Herbert Beister

Herbert Beister (born December 30, 1924 in Königsberg i. Pr .; † April 23, 2012 in Essen ) was a German civil engineer.

Life

As a student at the Burgschule (Königsberg) , Beister was drafted into the Air Force (Wehrmacht) in 1942 and trained as a fighter pilot. He remained connected to his fellow aviator Hans-Ulrich Rudel until his death. After the end of the war, Beister was taken prisoner in the United States for a few months . Via Munich he came to Oldenburg (Oldenburg) , where he found his family again. He obtained his university entrance qualification as an autodidact and studied civil engineering at the Darmstadt State Building Trade School and the Oldenburg University of Applied Sciences .

As a graduate engineer at Friedrich Krupp AG , he built a steel mill in India . In 1961 he moved to Gutehoffnungshütte , where he accompanied the rise of his East Prussian compatriot Dietrich Wilhelm von Menges . As managing director at Ferrostaal , he managed acquisitions for his company worldwide. In 1966 he built a tire factory and a steel mill in Indonesia , and in 1990 an aluminum works in Nigeria .

With a special permit from the then Soviet Foreign Minister, Beister visited his hometown on the Pregel in 1989 . When he came for the second visit in 1990 after perestroika , he and v. Menges and Friedrich von der Groeben founded the Königsberg Foundation . The Interior Ministry supported, they realized the first project, the German-Russian House (Kaliningrad) . At the same time, Beister took up the initiative of Igor Alexandrowitsch Odinzow to rebuild the cathedral and founded the reconstruction work group in Königsberg Cathedral . It also made it possible to rebuild the Duke Albrecht monument .

Early on, he helped modernize the Baltic Federal University of Immanuel Kant by providing modern computers and sponsoring visiting professorships from the West. Run by him, the 450th anniversary of the Albertina in 1994 became the second major joint success after the German-Russian House. Wilhelm von Gottberg reported at the BJO spring seminar "Germany and East Prussia in the 20th Century" from February 20 to 22, 2015 in Ostheim near Bad Pyrmont. In 1991, Mikhail Sergejewitsch Gorbatschow sent him to Helmut Kohl as an intermediary with an offer for Kaliningrad Oblast 40 billion German marks to buy.

Honorary Doctorate from the University of Nigeria
Honorary doctorate from the Immanuel Kant University of Kaliningrad (November 30, 1999)
Gold Medal of the East Prussian Landsmannschaft (2003)
Prussian Shield (2008)