Karl-Heinz Günther (pedagogue)

Karl-Heinz Günther (born February 13, 1926 in Eisenach ; † October 1, 2010 in Berlin ) was a German educationalist and university professor .

Life

The railroader's son Günther passed his Abitur in 1944 and began studying medicine in Berlin. At the end of 1944/45 he became an officer candidate in the air force medical service and in 1945 a medic in the front line. From May to July 1945 he was a Soviet prisoner of war.

From 1949 to 1952 he studied history and education at the University of Halle-Wittenberg and joined the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) in January 1950 . In September 1951 he was a research assistant and received his doctorate in 1955 in hall to Dr. paed. about Hugo Gaudig at Hans Ahrbeck . In 1961 Günther became deputy director at the German Central Pedagogical Institute in Berlin , which was converted into the Academy of Pedagogical Sciences of the GDR (APW) in 1970 . In 1962, he completed his habilitation at the Humboldt University in Berlin with a thesis on bourgeois-democratic educators in the 19th century. For years he worked in the radio and television series "The Professors' College meets". In 1970 he became professor for the history of education and was vice-president of the APW until 1989. In October 1974 he received the GDR National Prize for his part in researching the history of education, in particular the history of education and the history of schools in the GDR. In 1982 he became a corresponding member of the AdW . After the APW was liquidated, he retired and withdrew in resignation to Buchholz , where he wrote his memoirs on the basis of diaries that he had kept since he was 10.

The educational functionary, who was widely traveled by GDR standards and who was privileged, represented the ideological standpoint of Minister Margot Honecker , whom he held in high esteem , against Joachim Lompscher , for example . In 1989 he considered the education system of the GDR to be “one of the best” in Europe (Review, p. 198).

Awards

• 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze
• 1971 Honorary title of Honored Teacher of the People
• 1974 National Prize of the GDR III. Science and technology class (in a collective)

Fonts (selection)

• History of education , people and knowledge, Berlin 1957 a. ö. (18 editions) ISBN 3-06-212678-7
• Bourgeois-democratic educators in Germany during the second half of the 19th century: Diesterweg, Rossäßler, Dittes, Sack, Volk und Wissen, Berlin 1963
• (Ed.): The education system of the German Democratic Republic, Berlin 1989
• Review. Based on diary notes from 1938 to 1990 , Berlin-Buchholz o. J., Frankfurt am Main 2002 ISBN 3-63139436-5

literature

• Günther Buch: Names and dates of important people in the GDR. 4th, revised and expanded edition. Dietz, Berlin (West) / Bonn 1987, ISBN 3-8012-0121-X , p. 98.
• Gert Geissler:  Günther, Karl-Heinz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Ulrich Wiegmann: Comparing autobiographies of the highest ranking GDR educational scientist: Karl-Heinz Günther and Gerhart Neuner . In: Sonja Häder / Tenorth, Heinz-Elmar [Hrsg.]: The course of education of the subject. Educational theoretical analyzes . Weinheim et al.: Beltz 2004, pp. 137–152. (Journal for Pedagogy, Supplement; 48) [1]

See also

• List of the winners of the National Prize of the GDR III. Science and Technology Class (1970–1979)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The college of professors meets . In: Neues Deutschland , May 26, 1965, p. 2.