Hans-Joachim Hoffmann

This article describes the GDR politician Hans-Joachim Hoffmann. For the Saarland politician see Hajo Hoffmann (politician) ; on the German sociologist see Hans-Joachim Hoffmann-Nowotny .

Ekkehard Schall , Barbara Brecht-Schall , Hans-Joachim Hoffmann, Ruth Berghaus and Norbert Christian at a reception during the "Brecht Week of the GDR 1973" (from left to right)

Hans-Joachim Hoffmann (born October 10, 1929 in Bunzlau ; † July 19, 1994 in Berlin ) was Minister of Culture of the GDR .

Life

Hoffmann was trained as an electrician and worked in the profession from 1945 to 1948. He joined the KPD in 1945 and became a member of the SED in 1946 when the SPD and KPD were forced to merge . From 1948 he was active in various functions in the FDJ and SED at district and district level, u. a. as first secretary of the FDJ district leadership Leipzig , as secretary for agitation and propaganda of the FDJ district leadership Leipzig and in the SED city leadership. From 1953 to 1955 he attended the party college. He then worked for the SED district leadership in Eilenburg and the SED district leadership in Leipzig.

Grave at the Grünau forest cemetery

From 1971 to 1973 he was head of the culture department at the Central Committee of the SED and from 1973 to 1989 as successor to Klaus Gysi Minister of Culture. In 1976 he became a member of the Central Committee of the SED and a member of the People's Chamber . In November 1989 he resigned with the Willi Stoph government . Hoffmann received the Patriotic Order of Merit in 1974 . As Minister of Culture (1973 to 1989) Hoffmann was one of the “ liberals ” in the government cabinet. His term of office was marked by the exodus of numerous artists from the GDR. The mediation between artists and a monoparadigmatic politics led to permanent conflicts about the de facto non-existent freedom of expression .

During the Gorbachev era he publicly supported the course of perestroika in June 1988 with an interview and the title quote he chose for it, “The safest thing is change” in the theater magazine “ Theater heute ” . This confession led to a summons to the responsible Central Committee Secretary and Politburo member Kurt Hager to urge him to resign. Hoffmann was not intimidated by this, although his health was badly damaged. From then on he was "knowingly" listening in on his phone calls, but he stood in front of the GDR artists in an even more protective manner.

Hoffmann maintained friendly contacts with the Austrian politician Fred Sinowatz and the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau . He was one of the longest serving culture ministers in Europe.

His grave is in the Grünau forest cemetery .

literature

• Gertraude Hoffmann and Klaus Höpcke (eds.): “The safest thing is change”. Hans-Joachim Hoffmann - Minister of Culture of the GDR and often suspected democrat . Dietz, Berlin 2003. ISBN 3-320-02041-2 (preface, blurb, table of contents)
• Bernd-Rainer Barth , Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Hoffmann, Hans-Joachim . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Hans-Joachim Hoffmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Hans-Joachim Hoffmann in the catalog of the German National Library
• Artists give tutoring on the GDR. In: Berliner Kurier . June 2, 2003, accessed on August 14, 2015 (article on the Hoffmann Memory Book). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Max Burghardt	President of the Kulturbund of the GDR in 1977	Hans Pischner