Linda Ansorg

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Linda Ansorg b. Lecher (* 1912 ; † June 21, 2012 ) was an opponent and victim of National Socialism and a leading family lawyer in the GDR. She co-wrote the government drafts for the planned family law law of 1954 and the actually enacted Family Code of 1965. She was the main author of the governmental guideline on family law in the GDR, which was intended to popularize socialist family relationships.

Surviving in the Nazi era

Ansorg grew up in Berlin-Neukölln as the daughter of a lathe operator and a seamstress. She first studied history for teaching at high schools and later switched to law. In May 1933, she made derogatory comments about a National Socialist book burning on Bebelplatz in Berlin and was arrested, but soon released. In 1933 she was de-registered because of an activity in the Socialist Workers' Party. From 1935, Ansorg spent a year in solitary confinement in the Gestapo prison on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse. In 1936 the Berlin Higher Regional Court sentenced her to nine months in prison for not reporting illegal writings. From 1936 she worked as a secretary in an armaments factory in Berlin, where she was dismissed for political unreliability. In 1939 Ansorg was arrested again, but only for a short time. In 1939 she moved to Dresden to live with her future husband, the landscape painter and sculptor Richard Ansorg. She married in 1940; their first daughter was born in 1941, their second daughter in 1944. In the same year Ansorg was arrested again.

Continuation of training and early judging years

In 1946 Ansorg took part in the GDR's second course for people's judges at the people's school in Bad Schandau with great success . The early courses for people's judges were oriented towards the rule of law and anti-fascist. Only later did they acquire their Marxist-Leninist character. Ansorg took her first judicial position at the Dresden District Court . Then she had a judge's position at the Annaberg-Buchholz District Court, where she would have liked to stay because of her husband and children, at the Chemnitz District Court and the Plauen District Court. Hilde Benjamin , who as Vice President (1949–1953) of the Supreme Court of the GDR was responsible for courses for people's judges, did not want the people's judges to be employed as single judges and prompted the Saxon judicial administration to transfer Ansorg to the Dresden Higher Regional Court. There she was assigned a senate for civil and traffic law. She lived with her family in Radebeul, so that her husband had to bring the third child to Dresden so that she could breastfeed them during the breaks between meetings.

Ansorg in the politicized criminal justice system

In 1953 Ansorg was assigned a criminal case against the head of a consumer cooperative. Two judges had already refused to open the main proceedings because there was insufficient suspicion of a criminal offense. Hans Nathan , the former head of the Legislative Department in the Ministry of Justice (1949–1952) and editor-in-chief of the journal Neue Justiz (1952/1953) warned Ansorg of the trial and emphasized the manager's political reliability. Ansorg was acquainted with Nathan because she had submitted draft articles to the New Justice for publication in 1953 . Ansorg admitted the indictment, but acquitted the accused manager. Thereupon the judicial administration dismissed Ansorg from the judge's service. Justice Minister Hilde Benjamin (1953–1967) hired her again as a judge because she valued her judgments, which were legally clear and in an exceptionally good style. First she was employed at the Finsterwalde District Court and later transferred to the Schwerin District Court. At the suggestion of Justice Minister Benjamin Ansorg was elected chief judge at the Greater Berlin Chamber Court.

Rapporteur in the first family law commission

From 1953 Ansorg worked in the first family law commission on the draft of the planned family law law and was responsible for regulating the parent-child relationship. The draft was presented and printed in the New Justice in 1954. Ansorg described the intended parent-child relationship. The parental authority over the child, which is primarily intended for the father in the BGB, should be replaced by the joint, equal care of both parents for the child. Throughout 1954, Ansorg commented on the maintenance claims of abandoned wives in the New Justice. In the same year, in addition to her large workload, Ansorg was commissioned to contact West German family law experts about the planned law. The chairwoman of the German Association of Women Lawyers, Hildegard Gethmann, did not issue a statement. Maria Hagemeyer, who had drafted a law to amend West German family law in the Federal Ministry of Justice, said she only dealt briefly with the GDR's draft law and criticized the excessive possibilities for interference. In 1954, the draft was presented and popularized in centrally planned events as part of mass political work and public reporting. The events were called debates. As these tasks were new to the judiciary, the events were evaluated. Ansorg was responsible for the Berlin district. She found that many speakers failed to emphasize the political significance of the draft. The completed draft did not become law. It was given up because the collectivization of agriculture in 1960 and 1961 caused an economic and political crisis, and the labor code issued in April 1961 caused unrest in the population. However, the draft was the basis for the individual laws that were to regulate family law from then on. In this way new law arose piece by piece.

State examination and doctorate

Ansorg was unable to complete the two-stage legal training during the Nazi era, and the training of people's judges was not long considered full. Therefore, she took up a distance learning course at the German Academy for State and Law (DASR) in 1959, which she completed with the state examination. In 1960 Hans Nathan, director of the Institute for Civil Law at the Humboldt University from 1952 to 1963, brought Ansorg to the institute. In 1962 she received her doctorate; her dissertation dealt with the role of the socialist brigades in the development of socialist family morals and the ensuing tasks of family law. In the same year Ansorg was accepted into the new, not yet officially appointed Family Law Commission of the Ministry of Justice at the suggestion of Hans Nathan . In 1963 Ansorg was given a lectureship at the Faculty of Civil and Family Law at Humboldt University . However, Anita Grandke (* 1932), who received her habilitation in 1964, was appointed professor in 1969 .

Second family law commission

In November 1962, Walter Ulbricht, chairman of the State Council from 1960 to 1973, arranged for new codes to be created. In family law, the second attempt should be to overcome the fragmentation of the matter into individual laws. In 1963 the VI. SED party congress drafting new laws. In 1964, a State Council resolution instructed the Council of Ministers to submit a new draft of a family code. In February 1964, Justice Minister Benjamin officially convened the Family Law Commission, which never quite broke up. The first draft of the Family Law Commission was not approved by the Department of State and Legal Issues and the Women Working Group at the Central Committee of the SED; In particular, the proposed separation of property met with displeasure. The second draft with limited community of property was put up for public discussion from April 1965. The National Front was responsible for the debates. Around 753,000 citizens took part in the discussion in around 34,000 registered meetings. 23,737 suggestions and comments were made, and around 230 points were modified. In December 1965, the People's Chamber issued the Family Code.

Guide to family law in the GDR

In 1967 Ansorg published the official, detailed guide to family law in the GDR together with seven other authors. She described the aims of the Family Code as follows: It creates a model for the socialist family. This, in turn, is shaped by the principle of equal rights for men and women and the task of joint development of parents and children into solid, well-educated personalities. The family code does not only want to regulate the case of conflict, but should be a handbook of the family, which starts from the undisturbed harmonious family, and should help in the development of new family relationships.

After the political change in 1989/1990

After the first free Volkskammer elections in 1990, Ansorg advised the Volkskammer as an expert on the Family Law Amendment Act. She became honorary chairwoman of the "Initiative Streitfall Kind eV" founded in 1990. Ansorg died on June 21, 2012 in Berlin.

Publications (selection)

  • Improving cooperation with lay judges in civil proceedings. In: New Justice. 1954, pp. 20-21.
  • The relationship between parents and children. In: New Justice. 1954, pp. 370-372.
  • Some remarks on the maintenance claim of the separated wife. In: New Justice. 1954, pp. 305-306.
  • Critical remarks on the regulation of the maintenance of the spouses. In: New Justice. 1954, p. 537.
  • Book review: Friedrich Jansen: Guide to family law in the German Democratic Republic. In: New Justice. 1954, pp. 711-712.
  • The role of the socialist brigades in the development of socialist family morals and the ensuing tasks of family law. Berlin, Humboldt University, 1962. Thesis, typewritten, from December 21, 1962
  • Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967.
  • Children in marital conflict. 1st edition, Berlin 1968; 2nd edition, Berlin 1981; 3rd edition, Berlin 1989.

literature

  • Jan-Erik Backhaus: People's Judge Careers in the GDR . Frankfurt u. a. 1999.
  • Gunilla-Friederike Budde: women of intelligence. Academics in the GDR 1945–1975. Goettingen 2003.
  • Anita Grandke : The development of family law in the GDR. Second publication by the Humboldt University of Berlin on March 24, 2010.
  • Birgit Sack / Gerald Hacke: Condemned. Imprisoned. Executed. Political justice in Dresden 1933–1945 / 1945–1957. Dresden 2016. ISBN 978-3-95498-202-8
  • Ute Schneider : Idyllic household or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004.
  • Christine Weingarten / Leon Ansorg / Gina Apitz: The brave one. In: Unsolicited. Student newspaper of the Humboldt University. 20th year Berlin, No. S091, p. 21.

further reading

  • Falco Werkenthin: The Reach of Political Justice in the Ulbricht Era. In: Federal Ministry of Justice (Ed.): In the name of the people? About the judiciary in the state of the SED. Scientific companion to the exhibition of the Federal Ministry of Justice. Leipzig 1994.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christine Weingarten / Leon Ansorg / Gina Apitz: The courageous. In: Unsolicited. Student newspaper of the Humboldt University. 20th year Berlin, No. S 091, p. 21.
  2. ↑ a b c Birgit Sack / Gerald Hacke: Condemned. Imprisoned. Executed. Political justice in Dresden 1933–1945 / 1945–1957. Dresden 2016, p. 281.
  3. ^ A b Gunilla-Friederike Budde: Women of Intelligence. Academics in the GDR 1945–1975. Göttingen 2003, p. 210.
  4. ^ Jan-Erik Backhaus: People's judges' careers in the GDR. Frankfurt u. a. 1999, pp. 45-46.
  5. ↑ a b Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 134.
  6. ↑ Christine Weingarten / Leon Ansorg / Gina Apitz: The courageous. In: Unsolicited. Student newspaper of the Humboldt University. 20th year Berlin, No. S091, p. 21; a. A. (only mitigation of sentences) Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 135.
  7. ↑ Gunilla-Friederike Budde: Women of Intelligence. Academics in the GDR 1945–1975. Göttingen 2003, p. 211.
  8. ^ Draft of a family code in the German Democratic Republic. In: New Justice. Pp. 377-388.
  9. ↑ Linda Ansorg: The relationship between parents and children. In: New Justice. Pp. 370-372.
  10. ↑ Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 341.
  11. ↑ Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 295.
  12. ↑ Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 297.
  13. ↑ Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 116.
  14. ↑ a b Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 135.
  15. ↑ Academic biography Grandke, Anita, b. Frank
  16. ↑ Linda Ansorg: Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967, p. 22.
  17. ↑ Linda Ansorg: Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967, p. 20.
  18. ↑ Ute Schneider: Housefather idyll or socialist utopia? The family in the law of the GDR. Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 2004, p. 117.
  19. ↑ Linda Ansorg: Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967, pp. 20-21.
  20. ↑ Linda Ansorg: Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967, pp. 35, 37, 44.
  21. ↑ Linda Ansorg: Family Law of the GDR - Guide. Berlin 1967, p. 37.
personal data
SURNAME Ansorg, Linda
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lecher, Linda
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German family lawyer, opponent and victim of National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH 1912
DATE OF DEATH June 21, 2012