Ernst Demele

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Ernst Demele (1975)

Ernst Demele (born November 3, 1940 in Jansdorf , district of Zwittau in Bohemia / Sudetenland) is a German civil rights activist , environmental activist and civil engineer with Deutsche Bahn . In the 1980s he belonged to the opposition in the GDR . In Leipzig he worked in various civil rights groups which, through public actions, made a significant contribution to the initiation of the mass protests of 1989 against SED rule.

Life

Working life

The Ernst Demeles family was expelled from Czech territory in June 1945 . This was followed by the settlement in Kaisa near Belgern in Saxony in August 1945. From 1947 to 1955 Demele attended the eight-class school. This was followed by an apprenticeship as a commercial and transport railroader until 1958. From 1958 to 1961 Ernst Demele entered into the compromise of signing up for the transport police (Trapo) instead , which enabled him to bypass the NVA . Otherwise a delegation to study at the Workers and Farmers Faculty (ABF) would not have been possible. From 1961 to 1963 he obtained his university entrance qualification at the ABF and was then able to study construction engineering at the University of Construction in Leipzig from 1963 to 1968 . From 1969 to 1993 he worked at the Deutsche Reichsbahn bridge maintenance facility and Reichsbahndirektion Halle (Rbd Hl). He took part in shaping the reform process in the Rbd Hl, especially in terms of personnel, and was appointed head of a staff commission in the Rbd Hl to hear suspected employees. In 1993 he resigned from the Rbd Personnel Commission in protest at the increasing disregard for the results of the hearings. At the end of 1993 he terminated his employment with the Rbd Hl due to the regaining of old system supporters of the former GDR. From 1994 to 2005 Demele worked in the Federal Railway Office in Halle (EBA Hl) as a branch manager. He has been a pensioner since 2005. He has a daughter and lives with his wife in Leipzig.

From maladjustment to political engagement in the company

The state party SED tried to recruit during his apprenticeship, but he never succumbed to them. In the Soviet occupation zone, the displaced person was only allowed to speak of “resettlement” with regard to the fate of his family. As early as 1962, Demele was threatened with de-registration at the ABF for “not class-conscious behavior”, but he passed “probation” with documentary work in Marxism-Leninism . The same happened to him in 1965 at the Hochschule für Bauwesen (HfB), he lost the merit scholarship and the permission for a research scholarship with a doctorate. In 1972 Demele refused to join the working class fighting groups in the Reichsbahndirektion Halle , received a summons to the SED party secretary, where he had to let himself be insulted for half an hour in the presence of the combat group commander, among other things as “the worst subject he has ever met be". Immediately afterwards he was relieved of his position as union shop steward on the pretext of alleged “overload” without the involvement of the union group. Stigmatized as a non-person in the company anyway, from then on he denounced at work meetings, among other things, the participation in SED party training during working hours, refused entry into civil defense, participation in "schools of socialist work" or delegation to the Berlin contingent. When he asked at a large workforce meeting why the election of non-party members (non-SED members) had been repeatedly rejected as trade union shop stewards, he received the public response: It was legal and had nothing to do with Solidarność .

In the 80s Demele collected money for the campaign “Ein Mark für Espenhain” and founded a group to change the conditions in the country and in the company. Since the spring of 1989 Demele wore a sticker by the West German artist Klaus Staeck : "Desulphurize air - deswafing politics!" In the autumn of 1989, Ernst Demele sent an open letter to the President of the Reich Railway Directorate in Halle calling for operational reforms under the heading "On the road is revolution and in the company we are still building socialism ”. His contributions to the wall newspapers called for necessary reforms in the company, for example the abolition of the company party organization, the political department, and all non-technical structural units in general.

Political engagement outside the company

Since the beginning of the 1970s Demele refused to participate in the so-called "elections" of the bloc parties under SED rule, and the intrusive house visits by election workers towards the end of election day did not seduce him to inconsistency. In 1982 he and his ten-year-old daughter took part in the state demonstration against the NATO double resolution with their own banner: “Never arms - create peace!” It was snatched from him at the memorial and security forces assaulted him. He fled worried about his daughter. From the beginning of the 80s he took part in "elections" again, but asked demonstratively at the polling station how a valid no-vote could be cast (this was not known to many GDR citizens).

Collaboration in subversive groups until the 1989 revolution

The Catholic would not call himself a believer, but he remarks: “But I have always respected the Church as a moral authority that gives people support.” Looking back, Demele says: “In 1987 I felt I had to do more now and the Church - the evangelical one - had a certain amount of freedom that could be used for this. ”So he sought a connection to the evangelical church and found the Peace Service Working Group (AGF) in 1987 and the Life Initiative Group (IGL) in 1988 .

He took part in almost all AGF meetings and was involved in the preparation and implementation of prayers for peace. For the Peace Service Working Group, he researched the comparison of the military doctrines of NATO and the Warsaw Treaty . In the absence of a copy of the Warsaw Treaty, he wrote to the Ministry of National Defense . This was followed by rejection and reference to accessible media comments from the GDR, as well as the offer of a conversation in the Wehrkommando Süd in Leipzig with a general.

Demele has also been actively involved in the Initiativgruppe Leben (IGL) since 1988 , offers illegal guidance for the ZDF camera team or for Siegbert Schefke to explosive stations in Leipzig, provides his telephone for group purposes, and arranges contacts with German and foreign journalists by telephone. In 1989 Demele took part in the preparation of the Pleiße memorial parade. His participation can be prevented by the state, however, by simulating a "operational commitment due to alleged bridge endangerment and insufficient load-bearing capacity". Within the Initiative Group Life , Ernst Demele takes over the leadership of the environmental group.

He takes part in the "instead of Kirchentag" in the Lukasgemeinde, then in the closing event of the Saxon Church Congress on the racetrack and the demonstration that started there against the massacre welcomed by the SED on Tiananmen Square in Beijing and for democratic changes in the GDR . He took part in the demonstration on October 7, 1989 on Grimmaische Strasse and in the evening between the main train station and the pedestrian overpass, in the decisive Monday demonstration on October 9, 1989, and in all other Monday demonstrations. He participates in the occupation of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) in Gustav-Mahler-Strasse. He participates in the founding of the New Forum in Leipzig. Because of its subversive involvement , the MfS opened an operational process , the OV "Statik" at the Halle District Office of the State Security (opening in 1988 OV "Statik" reg.no. VIII 2522/88 received incomplete).

“The good thing for Leipzig was that Mr. Wonneberger came from Dresden to Leipzig and opened an institution in which there was rhythmic political activity. For this the name peace prayer has been found. And that's where the applicants for emigration came. They didn't have to invite anyone. Everyone knew: Monday 5:00 p.m. in the Nikolaikirche . Those willing to leave brought in force and mass. For them, the public was the most important thing. They also accepted imprisonment because they might have been ransomed. Then one day I managed to take to the streets and demonstrate. That was great. Suddenly there were a few thousand on the street and from Monday to Monday there were more. "

- Ernst Demele

Ernst Demele is not one of those civil rights activists who can be said to have supposedly wanted a better GDR, he still says decidedly today: "I wanted unification with the Federal Republic as soon as possible."

Work since the unification of Germany

In 1990 Demele was a founding member of the Association for Ecological Building (non-profit) , board member and until 2003 chairman of the board for ten years. He was an employer for up to 18 people in publicly funded job creation measures (ABM), which served as a starting point for entry into an employment relationship in the private sector. In 1990 he helped organize a German-German (West-East) demonstration against the stationing of nuclear missiles (which were also aimed at Leipzig) in Großengstingen. In 1990, Ernst Demele was appointed as a public citizen to a staff commission at the University of Leipzig to hear politically charged employees. He is an active member of the Leipzig Citizens 'Committee (Runde Ecke) eV , is involved as a contemporary witness, museum guide, city guide on the trail of the revolution, participates in the Leipzig Citizens Movement Archive , in the environmental association Ökolöwe Leipzig , in the Friends' Association Notenspur Leipzig and in the General Bicycle Club Germany .

literature

  • Thomas Mayer: A little bit of Schwejk. With pin pricks against the powerful - the smart public protest of Ernst Demele. In: Ders .: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution. 18 portraits of pioneers from Leipzig. (= Series of publications by the Saxon State Commissioner for the Stasi Records. Volume 10). Leipzig, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-374-02712-5 , pp. 134–141.
  • Kai Stefes : Through the East - what was, what is, what remains? With an MZ and a PENTACON Six in search of images , Berlin, Westkreuz, 2015, ISBN 3-944836-26-X , pp. 144–147.
  • Thomas Rudolph , Oliver Kloss , Rainer Müller , Christoph Wonneberger (eds.): Way in the uprising. Chronicle of opposition and resistance in the GDR from August 1987 to December 1989. Vol. 1, Leipzig, Araki, 2014, ISBN 978-3-941848-17-7 , ( preface as reading sample), p. 307.
  • Hermann Geyer: Nikolaikirche, Mondays at five. The political services of the turning point in Leipzig. Darmstadt, Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 2007, ISBN 978-3-534-18482-8 , pp. 25 and 203 f.
  • Peter Wensierski : The uncanny ease of the revolution. How a group of young people from Leipzig dared to rebel in the GDR. Munich, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, 2017, ISBN 978-3-421-04751-9 , including p. 404 f. [At the center of this presentation is the Leipzig Initiative Group Life (IGL), but people from the Justice Working Group were also involved in the plot.]

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kai Stefes: Through the East - what was, what is, what remains? Searching for pictures with an MZ and a PENTACON Six , Berlin, Westkreuz, 2015, ISBN 3-944836-26-X , p. 144.
  2. ↑ Martin Tröster: The intoxication of the revolution threatened a massacre. The Monday demonstrations in Leipzig hit the tumbling SED regime peacefully but violently. We spoke to those on the front lines. In: Mannheimer Morgen from September 4, 2014, page 3.
  3. ↑ Kai Stefes: Through the East - what was, what is, what remains? Searching for pictures with an MZ and a PENTACON Six , Berlin, Westkreuz, 2015, ISBN 3-944836-26-X , p. 144.
  4. ↑ Cf. Thomas Mayer: A little Schwejk. With pin pricks against the powerful - the smart public protest of Ernst Demele. In: Heroes of the Peaceful Revolution. 18 portraits of pioneers from Leipzig. (= Series of publications by the Saxon State Commissioner for the Stasi Records. Volume 10). Leipzig, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, 2009, ISBN 978-3-374-02712-5 , pp. 134–141.
  5. ↑ Kai Stefes: Through the East - what was, what is, what remains? Searching for pictures with an MZ and a PENTACON Six , Berlin, Westkreuz, 2015, ISBN 3-944836-26-X , p. 146.
  6. ↑ Ibid., P. 144.
personal data
SURNAME Demele, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German GDR civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Jansdorf