Johannes Zillig

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Johannes Zillig (born June 19, 1934 in Cologne , † August 31, 2007 in Berlin ) was a journalist and party functionary of the CDU in the GDR . For many years he worked as secretary of the main board of the CDU and its presidium. He represented his party for several electoral terms as a member of the People's Chamber from 1982 to 1990.

Life

He was born in 1934 into a Catholic family in the Rhineland. His father Hans Zillig (* 1902) was a commercial clerk and after the Second World War a party functionary in the Eastern CDU. In 1952 his son, called Hans, joined the CDU in what was then the state association of Saxony. After graduation and an orientation phase u. a. as an antiquarian assistant in 1954, he moved his center of life to Berlin. There he studied from 1954 to 1958 at the HFOE Berlin-Karlshorst and earned a degree graduate in economics . It was planned that Zillig would work as a journalist with effect from August 1, 1958 in the editorial team of the Union Press Service (UPD) under editor-in-chief Otto Hartmut Fuchs .

As a student of economics, he let the readers of the CDU daily newspaper Neue Zeit participate in his life motto: If we reflect on the most essential part of our faith, we will realize that it enables us, in its fundamentals, regardless of any social order, to stand in any case on the side of progress for the benefit of all people. During his studies in Berlin, he got involved in the Lichtenberg district and was chairman of the CDU local group in Karlshorst , whose members included the GDR Minister for Health Luitpold Steidle and the then Justice State Secretary and CDU functionary Heinrich Toeplitz . Zillig held u. a. a lecture on the question “Does the confederation of the two German states bring us closer to unity?” After completing his degree in Berlin, he worked as an editor / journalist for the Dresden CDU district newspaper Die Union and volunteered in the working group “Work with Church Circles” of CDU main board in Berlin with the u. a. Gerhard Lotz , Walter Bredendiek , Gerhard Desczyk , Otto Hartmut Fuchs , Hermann Kalb , Johannes Ernst Köhler , Carl Ordinance and Günter Wirth were members and who was re-established in 1960 as a “Church Political Working Group” on the main board of the CDU as part of the “Cultural Policy” working group. From Dresden he started a distance learning philosophy at the University of Leipzig in 1964 and finished it in 1968 as a graduate philosopher .

At the University of Leipzig he successfully defended his dissertation, submitted in 1968, on the topic: “On the relationship between socialist and religious consciousness among working people in the GDR”, in which he also dealt with the “consciousness” of students, the events of the student community in the GDR visited. He was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. Zillig saw the former editor / editor-in-chief and German politician Otto Nuschke as a role model for himself and the employees of the CDU newspapers in the GDR in order to “meet the requirements of journalistic work”.

activities

CDU election functions in Dresden

In addition to his professional activity in Dresden , Zillig exercised electoral functions for his party:

  • 1962 Chairman of the district association of the CDU Dresden-Ost,
  • 1971 Chairman of the district association of the CDU Dresden-Stadt.

In October 1972 he was elected to the main board of the CDU.

Editor-in-chief of the Neue Zeit newspaper

From 1973 to 1977 Zillig was editor-in-chief of the CDU central organ Neue Zeit and successor to Karl-Friedrich Fuchs and at the same time manager of the NEUE ZEIT publishing house ( VOB ), which also published the party magazine UnionShare mit (Utm) . In addition, the Berlin stores of “Wort und Werk”, a Christian book and art trade establishment of the CDU and the VOB Union, were affiliated with the NEUE ZEIT publishing house.

The party chairman Gerald Götting had on July 2, 1973 in the presence of the previous editor-in-chief Fuchs and his predecessor Hermann Kalb and other CDU functionaries, including Werner Franke , the editor-in-chief "Hans Zillig" appointed by the presidium of the main board of this party in the Neue Zeit publishing house introduced in Berlin-Mitte. At an event on the 30th anniversary of the death of Provost Bernhard Lichtenberg , Zillig held the commemorative speech for the CDU in November 1973 and paid tribute to his life "as that of a man who lived and acted in the imitation of Christ." Together with Gerald Götting and other CDU main board members he put a bouquet of flowers on the sarcophagus of Lichtenberg in the crypt of St. Hedwig's Church in Berlin .

In his contributions, Zillig had set himself the goal of "making clear the connection that exists between a very specific everyday work of each of our readers and the so-called big politics" and demanded this from the journalists of the CDU press in the GDR .

As early as 1972, for his journalistic portrait of a process engineer who joined the CDU in 1964, he received first prize in a literary competition organized by the Presidium of the Executive Board of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany on the occasion of the 13th CDU party convention. As editor-in-chief of Neue Zeit , he took up the commitment of “progressive” Christians in leading articles with the author's abbreviation “HZ.” B. that of a research assistant at the Central Geological Institute in Berlin , who was "a devout Catholic" and also "a respected man in his church", especially through his work on the parish council , and also a member of the city council of (East) Berlin. For his comments he was able to fall back on an extensive library: Heinrich Heine , Ludwig Börne , Nikolaus Lenau and Franz Grillparzer linked the historically interested editorial writer, for example, when dealing with German-Polish friendship. Zillig confronted editors with legal training from his environment with the publisher of the “Handbuch des Public Law ...” from 1888 and a freelance worker for the Cologne newspaper Heinrich Marquardsen .

Professional association of journalists in the GDR

Zillig belonged to the Association of Journalists of the GDR (VDJ) and he became a member of the VDJ Presidium in 1977 after the leading CDU journalist Fuchs , a member of the VDJ's central board from 1972 to 1977, left.

CDU functionary

With effect from September 1st, 1977 he was appointed secretary of the main board of the CDU and responsible for the secretarial area economy, agriculture and health care thus successor of Harald Naumann . From October 1977 to 1989 he was a member of the presidium of the main board of the CDU. At the age of 50 he worked as the successor to Adolf Niggemeier as a secretary for agitation and was a. responsible for the CDU press. Gerald Götting put his trust in him. Since 1981 he was a member of the central board of DSF and vice-president of the friendship society GDR - Spain .

Member of the People's Chamber

At its 10th session on January 5, 1979, Zillig was sent to the People's Chamber by resolution of the city council of (East) Berlin . There he was elected a member of the Committee for Industry, Construction and Transport . For the elections to the People's Chamber in 1986, the daily newspapers for candidates for constituency 52 with the GDR districts Gardelegen, Kalbe (Milde), Klötze, Osterburg and Salzwedel said: “Johannes Zillig, 51 years old, CDU, journalist, graduate economist, diploma -Philosopher, Dr. phil., member of the presidium and secretary of the main board of the CDU ”. From 1981 to 1986 he was "Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Industry, Construction and Transport" and, most recently, from 1986 onwards, he was "Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Budget and Finance". For the CDU faction in the People's Chamber, Zillig last appeared as a speaker in January 1990, recognizing that “the electoral law essentially determines the outcome of the elections” and he demanded that the round table should also be responsible for the electoral law.

Spokesman for the GDR Ministry for Construction and Housing

Zillig lost his party offices after the renewed Eastern CDU was given a democratically elected leadership.

Under Minister Gerhard Baumgärtel (1931–1997) Zillig was the spokesman for the GDR Ministry for Construction and Housing. In this role he led a. a. the press conferences, for example in January 1990 on the occasion of the visit of the Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development of the former FRG , Gerda Hasselfeldt .

family

Johannes Zillig was married to Waltraud Zillig. The marriage produced a daughter.

His father Hans Zillig, who was a member of the CDU district executive in Marzahn when he retired, was part of the household in Berlin . As deputy chairman of the Rostock district association of the CDU, Hans Zillig ( senior ) was awarded the Bronze Patriotic Order of Merit in 1968. By resolution of the presidium of the CDU main board, the latter received the Otto Nuschke plaque in 1979 for his 22 years full-time activity in the CDU, in particular for functions as department head in the former state association of Saxony and as deputy CDU chairman in the district associations of Leipzig , Suhl and Rostock . His meritorious collaboration was honored with the Otto Nuschke Decoration in 1960. During the Weimar Republic, Zillig's father was a member of the German Center Party . The model for the first names of his son was the German Catholic priest, manuscript and seal collector, archivist, editor and writer Johannes Nikolaus Kindlinger .

Fonts (selection)

  • On the relationship between socialist and religious consciousness among working people in the GDR. DNB 482554053 .
  • Grown in cooperation and matured. On the history of the Saxony regional association of the CDU from 1945 to 1952. Berlin 1975, DNB 891215336 (under the name "Hans Zillig").

Awards

literature

  • Gabriele Baumgartner: Johannes Zillig In: Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 2: Maassen - Zylla. Verlag KG Saur, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-598-11177-0 .
  • The People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, 9th electoral period. P. 675 [Zillig's curriculum vitae with a photographic portrait], Staatsverlag der DDR, Berlin 1987; ISBN 3-329-00119-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ute Schmidt : From the Block Party to the People's Party? - The Eastern CDU in upheaval 1989–1994. Opladen 1997, ISBN 3-531-12931-7 , p. 65 i. V. m footnote 8.
  2. ↑ DNB 010695133
  3. ^ Template for the secretariat meeting of the CDU main board on April 21, 1958 KAS -Archivale ACDP VII-011-1840; CDU in the Soviet Zone / GDR
  4. ^ Neue Zeit , July 23, 1957, pp. 1/2
  5. ^ Neue Zeit , February 27, 1958, p. 6
  6. ↑ New times. June 18, 1958, Berlin edition, p. 8.
  7. ↑ KAS -Archivale ACDP p. 387; Digital reading room of the KAS ACDP-07-011-1840.pdf
  8. ^ Neue Zeit , February 24, 1960, p. 2
  9. ^ Jürgen Friedrichs: Societies in Transition. Social science dissertations and habilitations in the GDR 1951–1991. Berlin / New York 1993, ISBN 3-11-013807-7 , p. 168.
  10. ^ Neue Zeit , October 15, 1972, p. 4
  11. ^ Wolfgang Heyl at the CDU district delegate conference Dresden-Stadt . In: Neue Zeit , June 14, 1972, p. 1
  12. ^ "Zillig, Johannes (Hans)". In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition; Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  13. ↑ Straubing, Johannes: We say goodbye , in: Utm, 3/1990 (March issue)
  14. ↑ Neue Zeit , November 1, 1983, p. 8: On the 25th anniversary of "Wort und Werk"
  15. ^ Neue Zeit , July 3, 1973, p. 1
  16. ^ Neue Zeit , November 1, 1973, p. 3
  17. ↑ Commemoration on the sarcophagus of Provost Lichtenberg (Photo: Krüger / CDU; Zillig 2nd from left). In: Neue Zeit , November 3, 1973. p. 2
  18. ^ Neue Zeit , October 11, 1972, p. 5
  19. ^ Neue Zeit , October 11, 1976, p. 1
  20. ^ Neue Zeit , June 11, 1974, p. 1
  21. ↑ Handbook of contemporary public law in monographs , Freiburg i. Breisgau 1888
  22. ↑ ARCHIVE FOR CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATIC POLITICS OF THE KONRAD-ADENAUER-STIFTUNG EV CDU IN THE SBZ / GDR , Vol. III
  23. ^ Peter Joachim Lapp: Gerald Götting - CDU chief in the GDR - a political biography. Helios, Aachen 2011, ISBN 978-3-86933-051-8 , p. 167.
  24. ↑ New times. June 19, 1984, p. 1.
  25. ↑ New times. June 29, 1979, p. 3.
  26. ↑ New times. May 13, 1986, p. 6.
  27. ^ The People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, 9th electoral period. P. 675; ISBN 3-329-00119-4
  28. ^ Neue Zeit , December 5, 1989, p. 1
  29. ^ Neue Zeit , January 30, 1990, p. 2
  30. ^ Neue Zeit , January 6, 1990, p. 1
  31. ^ Obituary notice with quotation from Albert Schweitzer in Berliner Zeitung from September 15, 2007, obituary for Dr. Johannes Zillig by Waltraud Zillig.
  32. ^ Neue Zeit , April 24, 1980, p. 8
  33. ^ Neue Zeit , October 4, 1968, p. 1
  34. ^ Neue Zeit , February 23, 1979, pp. 1/2
  35. ↑ Neue Zeit , June 26, 1960, p. 4
  36. ^ "From the speech by Gerald Götting on the occasion of the award of the Union friend Hans Zillig with the Otto Nuschke plaque"; Neue Zeit , February 23, 1979
  37. ↑ New Germany. April 30, 1976; P. 5.
  38. ↑ New times. May 2, 1984, p. 2.
personal data
SURNAME Zillig, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zillig, Hans; Zillig, Johannes Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and politician (CDU)
DATE OF BIRTH June 19, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 2007
Place of death Berlin