht School in Moscow and at the same time completed a distance learning course at the Communist University of the National Minorities of the West "Julian Marchlewski" until 1935 . From 1934 to 1946 she taught German at the Moscow State Pedagogical Institute , and from 1934 to 1937 at the Institute of the Red Professorship . In 1938 she held the chair for German philology at the Pedagogical Institute for Foreign Languages ​​in Gorki . From 1939 to 1941 she led German translation courses at the Central Committee of the CPSU , and from 1941 to 1942 and 1944 to 1947 graduate courses at the Military Institute for Foreign Languages ​​of the Red Army . She also wrote textbooks for the German language and grammar.

After returning to Germany, she joined the SED in 1948 and was a lecturer at the workers and farmers faculty and lecturer for Soviet literature at the Martin Luther University in Halle (Saale) . In 1949 she was appointed professor for Soviet pedagogy and methodology for teaching Russian at the Dresden University of Technology .

In 1950 she became director of the German Central Pedagogical Institute in Berlin and State Secretary in the Ministry of National Education, and in 1952, as successor to Paul Wandel, Minister of National Education. From 1950 to 1954 she was a member of the People's Chamber . In connection with the Zaisser- Herrnstadt affair (her husband, who was the Stasi chief, was accused of conspiracy to overthrow) her resignation as minister was arranged. The official reason given was that she had transferred her experiences of the Russian Soviet school system too schematically to schools in the GDR. She then worked as an editor at Volk und Welt publishing house and as a freelance translator .

In 1979, Zaisser received the Honor Clasp for the Patriotic Order of Merit and in 1983 the Patriotic Order of Merit .

Works

• Round table discussions. A discussion evening at the “Society for the Study of Culture of the Soviet Union”, Dresden . Dresden State Management Saxony of the "Society for the Study of Culture of the Soviet Union", Dresden 1949. Contributions to the discussion by Kurt Liebmann , Else Zaisser, editor-in-chief of Union Ragsch, Volkspolizist Sinnreich, three prisoners of war from Russia, Paul Günther, Major Hofmann from the SMA u. a. At the event the article “About the Russians and Us” by Rudolf Herrnstadt was discussed.
• Instruction for the further training of the Russian teachers in the school service . German Democratic Republic, Ministry for National Education, Berlin 1953.

Translations

• AS Makarenko : works . 8 volumes. (Editorial staff of the German edition Else Zaisser). People and Knowledge, Berlin 1956 ff.
• EA Stepanowa: Friedrich Engels . His life and work . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1958.
• SA Veretennikova: How we introduce children to nature. Methodical instructions for kindergarten teachers. People and knowledge, Berlin 1961.
• PN Pospelow u. a .: VI Lenin . Biography . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1961. (7th edition 1982)
• IA Chljabitsch: The basics of communist education . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1964 (= teacher's library, section 1)
• Klawdija Swerdlowa : Jakow Michailowitsch Swerdlow . Memories of a comrade in arms of Lenin . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1965.
• Nadežda Konstantinovna Krupskaja : Socialist Pedagogy. A selection from writings, speeches and letters . 4 volumes. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1966.
• BP Jessipow (ed.): Pedagogy. Textbook for institutions for the training of teachers of the lower grades . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1971.
• Anatoli Wassiljewitsch Lunatscharski : On popular education . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1971.
• SA Malkova: Educational Opportunities and Barriers to Education in the United States . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1971.
• Boris L. Sučkov: Historical Fates of Realism. Reflections on a creative method. From the Russ. trans. by Gerhard Sewekow and Else Zaisser. Aufbau-Verlag, Weimar 1972.
• NI Boldyrew: Pedagogy. Textbook for the training of high school teachers . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1973.
• Fyodor Korolev: Lenin and pedagogy . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1975.
• Maria Pavlova: Demand and respect. About Makarenko's views on communist education . People and Knowledge, Berlin 1977.
• Nikolai Boldyrew: The class leader . People and knowledge, Berlin 1976. (3rd amendment and revised edition 1981)
• Stanislaw Teofilowitsch Schazki : Selected educational writings. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1981. (= educational library)

literature

• Zaisser, Else . In: SBZ biography. A biographical reference book about the Soviet zone of occupation Germany . Edited by the Federal Ministry for All-German Issues. 3rd edition, Bonn / Berlin 1964, p. 394.
• Zaisser (Zaißer), Else (Elisabeth), b. Knipp , In: Biographisches Handbuch der Deutschensprachigen Emigration nach 1933. 1933-1945 . Volume 1, Politics, Economy, Public Life. Saur, Munich 1980, p. 842. Digitized
• Else Zaisser , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 15/1988 of April 4, 1988, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Zaisser, Elisabeth. In: Dorit Petschel : 175 years of TU Dresden. Volume 3: The professors of the TU Dresden 1828–2003. Edited on behalf of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the TU Dresden e. V. von Reiner Pommerin , Böhlau, Cologne a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-412-02503-8 , pp. 1074-1075.
• Peter Erler, Helmut Müller-Enbergs:  Zaisser, Elisabeth . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .