Gerhard Mehnert

Gerhard Mehnert (born December 14, 1914 in Leipzig ; † July 20, 1983 ; also Gert Mehnert ) was a German media scientist , editor-in-chief and Japanologist .

Life

Grave of Gerhard and Dorothea Mehnert in the St. Petri-Luisenstadt-Kirchhof .

Gerhard Mehnert attended the Thomasschule in Leipzig from 1925 to 1934 . Until 1933 he was actively involved in the Communist Youth Association of Germany , then went underground. In 1934 he completed the Reich Labor Service . From 1934 to 1936 he was a student trainee for oriental studies , journalism and economics at the University of Leipzig . Until 1938 he was in several Saxon prisons for preparation for high treason . In 1939 he completed his training as an English interpreter and stenographer in Leipzig. He was in contact with the resistance group around Herbert Bochow . In 1939 he was secretary to Gerhart Hauptmann and stayed in Berlin. From 1940 to 1945 he did his military service and was promoted to NCO . As a soldier, he led an illegal NKFD division. At the end of the war he was taken prisoner by the United States.

In 1945 he joined the KPD . From 1945 to 1947 he was editor-in-chief at Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk . From 1947 to 1948 he studied Japanese studies in Leipzig and received his doctorate in 1948 with the work of criticism of the radio play for Dr. rer. oec. From 1948 to 1950 he was an assistant for radio journalism. From May 1951 to August 1953 he was head of the press office in the State Secretariat for higher education and technical schools in the GDR . From 1953 to 1959 he was editor-in-chief of the magazine Das Hochschulwesen in East Berlin. From 1954 Mehnert was a lecturer in Japanese Studies in Leipzig. In 1959 he became a full professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin . From October 1962 he was President of the GDR-Japan Friendship Committee . In April 1963 he became a member of the Presidium and in 1966 Vice President of the League for Friendship of Peoples .

Mehnert is one of the pioneers of media studies in the GDR.

His grave is in the St. Petri-Luisenstadt-Kirchhof .

Awards

• 1965: Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze

literature

• Günther Buch: names and dates. Biographies of important people in the GDR. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn-Bad Godesberg 1973, ISBN 3-8012-0020-5 , p. 186.
• Tobias Liebert: Radio training and research in Leipzig between 1946 and 1963. In: Mitteilungen StRuG. Vol. 20, H. 2/3, 1994, pp. 89-98.
• Elke Reuter:  Mehnert, Gerhard . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Gerhard Mehnert in the catalog of the German National Library