Hans Bentzien

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Hans Bentzien (born January 4, 1927 in Greifswald ; † May 18, 2015 in Bad Saarow ) was a German politician , functionary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and Minister of Culture of the GDR . From 1966 he held various positions in the media industry.

On May 22, 1963, Hans Bentzien (left) awarded the Johannes R. Becher Prize to the poet and narrator Franz Fühmann

Life

As a member of the Hitler Youth , Bentzien trained as a teacher at the teacher training institute in Rogasen im Warthegau and joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in 1944 . In the same year he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service and in October the Wehrmacht . In 1945 he was taken prisoner by the British .

Back home went Bentzien without his Nazi party membership to deny, in March 1946 in the German Communist Party one, by the forced merger of the SPD and KPD to form the SED in April 1946 he became a member of the SED. From 1946 to 1948 he was a teacher in Greifswald . From 1948 to 1950 he studied history at the Ernst Moritz Arndt University in Greifswald and at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . During his work for the Thuringia regional leadership and the Gera district leadership of the SED, Bentzien "proved himself" in the days around the uprising of June 17, 1953 in Jena. There he took over the post of first secretary in the district leadership of the SED until March 1954. From 1955 to 1958 Bentzien studied in Moscow at the party college of the CPSU with a degree in social science .

From 1958 to 1961 Bentzien was secretary for culture and education in the SED district leadership in Halle and a member of the culture commission at the SED Politburo . From 1961 to 1965 he was Minister for Culture of the GDR. In his office, Bentzien had several clashes with the Politburo member Paul Fröhlich , who was behind the demolition advocate Walter Ulbricht , because of his opposition to the destruction of the St. John's Church Tower and the University Church in Leipzig . Meanwhile, in West Germany in 1965, the investigative committee of freedom lawyers had announced Bentzien's NSDAP membership, which had been publicly concealed in the GDR, to the press. As a result of the 11th plenum of the Central Committee of the SED , Hans Bentzien was replaced on January 12, 1966 “because of serious mistakes” and replaced by Klaus Gysi . It is unclear whether the NSDAP membership became known, which endangered the reputation of the GDR as an anti-fascist state, or the resistance to the demolition policy was the main reason for the dismissal.

After his replacement as minister, Bentzien was director of the Neues Leben publishing house from 1966 to 1975 until he switched to radio in the GDR in 1975 , where he succeeded Manfred Engelhardt as head of the main radio drama department for two years (1975–1977). In 1977, Bentzien became vice chairman of the State Committee on Television . In 1979 he was dismissed for broadcasting the films Closed Society and Ursula . Bentzien stayed with television and worked in the journalism editorial office of the German television station (DFF). In 1984 he made the documentary We have nothing to regret . After the reunification , Bentzien became general director of the DFF (1989–1990).

Bentzien died in Bad Saarow at the age of 88.

Awards

Fonts

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Bentzien  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Meenzen (Lit.), p. 59
  2. ↑ On joining the party, see Meenzen (Lit.), p. 60 and 62f.
  3. ↑ On this, Meenzen (lit.), p.
  4. ↑ July 20, 1944 in German film
  5. ↑ Report of the Märkische online newspaper from June 12th 2015 (updated June 12th 2015 3:58 pm): Politician and book author Hans Bentzien is dead
  6. ↑ Down the career ladder . In: Berliner Zeitung , June 13, 2015, p. 26.
  7. ↑ Berliner Zeitung , October 6, 1965, p. 4
  8. ^ Review by Manfred Jäger on Deutschlandfunk, June 2, 2003
personal data
SURNAME Bentzien, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician and functionary (SED), Minister for Culture of the GDR
DATE OF BIRTH 4th January 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Greifswald
DATE OF DEATH May 18, 2015
Place of death Bad Saarow