Excellent scientist of the people

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The medal for the honorary title of Great Scientist of the People

The honorary title of outstanding scientist of the people was a state award of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which was donated in the form of a medal in one step on November 8, 1951 by Prime Minister Otto Grotewohl . The first awards took place in 1952.

Basics

Scientists who in the fields which scientific , technical , medical , agricultural and forestry or social sciences and the linguistic research and teaching by excellent overall services to the advancement of science in the service of peace had rendered outstanding were the honorary title Outstanding Scientists of the people awarded to get. The honorary title could be awarded to any scientist regardless of their nationality . The honor should not be awarded more than six times a year, but the title was also awarded on anniversaries such as 80th birthdays.

Authorization to propose

The group of people entitled to propose who could nominate persons to be awarded the honorary title consisted of:

  • the members of the government of the GDR
  • the scientific academies
  • the senates of universities and colleges
  • the national award winners
  • the already titled Great Scientist of the People as well
  • the central organs of the party and mass organizations of the GDR

Those entitled to make proposals therefore asked the population every year through the press, radio and meetings to submit well-founded recommendations for proposals for the award of the honorary title. Award proposals that originated from subordinate organs of the nationally owned and equivalent economy or the parties and mass organizations or from work collectives or from lecturers' collectives as well as individual personalities could only be considered if they were also submitted by the group of people entitled to make proposals. The nominees were not bound by their territorial or technical competence when making their proposals. The resulting proposals had to meet the following formal requirements:

  • a) Information about the person proposed
  • b) an overview of the nominee's overall performance
  • c) a designation of the work that has particularly contributed to the further development of the sciences and
  • d) an expert opinion on the significance of the work of the proposed person to date.

The complete proposals were then submitted to the office of the funding committee at the Prime Minister of the GDR. After examining the documents, the office of the funding committee at the Prime Minister of the GDR forwarded the suggestions to the committee appointed by the GDR Council of Ministers for the award of the National Prize for Science and Technology for assessment. It was then up to this committee to justify the proposals they had explored again and to forward them to the GDR Council of Ministers for a final decision.

Award procedure

The honorary title was awarded every year on October 7th, Republic Day. It took place in a solemn manner until 1960 by the President of the GDR Pieck and after his death by the Council of Ministers of the GDR . The honorary title was conferred by handing over a certificate and a medal. The award of the honorary title was linked to the payment of a bonus of 40,000 marks . The bonus was tax-free and was provided by the budget of the funding committee.

Appearance and way of wearing the medal for the honorary title

The medal with a diameter of 26 mm was made of 750 gold until 1972 and was accordingly marked with the hallmark 750 on its edge . After that it consisted only of gold-plated silver with a stamped 900 hallmark. On her obverse it shows the portrait of Max Planck looking to the left as seen from the viewer . The reverse of the medal, on the other hand, showed in the center the three-line embossed inscription: OUTSTANDING / SCIENTIST / DES PEOPLE . The inscription is surrounded by two crossed laurel branches that are located on the upper edge of the medal and the inscription: GERMAN DEMOCRATISCHE REPUBLIK , which makes up about 3/4 of the edge. The medal itself was worn on a 25 × 14 mm wide, yellow-covered clasp on the upper right side of the chest. An 8 mm wide horizontal middle bar is also woven into the yellow base material of the clasp, which is in the colors red-black-red, the national colors of the GDR. The corresponding interim brace was of the same quality. The medal band and the interim clasp were delimited by protruding gold-colored cotter pins.

Carrier (selection)

There were 112 awards in total.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Ordinance on awarding the honorary title of Outstanding Scientist of the People of November 8, 1951, Section 11, printed in the GDR Legal Gazette of November 17, 1951, No. 132, page 1035/1036
  2. ↑ Taschenlexikon Orders and Medals - State Awards of the GDR, 2nd edition VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig 1983, author Günter Tautz, page 33
  3. ^ Awards of the German Democratic Republic Bartel / Karpinski, Military Publishing House of the GDR 1979, pages 121–122
  4. ↑ University newspaper Leipzig 1959 on the 10th anniversary of the GDR (PDF; 2.6 MB)
  5. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.trafoberlin.de