Gerhard Harig

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Gerhard Harig (born July 31, 1902 in Niederwürschnitz ; † October 13, 1966 in Leipzig ) was a German physicist and Marxist philosopher , resistance fighter against National Socialism , emigrant in the Soviet Union , prisoner in Buchenwald concentration camp , university professor for the history of natural sciences and Marxism-Leninism and State Secretary for Higher Education in the GDR .

Life

Harig came from the family of a country doctor . After attending primary school , he graduated from the Schiller Realgymnasium in Leipzig in 1913 , where he obtained his university entrance qualification . From 1922 to 1927 he studied physics , mathematics and mineralogy in Leipzig and Vienna . In 1929, he put his dissertation to an experimental-physics specialist subject ( absorption before) in Leipzig and became a doctor of philosophy doctorate . From June 1927 to March 1933 he was employed as an assistant at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the TH Aachen , but was dismissed for political reasons and prohibited from working. In 1931 he joined the Society for the Friends of New Russia , local group Aachen , and became its secretary.

After the seizure of power of the Nazis , he was in March / April 1933 as a member of the illegal working German Communist Party (KPD) in " protective custody taken". After his release, he decided in October 1933 to emigrate to Leningrad in the USSR . Here he started research work at the Physikalisch-Technische Institut Joffe , Nuclear Physics Department. During this time he was recruited as a news source by the NKVD . In 1934 he moved to the Institute for the History of Natural Science and Technology at the Academy of Sciences of the USSR , which at that time was still based in Leningrad. In the same year he published the science policy work Lenin and modern physics in Moscow . In 1935/36 he worked on JC Maxwell as well as Nicolo Tartaglia and Gerolamo Cardano . However, in 1937/38 he was suspected, a German spy to be and was in custody taken. According to his own statement, however, the NKVD prepared him for an intelligence service in the German Reich . For the purpose of camouflage he was deported to Germany and consequently arrested in Stettin in 1938 and taken to the prison in Leipzig. In the same year 1938 he was interned in Buchenwald concentration camp . He came to the work command of the Political Department and worked there in the prisoner resistance . In 1945 he published three reports about his experiences in the concentration camp: The prisoner camp. The Political Department in Buchenwald Concentration Camp and the Buchenwald SS Area .

When the Nazi rule was eliminated, he became head of the statistical office including the election and list office in Leipzig in November 1945/46 . From July 1946 he worked as the main advisor for philosophy in the Central Secretariat of the SED in Berlin. From 1947 to 1948 he received a professorship for the history of natural sciences and technology at the newly founded Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Leipzig . From 1948 to 1951 he was the managing director of the Franz Mehring Institute for the training of teachers for Marxism-Leninism . He was also the first professor to hold a chair for dialectical and historical materialism in the GDR . In June 1949 he was the student dean of Leipzig University. In 1950 he was appointed head of the main department for universities and scientific institutions in the Ministry of Popular Education . From March 1951 to 1957, Harig was on leave from the university because he was appointed a member of the Council of Ministers and first State Secretary of the newly established State Secretariat for Higher Education. Under his leadership, the Marxist-Leninist basic course was introduced as a compulsory subject for all students in the GDR. In March 1957 he returned to the Karl Marx University Leipzig (KMU) and became professor for the history of natural sciences and shortly afterwards also director of the Karl Sudhoff Institute for the history of medicine and natural sciences. He was a member of the Scientific Council for the Peaceful Use of Atomic Energy at the GDR Council of Ministers. From 1959 to 1963 he acted as dean of the mathematics and natural sciences faculty of the SMEs. In 1960 he was one of the co-founders and editors of the " NTM series for the history of natural sciences, technology and medicine ". In 1965 he became the chairman of the National Committee for the History and Philosophy of Science. On October 11, 1966, he gave a lecture on classical and modern atomistics in Sellin .

Since 1958 Harig was a member of the SED district leadership in Leipzig and first chairman of the Leipzig district association of " Urania ".

Harig was married to the teacher and pedagogue Katharina Harig (often "Käthe Harig", née Heizmann (1901–1977)), who taught from 1958 to 1963 as a professor of education at the University of Leipzig. One son was the medical historian Georg Harig (1935–1989).

Honors

Publications

A bibliography of the publications of Professor Dr. Gerhard Harig - including unpublished and in print work - was created by librarian Lotte Martin ( Leipzig University Library ) for the NTM series for the history of science, technology and medicine .

  • Physics and Renaissance. 2nd edition Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest u. Portig, Leipzig 1984.
  • Writings on the history of natural sciences. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1983.
  • Physics and Renaissance. 1st edition Akademische Verlagsgesellschaft Geest u. Portig, Leipzig 1981.
  • Selected philosophical writings. Karl-Marx-Univ., Leipzig 1973.
  • The epistemology of Marxism. 1945.
  • Results of the census of November 3, 1945. News office d. City, Leipzig 1945.
  • Mark M. Rozental: Materialistic and idealistic worldview. 2nd edition Dietz, Berlin 1948.
  • Alexander von Humboldt. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1959.
  • Lenin and modern physics. Leningrad 1934.
  • Higher education in the Soviet Union. State Secretariat f. Higher education, Berlin 1952.
  • It is about the contribution of German higher education and German science in the struggle for the maintenance of peace, the unity of Germany and the systematic development of socialism. State Secretariat f. Higher education, Berlin 1952.
  • About the broadening of the absorption line 2537 ° AE of mercury and about the absorption of ultraviolet light by liquid carbon dioxide. Leipzig 1929.
  • Science, tradition, progress. German Publishing house d. Sciences, Berlin 1963.
  • Wilhelm Ostwald: Volume chemical studies on affinity. Akademische Verlagsges. Geest u. Portig, Leipzig 1966.
  • From Adam Ries to Max Planck. Publishing house encyclopedia, Leipzig 1961.
  • Science and philosophy. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1960.
  • Teaching, research, practice. Teubner (in administration), Leipzig 1963.
  • Alexander von Humboldt. 2., verb. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1964.
  • Nature and origin of Marxist philosophy. Publishing house encyclopedia, Leipzig 1958.
  • The act of Copernicus, Leipzig. 2., revised. Urania-Verlag, Leipzig 1965.
  • The act of Copernicus, Leipzig. Urania Verlag, Leipzig 1962.
  • Dialectical materialism and modern science. Publishing house encyclopedia, Leipzig 1960.
  • Important scholars in Leipzig. Vol. 2.1965.
  • The development of science towards immediate productive force. Karl Marx University, Leipzig 1963.
  • Soviet contributions to the history of natural science. Publishing house d. Sciences, Berlin 1960.
  • The education of our students in the basic social sciences course. Young World Publishing House, Berlin 1954.
  • Leipzig lectures of the working group of Marxist scholars. Bibliographical Institute.
  • From Adam Ries to Max Planck. 2nd, (complete) edition Verlag Enzyklopädie, Leipzig 1962.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Buchenwald authors' collective . Reminder and obligation. Documents and reports. Berlin 1983, pp. 73, 79 and 317
  2. ↑ Harig, Katharina, b. Heizmann - Data sheet about K. Harig from the University of Leipzig , PDF, accessed September 23, 2019
  3. ↑ NTM. Series of publications for the history of natural sciences, technology and medicine , no. 10, Leipzig 1967, pp. 8–22
personal data
SURNAME Harig, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Harig, Gerhard Ernst Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist and university professor in the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederwürschnitz
DATE OF DEATH October 13, 1966
Place of death Leipzig