Laurenz Demps

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Laurenz Demps in the foyer of the Humboldt University in Berlin

Laurenz Demps (born July 24, 1940 in Berlin ) is a German historian . His main research interests are the history of Berlin during the Nazi era (work on the complex of forced laborers and forced labor camps in the fascist capital of Berlin 1939–1945 ) and the Second World War (especially the air war ) as well as the history of important buildings and squares in Berlin.

Life

Laurenz Demps first completed an apprenticeship as a company and transport railroad operator at the Reichsbahn . It was during this period that he owes a collection of course books , mainly from the Nazi era , which enable the reconstruction of concentration camp transports. He was delegated to study and earned first over the second-chance education of the GDR , the Workers 'and Peasants' Faculty from 1959 to 1961, the High School . He then studied history and art history at the Humboldt University in Berlin from 1961 to 1966 and became a historian in 1966. He then worked as a research assistant and professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin. He has been retired since 2005 .

Research focus in the time of National Socialism

From 1966 to 1967 he was a planned scientific aspirant, from 1967 to 1969 research assistant at Friedrich Karl Kaul and supported him in the Essen Dora trial before the Essen regional court . Demps had dealt with the subject of Mittelbau-Dora since his student days. Together with his fellow students Götz Dieckmann , Peter Hochmuth, Manfred Pautz and Reimar Riese, he formed a research group that dealt intensively with this topic. At the end of the 1960s he prepared reports for concentration camp processes.

In December 1970 he received his doctorate at the Humboldt University with the thesis on the further expansion of the state monopoly apparatus of the fascist war economy in the years 1943 to 1945 and on the role of the SS and the concentration camps in the context of arms production. Shown using the example of the underground relocation of parts of the armaments industry to Dr.  phil. ( Dissertation  A) again on the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. Reviewers were Walter Bartel , Percy Stulz and Joachim Streisand .

In March 1982 the dissertation B on the beginnings of the Gestapo was carried out with the work The Transition of Division I (Political Police) of the Berlin Police Headquarters into the secret State Police Office (1933/34).

Research focus on the cityscape of Berlin in modern times

Since September 1983 Demps was a university lecturer for territorial history at the history section at the Humboldt University in Berlin, in 1988 he was appointed associate professor for Berlin-Brandenburg territorial history and taught the history of Berlin-Brandenburg in the 18th, 19th and 19th centuries until his retirement in 2005 20th century.

In 2000 he was therefore appointed to the International Expert Commission “Historic Center Berlin”, which was supposed to deal with the reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace (“Palace Construction Commission”). He was commissioned to provide expert opinions for the historical classification of numerous buildings (1978: Platz der Akademie , 1991: Potsdamer Platz , 1991: Schiffbauerdamm, 1992: Invalidenfriedhof , 2003: Schadowhaus).

Political activities

Since 1981 he sat for the Kulturbund der DDR in the city ​​council of Berlin . After the fall of the Berlin Wall , he was its chairman from 1989 to 1990.

Fonts

Only monographs (no articles and expert reports) that Laurenz Demps wrote without co-authors are listed; he has written well over 30 titles in total. The most recent complete directory was published by

  • Sebastian Panwitz: Four decades of urban and regional historiography . The work of the Berlin historian Prof. Dr. Laurenz Demps 1968-2005 . In: Kurt Wernicke, Wolfgang Voigt (Hrsg.): City history in the focus of cultural and social history . Festschrift for Laurenz Demps. Trafo, Berlin 2006, pp. 487–496.

Monographs:

  • Berlin miniatures. Historical monuments Berlin , Berlin 1987.
  • The Gensd'armen Market . Face and history of a Berliner Platz , Berlin 1987.
  • The New Guard . Development and history of a building , military publishing house of the GDR, Berlin 1988.
  • The Brandenburg Gate , Berlin 1991.
  • The Schlesische Bahnhof in Berlin , Berlin 1991.
  • The Schiffbauerdamm . An unknown chapter of Berlin's urban history , Berlin 1993.
  • The most beautiful place in Berlin. The Gendarmenmarkt in the past and present , Berlin 1993.
  • Berlin-Wilhelmstrasse . A topography of Prussian-German power , Berlin 1994.
  • The Pariser Platz . The Berlin Reception Salon , Berlin 1995.
  • The Invalidenfriedhof . Monument to Prussian-German history in Berlin , Berlin 1996.
  • The Oranienburger Strasse . From electoral dairy to modern urban space , Berlin 1998.
  • Between Mars and Minerva. Signpost for the Invalidenfriedhof. A list of the grave monuments still existing on the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin , Berlin 1998.
  • The Berlin Cathedral , Berlin 1999.
  • The Brandenburg Gate. A changing symbol , Berlin 2003.
  • The New Ullstein House , Friedrichstr. 126 , Berlin 2004.
  • The New Guard . From the royal guard house to the central memorial . VBB, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86650-086-0 .
  • Air raids on Berlin . Verlag Ch. Links, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86153-706-9 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andreas Gandzior: neu mit Chair of their own history . In: Welt am Sonntag , November 18, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Demps, Laurenz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin