Günther Jahn

This article deals with the German politician; on the German painter and graphic artist see Günther Jahn (painter) .

Günther Jahn (left) presents Gojko Mitić with the Erich Weinert Medal in 1969

Günther Jahn (center) 1973

Günther Jahn (* 9. January 1930 in Erfurt , Province of Saxony , Prussia ; † 29. October 2015 in Beelitz-Fichtenwalde , Potsdam-Mittelmark ) was SED -Funktionär, member of the Central Committee of the SED , People's Parliament deputy and first secretary of the SED district leadership Potsdam of the GDR . From 1967 to 1973 he was First Secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ .

Life

His father was the locksmith and KPD functionary Hermann Jahn . Jahn attended elementary and middle school in Erfurt from 1936 to 1946. In 1946 he joined the FDJ and the KPD / SED and in 1948 passed the Abitur at the Humboldt School in Erfurt . 1948-1950 he studied at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena economy and decided to study in 1952 at the University of Economics in Berlin as a graduate economist.

From 1954 to 1956 and 1962 to 1964 he was initially a political employee in the planning sector of the planning and finance department of the Central Committee of the SED, from 1956 to 1961 he received an apprenticeship at the Institute for Social Sciences . In 1961 he received his doctorate as Dr. rer. oec. with a dissertation on economic councils and socialist reconstruction in the GDR industry and was a perception lecturer at this institute until 1962.

From 1964 Jahn was deputy head of department for ideological work at the Bureau for Industry and Construction at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the SED and from 1965 to 1966 head of the working group on socialist economic management. In 1966 he became second secretary and in 1967, as the successor to Horst Schumann , first secretary of the Central Council of the FDJ. In the same year he became a member of the People's Chamber, of which he was a member until 1990. As a member of the People's Chamber he was in the youth committee until 1976 and later first deputy chairman of the committee of rules of procedure. 1973 Egon Krenz succeeded him as First Secretary of the FDJ Central Council. From 1974 to 1976 Jahn was second secretary and from 1976 to 1989, as successor to Werner Wittig , first secretary of the Potsdam district administration. In November 1989 he resigned from this position, in December of the same year he resigned with the entire Central Committee of the SED. In 1991 he resigned from the SED successor party, the PDS .

Günther Jahn received the Karl Marx Order in 1973, the Gold Patriotic Order of Merit in 1980 and the Work Banner Order in 1984 .

The saying goes down from Jahn: "Reach everyone, win everyone, leave no one behind!"

Günther Jahn died on October 29, 2015 at the age of 85 in Fichtenwalde.

Private

Since 1952 he was married to the doctor Esther Jahn, who died in October 2011 and with whom he had two children, including a son. Jahn lived as a pensioner in Potsdam-Babelsberg .

Trivia

In his time as the highest FDJ functionary, he was unofficially ridiculed as Jubel-Jahn, because of his impulsive exclamations such as "High international solidarity" at political events.

literature

• H. Müller-Enbergs / J. Wielgohs / D. Hoffmann: Who was who in the GDR? Weltbild, Augsburg 2003; ISBN 3-8289-0552-8 .
• Monika Zimmermann (Ed.): What does ... actually? 100 GDR celebrities today. Links, Berlin 1994; ISBN 3-86153-064-3 ( digitized version ).
• Helmut Müller-Enbergs, Andreas Herbst :  Jahn, Günther . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Mario Niemann , Andreas Herbst (Ed.): SED-Kader The middle level. Biographical Lexicon 1946 to 1989 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76977-0

Web links

Commons : Günther Jahn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ^ New Times of April 5, 1991
2. ^ Karl Marx Order for the Free German Youth , In: Neues Deutschland , November 6, 1973, p. 1
3. ^ High distinction awarded to Günther Jahn , In: Neues Deutschland, January 10, 1980, p. 2
4. ↑ Neues Deutschland, October 6, 1984, p. 3
5. ↑ Horst Jäkel (ed.): GDR unforgotten. In it Horst Jäkel: Honor to whom honor is due, pp. 59f., ISBN 978-3-89819-430-3 , Schkeuditz 2016
6. ^ GDR politician Günther Jahn has died. Junge Welt , November 3, 2015, accessed November 3, 2015.
7. ↑ Neue Zeit from December 28, 1991