Günter Wirth (publicist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
As a candidate for election to the City Council 1981 (2nd from left)

Günter Wirth (born December 7, 1929 in Brand-Erbisdorf ; † December 5, 2009 in Berlin ) was a German university professor for church history , publicist and functionary of the GDR CDU .

Life

The son of a savings bank officers graduated after attending the elementary school , a high school education in Saxony Freiberg , where he wrote his 1948 school leaving certificate was awarded. In 1945 Wirth co-founded the anti-fascist youth committee in Brand-Erbisdorf. In 1947 he joined the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Free German Youth (FDJ) and worked there in the West .

After graduating from high school, two years after he was not admitted to study in Leipzig , he worked as a volunteer at the Potsdamer Märkische Union . From 1950 to 1951 Wirth was youth officer for the CDU party leadership in Berlin . His acquaintance with Walter Bredendiek dates from this time . Wirth was largely responsible for the GDR CDU's fight against the young community . Wirth worked temporarily for the Institute for economic research designated foreign intelligence service of the GDR.

In 1951 he began studying German at the Humboldt University . After an interim phase as main speaker (1952–1953) and (1954–1958) as secretary of the CDU main board, he continued his studies and finished it in 1961 with the degree of diploma philosopher .

From 1954 until the end of the GDR , Wirth was a member of the CDU main board. In 1958 he became a member of the Presidium of the Peace Council of the GDR and co-founder of the Christian Peace Conference (CFK) in Prague .

From 1961 to 1963 he was deputy editor-in-chief of the CDU central organ Neue Zeit , and from 1964 to 1970 chief editor at the CDU-run Union Verlag , where he a. a. Edited works by Teilhard de Chardin , Martin Luther King , Albrecht Goes , Karl Barth , Fritz Baade and Günther Anders .

From 1970 to 1972 he was editor-in-chief of the Evangelischer Pfarrerblatt and from 1973 to 1990 editor-in-chief and from 1986 publisher of the evangelical monthly magazine Standpunkt . From 1967 to 1990 he was a member of the Berlin city council .

In 1977 he became a doctor of philosophy doctorate and in 1985 an honorary professor of Contemporary and Modern Church History at the Humboldt University in Berlin called - an activity that ended 1,993th In 1989, he was from the Theological Faculty in Bratislava , the honorary doctorate awarded. In the final phase of the GDR, Wirth worked for a short time as head of the scientific working group for the chairman of the CDU.

In 1972 Wirth became Vice President of the GDR Cultural Association . He was vice-president of the friendship society GDR-Finland , chairman of the standing commission culture of the Berlin city council and was a member of the continuation committee of the CFK.

Notes on the file show that he denounced his fellow theologians to the State Security . At the special party conference of the GDR CDU in Berlin in mid-December 1989, he was the only member of the former party leadership to confess his personal complicity in the undesirable developments in the GDR.

The chairman of the GDR CDU, Lothar de Maizière , praised Wirth's work in his own and on behalf of the main board in 1989, in particular his “knowledgeable, reliable and stimulating cooperation” and his “efforts to bring humanity to our experience in the pursuit of social justice current intellectual debate to bring about the necessary path in gaining inner and outer peace. "

Wirth's estate is administered by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and is made accessible through a finding aid.

Honors

Fonts

As an author (selected)

  • Evangelical Christians in the Soviet Union . From the history of the Russian Evangelical Baptist movement in the USSR , Berlin: Union 1947.
  • The turning point in human history. Contributions to the 40th anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution , Berlin: Union 1957.
  • Martin Luther King . Step forward - to freedom , Berlin 1964.
  • Heinrich Boell . Religious and social motifs in prose work , Berlin 1965, 1967 and 1974, Cologne 1967 and 1987, Warsaw 1970.
  • November 1918 - November 1968. A historical study and contemporary consideration , Union-Verlag Berlin 1968.
  • On the way of the socialist human community. A collection of documents on alliance policy and church policy 1967–1970 , Union-Verlag Berlin VOB, 1971.
  • For a Europe of peace. A historical study and current consideration , Union Verlag Berlin 1971.
  • Karl Liebknecht on Christianity and the Church. A study on his 100th birthday , Union Verlag Berlin 1971.
  • War before war. Highlights on the content and methods of the psychological warfare of imperialism , Berlin, Union Verlag 1978.
  • " The signs of the times " 1947 to 1979. Preliminary attempt at evaluation and appreciation from the point of view of a publicist , Evangelische Verlagsanstalt GmbH Berlin (GDR) 1981.
  • The Hauser Chronicle. History of a family , book publisher Der Morgen , Berlin 1982, 2nd edition 1988, ISBN 3-371-00174-1 .
  • Heinrich Grüber 1987, ISBN 3-372-00088-9 .
  • On the history of the Christian Peace Conference , Prague 1988.
  • The other spirit of Potsdam. On the cultural history of a city 1918–1989 , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 2000, ISBN 978-3-518-39634-6 .
  • Memories and considerations on CDU cultural policy . In: Evemarie Badstübner (Ed.): Strange different. Life in the GDR , Berlin 2000, pp. 472–512.
  • On transformation processes in the GDR CDU 1989/90 , in: Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen 8 (2001) 243–265 ( online version ).
  • Hope and memory. Potsdam literature 1945 to 1950. Texts and reflections , Uckerland: Schibri 1998.
  • On the "tournament ground" of intellectual disputes. Arthur Liebert and the Kant Society (1918–1948 / 49) , Ludwigsfelde 2005.
  • The other transformation process. Viewing autobiographies . In: UTOPIEkreativ (2006) No. 189/190, pp. 674–680 ( online version ).
  • Landscapes of the bourgeois. Selected treatises ( Literary Landscapes , Volume 10, edited by Frank-Lothar Kroll ), Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12651-4 (comprehensive bibliography there, pp. 383-412).
  • Bourgeoisie and bourgeoisie in the Soviet Zone and GDR Studies from the estate . Posthumous ed. by Stefan Wirth, epubli 2011.

In the series "Notebooks from Burgscheidungen"

In the series "Christ in the World"

In the Protestant monthly " Standpunkt "

  • Cultural Protestants in and from the GDR. Evangelical monthly magazine STANDPUNKT 1973–1990 . Leonhard-Thurneysser-Verlag Berlin - Basel 2009, pp. I – IV (only available online); therein u. a .:
    • P. 72/1973: With the times? On the 65th birthday of Albrecht Goes ( online )
    • P. 31–32 / 1973: Correctly? Reorganization (together with a text by Dieter Frielinghaus ) ( online )
    • P. 171/1973: Morality and Objectivity ( online )

As a co-author

  • with Gerhard Fischer : November 1918 - teaching and obligation , party leadership of the Christian Democratic Union 1958.
  • with Gerhard Bassarak , Johannes Bobrowski , Gerhard Desczyk , Walter Feurich , Jan Milic Lochman , Georg Schrem, Herbert Trebs : Anti-Communism and Proexistence , Union Berlin 1965.
  • with Herbert Trebs, Gerhard Desczyk, Hubert Faensen , Hans Giesecke, Helmut Ullrich, Karl Heinz Berger , Jan Dobraczyński , György Rónay, Edvaed Kocbek. Design: Armin Wohlgemuth: testimony and contemporaneity. Speeches, interviews, letters , Berlin: Union Verlag Berlin, 1968.
  • with Gerhard Bassarak: challenge of conscience. About the ecumenical contribution to the fight against racism , Berlin: Union Verlag 1977.
  • with Ernst-Joachim Gießmann, Horst Bartel, Günter Vogler, Helmut Schnitter, Thomas Höhle, Siegfried Wollgast, Heinz Schönemann, Hans-Heinrich Müller: Prussia in the history of the German people. Contributions from the event of the Central Science Commission of the Presidential Council and the Potsdam District Management of the Cultural Association of the GDR on June 5 and 6, 1980 in Potsdam . Kulturbund der DDR Berlin 1981.
  • with Hans-Martin Pleßke: Albrecht Goes . The poet and his work , Union-Verlag Berlin 1987.
  • with Waldemar Sowade (selection): Kulturbund in the developed socialist society 1982–1986 , Kulturbund der DDR Verlag Berlin 1987.

As editor

  • Heinrich Grüber : Dona nobis pacem! Collected sermons and essays from 20 years. Edited by his friends , Berlin 1956.
  • We live in the GDR. Testimonies from Christian personalities . Union Verlag Berlin, 1963; DNB 455704910
  • Hans Löscher : Books from real life. Volume I , Berlin, Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1975.
  • Charitas Bischoff : Amalie Dietrich . A life tells of Charitas Bischoff . Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1977, 1979, 1980; Stuttgart 1980.
  • Gerhard Bassarak : Luther and Lutheranism in Eastern Europe. Self-portrayal from the diaspora and contributions to the theological discussion . Evangelical Publishing House Berlin, 1983.
  • Charitas Bischoff: Pictures from my life. Autobiography , Berlin: Evangelische Verlagsanstalt 1984.
  • Contributions to Berlin church history , Union Verlag Berlin 1987, ISBN 3372000870 .

As a publisher's reviewer

His work as head editor of Union Verlag Berlin (VOB) included drawing up a publisher's report for obtaining printing permission from the publishing and book trade headquarters in the GDR Ministry of Culture , for example for:

  • Alfred Kumpf: Pope John XXIII. in the series Christ in the world

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members of the main board of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany elected by the 16th party congress . Ed. Secretariat of the Main Board of the CDU (1987), p. 66
  2. ↑ Clemens Vollnhals (Ed.): The Church Policy of the SED and State Security ... , 1996, p. 176 ( online on GoogleBooks )
  3. ↑ Bernd-Rainer Barth , Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Wirth, Günther . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  4. ↑ Wirth referred to these neglected cultural and political merits of the CDU in GDR society in his article Memoirs and Considerations on CDU Cultural Policy (in: Strange different. Life in the GDR ; edited by Evemarie Badstübner, Berlin 2000, p. 472 -512).
  5. ↑ Hedwig Richter : Pietismus im Sozialismus: Die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine in der DDR , Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009, ISBN 978-3-525-37007-0 , p. 161 ( online on Google Books )
  6. ↑ Clemens Vollnhals (Ed.): The Church Policy of the SED and State Security ... , 1996, p. 279 ( online on Google Books )
  7. ^ Manfred Agethen: Günter Wirth and the GDR CDU. A preliminary biographical-editorial note . Preliminary remark to: Günter Wirth: On transformation processes in the GDR CDU 1989/90. In: Historisch-Politische Mitteilungen 8 (2001) 241–243 Online Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung.
  8. ↑ Congratulations from the CDU on Prof. Günter Wirth's 60th birthday in the Neue Zeit daily newspaper , December 7, 1989, p. 2.
  9. ^ Finding aid Günter Wirth
  10. ↑ DNB 451892259
  11. ↑ DNB 014557363
  12. ↑ DNB 452642841
  13. ^ ARGUS inventory documents in the Federal Archives; Orientation view / single view 173
personal data
SURNAME Wirth, Günter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist, functionary of the GDR CDU
DATE OF BIRTH December 7, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Brand-Erbisdorf
DATE OF DEATH December 5, 2009
Place of death Berlin