Karl-Heinz Hahn

Karl-Heinz Hahn (born July 6, 1921 in Erfurt ; † February 5, 1990 there ) was a German professor of German studies , historian and archivist . For many years he was director of the Goethe and Schiller Archives , the National Research and Memorial Centers for Classical Literature and President of the Goethe Society in Weimar.

Life

After finishing school in Erfurt, Hahn was a soldier in World War II , from which he returned seriously wounded.

In 1944 he began his studies in history and German literature in Marburg and Jena , which he in 1950 with the promotion of Dr. phil. completed. He then worked as a research assistant at the Thuringian main archive in Weimar, from where he moved to the Goethe and Schiller archive in 1954. From 1957 he worked as its director and held this position until 1986. In 1963 he also qualified as a professor and was given a professorship in literary studies the following year .

For the SED he was a member of the city council in Weimar, chairman of the district executive committee of the science union, member of the SED party leadership and party secretary of the research and memorial sites, and chairman of the German cultural association for the democratic renewal of Germany in the Erfurt district .

In 1973 Hahn also took over the presidency of the Goethe Society. As the only literary-scientific association, the Goethe Society was open to members from both German states even during the period of German division. Today, this success is also attributed to Hahn's diplomatic skill.

Hahn retained the chairmanship of the Goethe Society until his death in 1990.

Publications (selection)

• Jakob Friedrich von Fritsch. Minister in classic Weimar . Weimar 1953
• Bettina von Arnim in her relationship to the state and politics . With an attachment of unprinted letters. Weimar 1959
• Goethe and Schiller Archives. Inventory . Weimar 1961
• From the workshop of German poets. Goethe - Schiller - Heine . Hall 1963
• The Goethe Society in Weimar. History and present. Weimar 1989
• numerous essays, including Schiller and the story. In: Weimar Contributions 16 (1970), pp. 39-69;
• Carl August of Saxe-Weimar . One try. In: Impulse 5 (1982), pp. 264-309
• The Nietzsche Archive . In: Nietzsche Studies 18 (1989), pp. 1-19. Selection in: "Then the past is permanent ...". Goethe studies. Weimar 2001.

Honors

• Literature and Art Prize of the City of Weimar 1979
• Honorary doctorate from the Erfurt / Mühlhausen University of Education in 1984
• Hansischer Goethe Prize of the FVS Foundation in Hamburg 1986
• Wilhelm Hausenstein honor for services to cultural mediation in Munich in 1988.

literature

• Carsten Wurm:  Hahn, Karl-Heinz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Christoph König (Ed.), With the collaboration of Birgit Wägenbaur u. a .: Internationales Germanistenlexikon 1800–1950 . Volume 2: H-Q. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2003, ISBN 3-11-015485-4 .
• Günter Arnold: Karl-Heinz Hahn (1921-1990) . In: Thuringian archivists' images of life. Rudolstadt 2001, pp. 96-103.
• German biographical encyclopedia, Vol. 11/1 (2000), p. 77.
• Ulrich Ott: Karl-Heinz Hahn . In: Der Archivar 44 (1991), Sp. 175-178.
• Bernhard Zeller: Karl-Heinz Hahn in memory . In: Yearbook of the German Schiller Society 34 (1990), pp. 449–452.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl-Heinz Hahn in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Review note at Perlentaucher