Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson

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Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson (born March 12, 1931 in Berlin-Lichtenberg ; † September 14, 2009 ) was a German photojournalist and a political prisoner in the GDR for four years .

Life

Helwig-Wilson, born in 1931, completed an apprenticeship at the Deutsche Reichsbahn in East Berlin after the Second World War . In 1950 he moved to West Berlin and joined the SPD there . He began his journalistic work at the "East Zone Editing" of the Telegraf . As a journalist he worked for various agencies before starting his own business in 1958 as a freelance photo journalist with a regional focus on East Berlin and GDR . For this he was accredited at the press office of the Prime Minister of the GDR for a British press agency. On the sidelines of official events, Helwig-Wilson photographed the contradiction between socialist slogans and the scarce range of goods in the GDR. His photos have appeared in over 90 domestic and foreign newspapers. The Ministry for All-German Issues was also one of his customers .

On August 13, 1961 , Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson took pictures of the construction of the Berlin Wall . A little later he was lured to East Berlin - under the pretense of an assignment - and arrested there by the Ministry for State Security . He spent his four months in custody in prison in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen . In February 1962, the Frankfurt (Oder) district court sentenced him to 13 years in prison for espionage and " public agitation ". Helwig-Wilson fell seriously ill while in custody. In May 1965 he was ransomed by the Federal Republic as one of the first political prisoners . Despite permanent damage to his detention, he resumed his journalistic activities in West Berlin. From 1967 until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1993, he worked in the press department of the Berlin Senate . In West Berlin, the Stasi was watching him in the Operational process more "aperture" until April 1989th

As the federal chairman of the working group of former political prisoners of the SBZ / GDR in the SPD, he was committed to the concerns of victims of the SED dictatorship . In addition, Helwig-Wilson took part in the construction of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial , through which he led groups of visitors from 1994. On December 16, 1992, the Potsdam District Court rehabilitated him and declared his conviction to be contrary to the rule of law . In 1999, his damage to health was recognized as the consequences of imprisonment. Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson died on September 14, 2009.

Works

  • Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson, Elena Demke: The anti-state view. Photos from the GDR by Hans-Joachim Helwig-Wilson. Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89809-048-5 .

literature

  • Karin Hartewig: The Eye of the Party - Photography and State Security. Links-Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-86153-342-1 , pp. 137-145.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See Helke Stadtland: Review of Der Staatsfeindliche Blick , In: H-Soz-u-Kult 2004-3-017 (PDF; 68 kB).
  2. ↑ See Berlin State Center for Political Education: The anti-subversive view  ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 588 kB).@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.berlin.de  
  3. ↑ See obituary of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial ( Memento of the original from November 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / stiftung-hsh.de
personal data
SURNAME Helwig-Wilson, Hans-Joachim
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photojournalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin-Lichtenberg
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 2009