Historian Society of the GDR
The Historiker-Gesellschaft der GDR was an organization for historians in the GDR, committed to the Marxist image of history . It existed from 1958 to 1990. The society was a spin-off from the Association of Historians of Germany, which was founded in 1895 and which still exists in the Federal Republic of Germany today .
Structure and history
The association was founded on March 18, 1958 in Leipzig as the German Historian Society . In 1972 it changed its name and has since been called the Historians' Society of the GDR.
The Historiker-Gesellschaft was assigned to the GDR Academy of Sciences from 1969 . Their headquarters were in East Berlin .
The Society of Historians was committed to a Marxist conception of history and saw its main goal in promoting historical science on the "basis of the creative application of dialectical and historical materialism ". In addition, the “development of socialist community work” among historians should be supported. Members were university teachers, history teachers, archivists, museologists, but also those interested in history. The Historiker-Gesellschaft was not a professional association to represent interests. She organized lectures, excursions and other scientific lectures.
The association was subdivided into specialist associations and commissions as well as regionally into district associations. At the head was a presidium. The first president was Ernst Engelberg , followed by Gerhard Schilfert (from 1965), Joachim Streisand (from 1968), Heinrich Scheel (from 1980) and Günter Vogler (1990).
Since the peaceful revolution in November 1989, demands have been raised in the ranks of the association to transform the historians' society into a professional interest group. The association itself published “A Word of Historians”, in which it admitted that historians were partly to blame for the state of society and the state. The Independent Association of Historians was founded specifically against him .
After the German reunification in 1990 the Historiker-Gesellschaft dissolved at the end of the year.
Historians' congresses
| No. | Meeting place | year |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Leipzig | 1958 |
| 2. | Dresden | 1962 |
| 3. | East Berlin | 1965 |
| 4th | Leipzig | 1968 |
| 5. | Dresden | 1972 |
| 6th | East Berlin | 1977 |
| 7th | East Berlin | 1982 |
| 8th. | East Berlin | 1989 |
literature
- GDR manual , vol. 1, 3rd, revised. u. exp. Edition, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-8046-8642-7 , p. 598 f.
- GDR history as a research problem (= historical journal , supplement 27), Oldenbourg, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-486-64426-2 .
- Matthias Berg , Olaf Blaschke , Martin Sabrow , Jens Thiel, Krijn Thijs: The assembled guild. Association of Historians and Historians' Days in Germany. 2 volumes. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 3-8353-3294-5 .
Web links
- Brief description from the State Archives Chemnitz (no longer available)