Konrad Weiß (director)

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Konrad White (1990)

Konrad Weiß (born February 17, 1942 in Lauban , Upper Lusatia ) is a German film director , publicist and former politician as well as GDR civil rights activist . He was a member of the Volkskammer for Bündnis 90 and then a member of the German Bundestag .

Life

Konrad Weiß was born the son of a civil servant . After he died in 1945 as a result of fleeing from Silesia, he grew up with his mother, a worker, in Genthin .

From 1958, in addition to his apprenticeship and subsequent activity as an electrician at the adult education center , Weiss prepared for the Abitur , which he passed in 1964. For the Abitur at the Extended High School , he was not admitted because of his Catholic ties.

From 1963 to 1965 he worked for the Catholic pastoral care office in Magdeburg at the time of Auxiliary Bishop Friedrich Maria Rintelen .

From 1966 to 1969 he studied direction and camera in the special class for documentary film at the University of Film and Television Potsdam . As part of a student project, a film about Vietnam was made that received an award in Moscow in 1967 . He then worked as a director at DEFA-Studio for documentary films and shot mostly documentaries for children and later also for young people. As part of his work, he visited many countries, including Western countries such as the Netherlands , Ireland , France and Israel .

Since 1975 Weiß has also worked as an author, wrote texts for various songwriters and singers, and also worked as a journalist. From the mid-1980s, he researched the emergence of a neo-fascist subculture in the GDR. Attempts at publication failed at the time due to resistance from the authorities. From 1987, his texts were circulating in illegally distributed samizdat papers .

From 1988 to 1990 he was a board member of Aktion Sühnezeichen in the GDR .

Konrad Weiß is married and has three daughters.

Political career

Konrad Weiß (4th from right) at a press conference by the citizens' movements and the Greens (East and West) in 1990

In September 1989, Weiß was one of the first to sign the call for the founding of the citizens 'movement Democracy Now , of which he was a member of the speakers' council. In November 1989 he was one of the first to sign the appeal for our country . In December 1989 he initiated a “three-stage plan for national unification”.

In 1989/90 he took part in the Central Round Table as a representative of Democracy Now . In the 1990 Volkskammer election , Konrad Weiß was elected as a member of the GDR parliament.

Between 1990 and 1994 he was a member of the Bundestag in the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen parliamentary group . Weiss complained about a dwindling press diversity in the new federal states. He also criticized the Greens' plans to merge with Alliance 90 at federal level in 1993, the asylum compromise in 1992 and the path to German unity as undesirable developments. He did not run for the 1994 federal election .

In 1992, Weiß gave the famous speech “I am ashamed”, in which he harshly criticized the acts of violence by Nazis against foreigners and the ignorant behavior of the CDU / CSU / FDP government .

In June 2001 Konrad Weiß resigned from the Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen party because the Berlin regional association had declared its willingness to form a coalition with the PDS before the House of Representatives elections .

Filmography

Social appreciation

Honorary positions

literature

Web links

Commons : Konrad Weiß (director)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.bln.de/k.weiss/gefahr.pdf Konrad Weiß: The new old danger. Young fascists in the GDR. Samizdat magazine "Context", Berlin 1988
personal data
SURNAME White, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director, publicist, politician (Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen), Member of the Bundestag, Member of the Bundestag and former GDR civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Lauban , Province of Lower Silesia