Katrin Hattenhauer

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Katrin Hattenhauer (born November 10, 1968 in Nordhausen , Thuringia ) is a German painter and civil rights activist . At the end of the 1980s she belonged to the GDR opposition and demonstrated on September 4, 1989 in Leipzig “for an open country with free people”.

Live and act

Katrin Hattenhauer was not allowed to take a high school diploma and after finishing school in Nordhausen she worked as a puppeteer at the local theater. She then worked in the church research center in Wittenberg and completed an internship in the Zionsgemeinde Dresden . In 1988 she began studying at the theological seminary in Leipzig , but had to finish it after six months under pressure from the state because she had become increasingly politically active - e.g. B. had distributed leaflets for a demonstration in January 1989. She was involved in the Justice Working Group , a Leipzig independent opposition group in the network of the Peace and Human Rights Initiative , and actively participated in the Monday prayers for peace in the Nikolaikirche , which were coordinated by Pastor Christoph Wonneberger .

In addition to the then songwriter and now lawyer Jochen Läßig, who had to break off his theology studies also for political reasons, she played a key role in organizing the 1st Street Music Festival on June 10, 1989, which was not approved by the state , at which she and numerous participants, visitors and passers-by were arrested.

The State Security Service carried out the Operative Personal Control (OPK) "Meise" against Katrin Hattenhauer . Frequent Stasi interrogations and an almost complete ban on employment did not prevent the 20-year-old from campaigning for political changes in the GDR with a hunger strike in the St. Thomas Church. In a declaration of the fasting action in August 1989 she criticized the leadership role of the SED anchored in the GDR constitution and, with reference to Václav Havel , called on the "serfs" in the "system of tutelage" to "turn away from resignation in our society": "We pray for wisdom and courage, so that home again becomes what for many is only confinement and prison."

On September 4, 1989, a trade fair Monday on which German journalists from Leipzig were allowed to report, she initiated a demonstration in front of the Nikolaikirche together with Gesine Oltmanns and other opposition activists after the peace prayer. The two women had prepared four banners, which - supported by Frank Sellentin and Uwe Schwabe - smuggled past their persecutors from the State Security into the church and displayed the trend-setting slogan “For an open country with free people”. They were joined by around 50 grassroots group activists and around 250 people who wanted to leave the country, and when they shouted “We want to get out!” Other demonstrators chanted “We stay here!” Stasi commandos tore down the banners, but this time, in view of the running West cameras, they did not arrest anyone.

On the following Monday, September 11, 1989, Katrin Hattenhauer was deliberately arrested along with other demonstrators in the Nikolaikirchhof and held until October 13, 1989 in the Stasi remand center on Leipzig's Beethovenstrasse. Every Monday there were ever larger demonstrations and further arrests in Leipzig . Regular intercession services and vigils in various cities in the GDR for the release of those wrongly imprisoned followed. As in the Gethsemane Church in Berlin, this created focal points for protests that accelerated the democratic revolution. Katrin Hattenhauer was known to the opposition and church groups in the GDR through her commitment, she had participated in the ecumenical assembly (Eastern Europe working group) and in national ecology seminars and had contacts with the environmental library in East Berlin.

In 1991 she helped set up the Leipzig Citizens Movement Archive . On October 9, 2009 she opened u. a. with civil rights activist Jochen Läßig the festival of lights to commemorate the day of the decision in 1989. On November 9, 2009 she was a speaker with civil rights activist Roland Jahn at the “Festival of Freedom” at the Brandenburg Gate . Her message to the many young people was: Take your liberty, live your dreams. In a 2009 touring exhibition, Revolution is Feminine, organized by the Leipzig Citizens Movement Archives eV, their commitment and that of other women during the Peaceful Revolution are recognized.

Katrin Hattenhauer was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit 1st class in 2015.

Artistic work

Sculpture at the Tegel prison

Katrin Hattenhauer also dedicates herself to the subject of “freedom” in her artistic work. The general secretary of the Kirchentag, Ellen Ueberschär , classifies her work as follows: "Hattenhauer's art is not GDR art, it is not art in the GDR, it is an answer to the GDR, it is BUT an art that says YES to freedom." She opened her first exhibition "Magical Theater" on December 9, 1989 in the stairwell in front of her apartment on Meißner Strasse in the east of Leipzig. Since then she has been composing color pictures from acrylic, jute, plywood, rope and found objects. Freya von Moltke wrote about her: “In the time before and during the fall of the Wall in Leipzig in 1989, Katrin Hattenhauer dared to demand freedom and experienced what that could mean for one's own life. From the power of this experience, her colorful pictures radiate great courage to live and joy. ”Continuous projects with young people for the reception of the Peaceful Revolution should be emphasized. a. in connection with her exhibition "Dare to Freedom" in Krzyżowa / Kreisau together with the Foundation and the Kreisau Memorial, 2002. Katrin Hattenhauer lives with her family in Berlin and Pella (Italy).

Together with inmates of the Tegel JVA she created a sculpture that is supposed to commemorate the former prison chaplain Harald Poelchau .

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1999: Exhibition "Return to Freedom" as part of "Leipzig Remembers Autumn 89", Nikolaikirche , Leipzig.
  • 2000: Lovers project and exhibition, Gotha .
  • 2000: Project "Art and Children" together with the Herten community foundation.
  • 2002: Light-space-project "Drachenflug", Marktkirche, Goslar .
  • 2002: Exhibition "Dare to Freedom" together with the Foundation and the Kreisau Memorial, Krzyżowa / Kreisau.
  • 2003: Art workshops with young people from Lithuania, Poland and Germany, together with the Flickstiftung.
  • 2005: Exhibition “Inno alla Libertà” in collaboration with the Istituto di Cultura Germanica, the City of Leipzig, the City of Bologna and the Associazione Cultura e Arte del '700, Villa Aldrovandi Mazzacorati, Bologna .
  • 2006: Exhibition, workshop and day before: I Diritti Civili nell'ex Germania dell'Est - “Inno alla Libertà” , Quartiere Savena, Bologna.
  • 2009: "Paradise Pieces", Zionskirche, Berlin .
  • 2009: Exhibition “Pezzi di Paradiso”, Chiesa Luterana, Florence .
  • 2009: Clearance project and exhibition as part of the celebrations “20 Years of Peaceful Revolution in Leipzig”, Nikolaikirche, Leipzig.
  • 2010: Exhibition in Houston , Texas.

Catalogs

  • Kathrin Hattenhauer - "Dare to Freedom". Exhibition catalog. With a greeting from Freya von Moltke. Krzyżowa / Kreisau 2002.
  • Kathrin Hattenhauer - "Pieces of Paradise". Exhibition catalog. With contributions by Matteo Deichmann, Joachim Daniel Jaeger, Eva-Maria Menard, Ellen Ueberschär, Kazimierz Wóycicki. Nordhausen 2009.

literature

Web links

Commons : Katrin Hattenhauer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.mdr.de/mdr-figaro/journal/6770040.html
  2. ↑ Steffen Lieberwirth: "who eynen spielmann zv Todeschlag ..." A medieval contemporary document from 1989. Edition Peters, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 978-3-369-00272-4 .
  3. ↑ Daniel Sturm: I want to remain a perpetrator. Kreuzer, Leipzig November 1999
  4. ↑ Katrin Hattenhauer Jens Koch: Explanation. Leipzig, August 27, 1989. Source: Robert Havemann Society : Matthias Domaschk Archive, Berlin.
  5. ↑ Bärbel Bohley, Gerald Praschl, Rüdiger Rosenthal: Gesine Oltmanns - "Stay shakable and resist". In: dies .: courage. Women in the GDR. Herbig, Munich 2005, ISBN 978-3-7766-2434-2 . Pp. 194-220, here pp. 216-218.
  6. ↑ Niels Beckenbach (ed.): Foreign Brothers. The difficult path to German unity. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-428-12727-6 .
  7. ↑ Uwe Schwabe: "For an open country with free people." The story of a slogan. In: Bernd Lindner (ed.): For autumn '89. Democratic movement in the GDR. Forum Verlag, Leipzig 1994, ISBN 978-3-86151-062-8 . Pp. 9-10.
  8. ↑ Martin Jankowski : The day that changed Germany - October 9, 1989. Essay. Series of publications by the Saxon State Commissioner for the Stasi documents, No. 7. Leipzig 2007, ISBN 978-3-374-02506-0 . P. 59.
  9. ↑ Wolfgang Schuller : The German Revolution 1989. Rowohlt, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-87134-573-9 . P. 80.
  10. ↑ "Shoot, you ass!"
  11. ↑ Ralf Julke: Leipzig Festival of Lights : 100,000? 200,000? - The biggest party in the "Hero City". Leipziger Internet Zeitung, October 10, 2009.
  12. ↑ 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall - this is how Berlin celebrated. In: Die Welt Online, November 9, 2009.
  13. ↑ Sabine Höher: top notes. When someone takes their liberty: Katrin Hattenhauer. Die Welt , November 11, 2009.
  14. ↑ [1]
  15. ↑ Annika Ross: heroines of the peaceful revolution. In: Emma , No. 295 (2/2010). Pp. 64-68.
  16. ↑ Award ceremony for the Day of German Unity , accessed on October 4, 2015.
  17. ↑ Ellen Ueberschär: Speech for the opening of “Pezzi di Paradiso”, Florence, September 19, 2009, in: Katrin Hattenhauer: Paradiesstücke. (Exhibition catalog). Nordhausen 2009, p. 24.
  18. ↑ Freya von Moltke: Greeting. In: Katrin Hattenhauer: Dare to freedom. (Exhibition catalog). Krzyżowa / Kreisau 2002, p. 5.
  19. ^ Memorial for resistance fighter Harald Poelchau inaugurated press release from the Berlin Senate Department for Justice of October 5, 2018
  20. ^ Exhibition “Paradies -stücke” on the artist's website
personal data
SURNAME Hattenhauer, Katrin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German painter and GDR civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH November 10, 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Nordhausen