Hans-Ludwig Ewert

Hans-Ludwig Ewert

Hans-Ludwig Ewert (born March 25, 1930 in Elmenhorst , Pomerania Province , † August 24, 2012 in Dresden ) was a German geodesist and cartographer .

Life

Origin and education

His parents, Ernst Ewert (1908–1977) and Käthe Ewert b. Schuldt (1909–1985) were landless and lived as a single tenant partly in Elmenhorst and partly in neighboring Zarrendorf until 1948 . First he attended the two-class elementary school in Zarrendorf for four years and then from 1939 to 1944 the equally structured school in his birthplace. For financial reasons, he was not allowed to continue attending secondary or high school. For this he should become a teacher himself at the suggestion of his teacher. So he experienced the last year of the war at the teacher training institute in Gartz (Oder) . There he survived the war missions as a fourteen-year-old and, transferred from Greifenhagen to Bansin (Usedom) as an auxiliary soldier , came home before the end of the war in April 1945.

The fifteen-year-old's first professional activities were as a farm and forest worker in his home community. A chance acquaintance in the district town led in 1946 to employment as a surveying intern in the Grimmen land registry office . In the field, he was mostly involved in surveys as part of the land reform . Admission to the pre-study institute at the Wismar Engineering School in Bad Kleinen in 1948, even before his apprenticeship was completed, enabled him to study at the newly opened State Engineering School for Construction in Neustrelitz . He completed his training in surveying in 1951 as a surveyor .

career

Hans-Ludwig Ewert found his first job in the Rostock district surveying office, from where he moved to the north surveying service in Schwerin .

At the beginning of 1953 he was accepted into the barracked people's police (KVP). With the restructuring of the state organizational structures in the GDR, a new field of work opened up for the second lieutenant as head of the Central Card Store of the Ministry of the Interior of the GDR in Niederlehme near Berlin. From there, in 1954, he moved to Dresden to work as a specialist teacher for geodesy and topography at the College for Officers of the KVP . Here, on the basis of older German literature, modern Russian specialist literature and his own experience, he synthesized the training material, which he supplemented, expanded and methodically prepared and thus created new teaching material. This was initially printed as internal material and was soon also available in bookshops. For the textbook Military Topography. Textbook for officers Ewert wrote four chapters and headed the collective of authors . With its colored map patterns of the new topographical map series and its explanations, the book found dissemination in the country and attention in the Federal Republic.

In 1956 he was appointed chief of staff of the newly established surveying unit of the National People's Army (NVA) in Pirna , and in 1958 he moved to Strausberg to the Ministry of National Defense (MfNV). In the military topography department of the main staff of the NVA , he was responsible for military topography training as well as for the organization of geodetic, topographical and photogrammetric work. This also included the joint responsibility for the organization of international cooperation between the socialist countries in surveying and mapping. He was responsible for the organization of the conference of the state geodetic services of socialist countries in 1960 in Dresden.

In 1964, Hans-Ludwig Ewert was appointed to the "Friedrich Engels" military academy in Dresden as a university professor (specialist, later main subject) for topographical and geodetic security. At the same time, he completed a distance learning course at the TU Dresden in the field of geodesy from 1964 to 1969 , which in 1971 received his doctorate A for the first academic title of Dr.-Ing. followed. With the granting of the teaching qualification (facultas docendi) for the field of military sciences , the twenty-year cooperation with the field of cartography at the TU Dresden began, especially with lectures on military aspects in geodesy and cartography .

In 1977 he was appointed university lecturer and in 1983 associate professor at the military academy "Friedrich Engels". Membership in the Central Working Group for Geodesy - Photogrammetry - Cartography in the Research Council of the GDR (1959–1965) was appointed to the Scientific Council of the Military Academy (1981–1990) and to the Council of the Geodesy and Cartography Section of the TU Dresden (1985–1990) ); He was also a regular guest in the class for geosciences and cosmos sciences at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (AdW) (1986–1990), member of the Scientific Council for Peace Research at the AdW (1988–1990) and member of the Society for Space Research and Space Travel of the GDR (1988–1990). During this time, he presented his findings, in particular about "terrain and modern military affairs", in publications. Ewert also worked on the reference works Military Lexicon (1971) and abc Kartenkunde (1983).

In 1973 he published the justification and definition of the term terrain information , broadened in 1981. His three-part dissertation B was specifically geared towards military requirements. As a whole, he presented the theoretical core substance to the AdW plenum on "Computer Science Aspects in Geosciences " in 1986 . These fundamental thoughts on theoretical and practical aspects of the acquisition and use of terrain information led to the integration of geodesy and cartography into the geosciences in the GDR. Ewert's essay The Battlefield of the Land Forces met with all-German interest .

The knowledge and his theoretical work led to his appointment at the Military Academy in 1987 as deputy commander of the Land Forces Section for Research. Upon reaching the age limit, Hans-Ludwig Ewert retired in 1990 as a colonel from active service in the NVA. With the dissolution of the military academy soon afterwards, all its functions also ended.

In the meantime, the system solutions for recording and displaying terrain information developed and tested by Ewert and his research team at the military academy based on early works in cybernetics and computer science as well as the modeling of complex systems have been recognized and incorporated into the general state of knowledge more than ten years apart.

Personally, Ewert turned to new tasks in the construction industry, where he held managerial positions in the fields of construction finance and project management in a larger architecture and engineering office for several years. After completing this work, in the mid-1990s he again strengthened his scientific contacts with the Institute for Cartography at the TU Dresden in order to process his scientific findings for crisis management in natural disasters.

Ewert died on August 24, 2012. The funeral took place on September 3rd at the Trinity Cemetery in Dresden next to his wife, who had died a year earlier.

Academic recognition (2005)

On the occasion of his 75th birthday, a picture of his life appeared in the Kartographische Nachrichten , and a colloquium dedicated to this occasion , published as Volume 33 of the Cartographic Building Blocks of the Institute for Cartography of the TU Dresden on the subject of “From the military to the security geography” with the jubilee's contribution to “Theoretical and practical aspects of determining digital terrain information ”. The work "Military geology of the GDR from the beginnings to reunification", edited by Gerhard L. Fasching and published in the series MILGEO of the Institute for Military Geosystems of the Austrian Armed Forces , emerged from processing and evaluating the documented state of knowledge . Ewert was also involved in the development of the second volume, "Military geography of the GDR, services and products of the military topographical service" .

Awards (selection)

• 1989 Friedrich Engels Prize of the GDR, second class, in a collective;
• 1988 Medal of Merit of the GDR ;
• 1986 Friedrich Engels Prize of the GDR, third class, in a collective;
• 1981 battle medal “For services to the people and fatherland” in bronze;
• 1973 Friedrich Engels Prize of the GDR, third class.

Publications (selection)

• (DNB) (SLUB) With others: Military geology of the GDR. Services and products of the military topographic service. In: Gerald Gnaser, Federal Ministry for National Defense (Hrsg.): Series of publications of the military geography, No. 41, Vienna 2012, December, 161 p., 12 attachments.
• (DNB) (SLUB) The military topographical training in the NVA. In: Gerhard L. Fasching (head of the collective of authors), Peter Bauer, Hans-Ludwig Ewert, Werner Gillessen, Thomas Palaschewski, René Pfahlbusch, Herbert Scharlo, Roland Schunk, Klaus Schwerdtfeger: Military geography of the GDR. Military geography, military topography, military hydrography, military topographical service, sea hydrographic service, topographic maps, special and sea maps in the German Democratic Republic, from the beginnings to reunification. In: Gerhard L. Fasching, Federal Ministry for National Defense (Hrsg.): Series of publications of the military Geowesens, No. 20, Vienna 2006, December, pp. 128-138.
• (DNB) (SLUB) With Gerhard L. Fasching / René Pfahlbusch: Documents of the regulatory system , textbooks and teaching aids. In: Gerhard L. Fasching (head of the collective of authors), Peter Bauer, Hans-Ludwig Ewert, Werner Gillessen, Thomas Palaschewski, René Pfahlbusch, Herbert Scharlo, Roland Schunk, Klaus Schwerdtfeger: Military geography of the GDR. Military geography, military topography, military hydrography, military topographical service, sea hydrographic service, topographic maps, special and sea maps in the German Democratic Republic, from the beginnings to reunification. (Hrsg.) Federal Ministry for National Defense (Hrsg.): Schriftenreihe des Militärischen Geowesens, No. 20, Vienna 2006, December, pp. 199–210.
• ABC map customer. Keywords about terrain and computer science. (Ed.) VEB F. A. Brockhaus Verlag, Leipzig 1983;
• Investigations for the planning of a database terrain for the recording and representation of operational-tactical properties of the terrain. Dissertation B (Dr. sc. Techn.) In 3 parts: (1) Conditions and bases for the creation of a terrain database, (2) Quantification of indirect terrain information for the automation of troop leadership using the method of statistical mapping of the terrain, (3 ) Ideas about the application of statistical terrain information in automated systems of command and control. Military Academy, Dresden 1980.
• (DNB) Information-theoretical problems of mapping operational-tactical objects of the phenomena. In: Dieter Feige: A new method to solve the transport time problem. (Ed.) Military Academy "Friedrich Engels": Writings of the Military Academy "Friedrich Engels" of the National People's Army, Issue 142, Dresden 1976, 107 pp.
• The topographical-geodetic safeguarding of combat operations. Study material, “Friedrich Engels” military academy, Dresden 1973.
• (DNB) Considerations of connections between terrain and society for geodetic and cartographic purposes. In: Combine Geodesy and Cartography Leipzig, Information Center Science and Technology (Ed.): Works from the surveying and mapping of the GDR, Volume 30, Leipzig 1973, 94 pp.
• Terrain and modern military. (Ed.) Military Academy "Friedrich Engels": Writings of the Military Academy "Friedrich Engels" of the National People's Army, Issue 100, Dresden 1972, 76 pp.
• The recording of the terrain and its influence on combat operations for operational-tactical calculations using electronic computers. Dissertation A (Dr.-Ing.), Military Academy "Friedrich Engels", Dresden 1971.
• With others: military dictionary. 60 terms on military topography. (Ed.) Deutscher Militärverlag, Berlin 1971.
• The mathematical recording of the terrain for march calculations using electronic computers. Research report, Military Academy "Friedrich Engels", Dresden 1969.
• (DNB) Assessment of the site. Pre-print of the 7th chapter of a new textbook on military topography (for use in the NVA). (Ed.) Military Academy "Friedrich Engels": Dresden 1968, 41 pp.
• (DNB) The terrain and its tactical characteristics. (For use in the NVA). (Ed.) Military Academy "Friedrich Engels": Dresden 1968, 57 pp.
• (DNB) NATO topographic maps. Pre-print of the 10th chapter of a new textbook on military topography (for use in the NVA). (Ed.) Military Academy "Friedrich Engels": Dresden 1968, 37 pp.
• (DNB) (SLUB) With others: Military topography. Textbook for officers. Head of the collective of authors and chapters 4, 6, 7 and 8 as well as the appendix of tables. (Ed.) Publishing house of the Ministry of National Defense / German Military Publishing House: 1st and 2nd ed., Berlin 1960 and 1962, 315 pp. And 340 pp.
• (DNB) (SLUB) Military topography. Textbook for NCOs. Compiled and edited using the Soviet textbook "Voennaja topografija" ". (Ed.) Deutscher Militärverlag: Revised and expanded in the 2nd, 4th and 5th edition, Berlin 1958, 1961 and 1963, 217 pp.
• (DNB) military topography. Textbook for NCOs. Compiled by Wilhelm Hudasch and revised by Hans-Ludwig Ewert using the Soviet textbook "Voennaja topografija" ". (Ed.) Publisher of the Ministry of National Defense: 3rd, revised and expanded edition, Berlin 1959, 255 pp.
• Textbook "Military Topographical Training" , NVA Service Regulations, Chapters 1, 7 and 10.

See also

• Writings by Hans-Ludwig Ewert in the catalog of the German National Library
• Writings by Hans-Ludwig Ewert in the catalog of the Saxon State Library - State and University Library (SLUB) Dresden.

literature

• Gerhard L. Fasching: On the 50th anniversary of the "Friedrich Engels" military academy. Contribution to the discussion. In: Military Academy "Friedrich Engels". Historical-critical review of the 50th anniversary of its foundation. Contributions to the colloquium on January 10, 2009 in Dresden City Hall. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V: DSS working papers , issue 95, Dresden 2009, pp. 158–162. urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa2-321515
• Gerhard L. Fasching: From the military to the security geography. Prof. Dr. sc. techn. Hans-Ludwig Ewert on his 75th birthday. In: (Ed.) Technische Universität Dresden, Institute for Cartography: Cartographic Building Blocks, KB 33, Dresden 2005, ISBN 3867800820 , 66 pp.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Since the university reform of 1968 in the GDR, university lecturers and professors have belonged to the group of university teachers appointed by the Minister for Higher Education and Technical Education. See: Hochschullehrerberungsverordnung (HBVO) of November 6, 1968, published in the GDR Law Gazette, Part II, pp. 997-1003.
2. ↑ (Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Palaschewsky, Office for Military Geosystems of the Bundeswehr, July 1989.)
3. ↑ Issue 2/2005, pp. 107/108
4. ↑ (pp. 55–66)
5. ↑ MilGeo, Volume 20, Vienna 2006
6. ↑ MilGeo, Volume 41, Vienna 2012
7. ↑ See winners of the Friedrich Engels Prize at the Military Academy . In: Wolfgang Demmer, Eberhard Haueis: Military Academy "Friedrich Engels" of the National People's Army 1959 to 1990. A documentation. (Ed.) Dresdener Studiengemeinschaft Sicherheitsppolitik (DSS) e. V .: DSS working papers, issue 95 (special edition), Dresden 2008, pp. 126–129. urn : nbn: de: bsz: 14-qucosa2-321551
8. ↑ See also: Web link to the catalog of the German National Library
9. ↑ See also: Web link to the catalog of the Saxon State Library - State and University Library (SLUB) Dresden.