Heinrich Opitz (philosopher)

Heinrich Opitz (born June 26, 1929 in Hindenburg ; † July 15, 2018 ) was a German Marxist philosopher .

Life

Opitz, son of a former , attended elementary school and high school . At the end of the Second World War in 1945 he was drafted into the Reich Labor Service (RAD) and was taken prisoner as a war participant.

After his release he worked as a farm worker in 1946/47 . He joined the Free German Youth (FDJ) and became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). From 1948 to 1952 he was a full-time FDJ functionary and teacher or head of the state youth school of the FDJ in Waldbärenburg . From 1952 to 1960 he studied social sciences and philosophy at the party college "Karl Marx" of the Central Committee of the SED (PHS) and was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD . From 1966 he was a lecturer in Marxist-Leninist philosophy and deputy head of the chair for Marxism-Leninism at the PHS. In September 1970 he was appointed Professor of Dialectical Materialism at the PHS by the Minister for Higher Education and Technical Education and was director of the Philosophy Department at the PHS from 1974 to 1990 (successor to Alfred Kohlsdorf).

From 1970 to 1989 he was a member of the Scientific Council for Marx-Engels Research and the Scientific Council for Philosophy in the GDR . From 1978 to 1989 he was a member of the editorial board of the " German Journal for Philosophy ". From 1982 to 1989 Opitz was a member of the Presidium of the Society for the Dissemination of Scientific Knowledge (URANIA). In 1983 he was co-author of the gift book for the youth consecration in the GDR “ From the meaning of our life ”. He was also a member of the Joint Commission of Philosophers of the GDR and the USSR .

After the self-dissolution of the SED party college in 1990, he was disabled. Opitz became a member of the Democratic Socialist Party (PDS) in 1990 and elected to the Brandenburg State Party Council in November 2004 as a representative of the PDS Oberhavel . Opitz, who lived in Glienicke , became a board member in 1992 and, in March 2004, deputy chairman of the Glienicke cultural association. From 1994 he worked for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Brandenburg . He was a member of the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity (GBM).

Opitz was married and the father of two children. He died at the age of 89.

Awards

• 1971 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze, 1977 in silver and 1989 in gold
• 1982 Order “ Banner of Labor ” level I
• 1985 National Prize of the GDR III. Science and technology class
• 1988 Honorary title " Honored University Lecturer of the German Democratic Republic "

literature

• Hans-Christoph Rauh :  Opitz, Heinrich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

• The party university of the SED at www.phs-karlmarx.info (accessed on August 20, 2018).

See also

• List of the winners of the National Prize of the GDR III. Science and Technology Class (1980–1989)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Appointed professor . In: Berliner Zeitung , September 15, 1970, p. 4.
2. ↑ PDS short info (news from the PDS in the Oberhavel district) from December 2004, p. 6.
3. ↑ Election of the board of directors at the Kulturverein Glienicke e. V. In: Glienicker Kurier from April 2005, p. 18.
4. ↑ We congratulate all anniversaries . In: akzente (GBM monthly) from June 2018, p. 7.
5. ↑ Brief portrait of Prof. Dr. Heinrich Opitz . In: Junge Welt from November 7, 1986.
6. ↑ Obituary notice in the MAZ from August 11, 2018 (accessed on August 19, 2018).