Lothar Bisky

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Lothar Bisky (2005)

Lothar Bisky (born August 17, 1941 in Zollbrück , district of Rummelsburg i. Pom. , † August 13, 2013 in Leipzig ) was a German cultural scientist and politician ( PDS / Die Linke ). He was a member of the Brandenburg State Parliament , the German Bundestag and the European Parliament .

Bisky was professor for film and television studies and from 1986 to 1990 rector of the Potsdam-Babelsberg University of Film and Television . From 1993 to 2000 and from 2003 to 2007 he was federal chairman of the PDS, from 1991 to 1993 state chairman and from 1990 to 2004 parliamentary group chairman of the PDS Brandenburg . Under his leadership, the PDS and WASG united to form the Left Party. Together with Oskar Lafontaine , Bisky served as chairman of Die Linke from 2007 to 2010 . In the 2009 European elections he was the top candidate of his party. In the European Parliament he was the chairman of his group , the GUE / NGL, from June 24, 2009 to March 6, 2012 . From 2007 to 2010 Bisky was also chairman of the European Left .

Life

education and profession

After the escape of the family from Pomerania Bisky grew up in Brekendorf in Schleswig-Holstein on. In 1959, at the age of 18, he went alone to the GDR because, according to his testimony, he was unable to take his Abitur in the Federal Republic due to the financial circumstances of his family. After graduating from high school, he studied philosophy there from 1962 to 1963 at the Humboldt University in Berlin and from 1963 to 1966 cultural studies at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . He finished his studies with a degree in cultural studies and then worked from 1966, initially as a research assistant and then from 1967 to 1980 as a research assistant and later as a department head at the Central Institute for Youth Research in Leipzig. In 1969 he received his doctorate A to become Dr. phil. at the University of Leipzig with the thesis Mass Communication and Youth - Studies on Theoretical and Methodological Problems and in 1975 his doctorate B to Dr. sc. phil. with the work on the critique of bourgeois mass communication research . In 1979 he took the reputation of the Humboldt University as an honorary professor and was then from 1980 to 1986 a lecturer at the Academy of Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED . In 1986 he accepted the call as full professor for film and television studies at the University of Film and Television Potsdam-Babelsberg , of which he was also rector from 1986 to 1990. From April 2007 to November 2009 Lothar Bisky appeared in the legal notice of the daily newspaper Neues Deutschland as editor.

Family, the last years of life

Grave site , Chausseestraße 126, in Berlin-Mitte

Lothar Bisky was married and had three sons with his wife Almuth. The eldest son, Jens Bisky , is a journalist and writer; the second son, Norbert Bisky , is a painter. The youngest son Stephan Bisky died in Edinburgh in December 2008 at the age of 23 .

During the last years of his life, Bisky lived in Schildau , in the northern Saxony district . There he had converted a small dacha into an apartment and made it the center of his life after he had lost his previous house in Hohen Neuendorf near Berlin to the previous owner.

Shortly before his 72nd birthday, Bisky had fallen down a staircase in the Schildau apartment; He was then taken to the Leipzig University Hospital, where he died on August 13, 2013 due to his serious injuries. He is buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin.

turn

Bisky speaks at the Alexanderplatz demonstration on November 4, 1989

On November 4, 1989, Bisky gave a speech to around 500,000 demonstrators on Berlin's Alexanderplatz ; so he came into the public spotlight during the time of political change in the GDR . In this speech (five days before the opening of the Berlin Wall ) he pleaded for the continued existence of the GDR on the basis of a democratically reformed socialism . At the extraordinary party congress of the SED-PDS in December 1989, in whose preparatory committee, independent of the instructions of the SED Central Committee, Bisky participated, he was elected as a representative of the reformers on the executive committee of the SED. As rector of the University of Film and Television Potsdam, Bisky had already enforced at the local elections on May 7, 1989 at his university that the right to secret elections described in the constitution of the GDR by means of voting booths was implemented there, which is compared to the election results the rest of the GDR expressed in extremely different voting proportions.

Political party

In 1963 Bisky became a member of the SED . From 1989 to 1991 he was a member of the presidium of the party that has meanwhile been renamed PDS . From October 1991 to the beginning of 1993 he was PDS state chairman in Brandenburg . From 1993 to 2000 and from 2003 to June 15, 2007 he was federal chairman of the PDS, and from July 2005 also of the party renamed 'Linkspartei.PDS'. From June 16, 2007 to May 15, 2010 he was (at the side of Oskar Lafontaine ) co-chairman of the party Die Linke , created by the merger of WASG and Linkspartei.PDS . At the 2010 party convention in Rostock, he no longer ran. Klaus Ernst and Gesine Lötzsch became chairmen of the Left. Since its 2nd Congress in 2007, Bisky was also chairman of the European Left , and Pierre Laurent was elected as his successor on December 5, 2010 .

MP

From March to October 1990 Bisky belonged to the first freely elected People's Chamber in the GDR. From 1990 to 2005 he was a member of the Brandenburg state parliament and chairman of the PDS state parliamentary group until the state election in September 2004 . From 1992 to 1994 he was chairman of the state parliament's committee of inquiry to clarify the allegation of IM activities against the then Prime Minister Manfred Stolpe .

From October 2004 to 2005 he was one of the Vice Presidents of the Brandenburg State Parliament .

He was elected for the early federal election in September 2005 as the top candidate of the state list of the Left Party in Brandenburg.

In an internal vote, he asserted his ambition for the office of Vice President of the Bundestag with two-thirds approval against Gesine Lötzsch . In the elections of the vice-presidents at the constituent meeting on October 18, 2005, he did not achieve the necessary majority until the election was canceled after the third ballot. Up until this election there was an unwritten agreement to accept proposals from other political groups without reservation and prior agreements.

In a fourth ballot on November 8, Lothar Bisky again failed to achieve the necessary majority. The President of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert (CDU), had to discuss how to proceed with the parliamentary managers of the parliamentary groups, as the Bundestag's rules of procedure did not provide for any regulation in such a case. In a parliamentary group meeting of the Left Party after Bisky was again not elected, the decision was made to leave the post of Bundestag Vice-President to which this parliamentary group was entitled until the parliamentary group decided otherwise. On April 7, 2006, Petra Pau was elected to this post as a representative of the left-wing parliamentary group.

According to various parliamentarians, the rejection of his candidacy was an expression of their rejection of Bisky's Stasi contacts. In addition, the reason given was that, as party leader, he could not be Bundestag Vice-President at the same time.

On June 7, 2009, Bisky was elected as the top candidate of the left in the European Parliament . On June 24th, the election for the chairman of the GUE / NGL parliamentary group took place, which Bisky clearly won. In order to exercise his new mandate, he handed over his seat in the German Bundestag to Steffen Hultsch on July 14th . In a conversation with the publicist Henryk Broder in 2012, Bisky described his move to the European Parliament as a “sensible exit without noise and without injuries for everyone involved, including me.” As an EU parliamentarian, Bisky was Deputy Chairman of the Committee on Culture and Education and deputy in the delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China . In March 2012 he resigned as group leader of the Left Party in the European Parliament, among other things for health reasons.

Stasi allegations

The suspicion against Bisky of having been an unofficial employee of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) emerged in 1995 when relevant information was found in the Stasi files of his wife. It was said that she had been recorded by the State Security Service to "secure unofficial cooperation" with her husband. The subsequent re-examination led to the discovery of two previously unknown entries in the rosewood files copied by the CIA . These contained two index cards, according to which Lothar Bisky initially worked from 1966 under the code name Bienert as IMA ( unofficial employee with special tasks ) for the HVA Headquarters Enlightenment and from 1987 with the code name Klaus Heine as GMS ( social employee security ) for the MfS the GDR worked.

The HVA- Oberleutnant Körner, responsible at the MfS, gave an assessment of him on August 8, 1980 after a telephone conversation as part of Bisky's upcoming appointment to the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED . It says: “In the long-term successful cooperation with the gene. B. he turned out to be a reliable and ready-to-use comrade. He approaches the tasks assigned to him in a responsible, partisan way and with political clarity. Any questions and problems that arise are discussed openly and honestly by him. His extensive and in-depth political knowledge, his creative approach to the tasks to be solved and his ability to recognize and analyze facts and contexts were decisive foundations for the successful course of the cooperation with Gen. B. “As a media scientist, Bisky was also able to take part in events in western countries during the GDR era; afterwards he had to report to the MfS every time.

Bisky stated that he had "the usual" official contacts with the Stasi, but he never signed a declaration of commitment that was customary for unofficial employees. Bisky further explained that he had " prepared the usual travel reports for my responsible lines and forwarded them to them" about trips to western countries . He added: "I am not aware of anyone who has also acquired these." What the travel reports contained is not known.

Fire orders discussion

In 2007, Bisky publicly doubted that there had been a general order to shoot at the inner-German border , but described the fatalities on the inner-German border as the "worst side of the GDR". Criticism of his statements came from inside and outside his party.

Filmography

Publications

  • Mass media and ideological education of youth . German Science Publishing House, Berlin 1976.
  • Secret seducers. Business with shows, stars, advertising, horror, sex (= nl specifically ; No. 43). New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1980.
  • The show must go on: entertainment on corporate cables: film, rock, television, new media . New Life Publishing House, Berlin 1984.
  • With Dieter Wiedemann : The feature film, reception and effect: cultural sociological analyzes . Henschelverlag Art & Society, Berlin 1985.
  • Anger in the Belly: Fight for the PDS, November 29 to December 7, 1994; Experiences, documents, chronology . Dietz, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-320-01881-7 .
  • So many dreams: my life . Rowohlt, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-87134-474-5 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Lothar Bisky  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Lothar Bisky  - Quotes
 Wikinews: Lothar Bisky  - on the news

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A leftist out of conviction. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 13, 2013.
  2. ↑ Lothar Bisky ends the editorial work of Neues Deutschland , November 21, 2009
  3. ↑ cis / AP: Edinburgh: son of Lothar Bisky found dead. In: Spiegel Online . December 31, 2008, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung , print edition of August 14, 2013, p. 3: Death of an uncomfortable socialist.
  5. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung , print edition of August 15, 2013, page 1: Ex-Left boss Bisky died in Leipzig University Hospital.
  6. ↑ Lost in the elephant rounds. In: Der Tagesspiegel from September 15, 2013
  7. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Lothar Bisky
  8. ↑ Speeches at the Alexanderplatz demonstration: Lothar Bisky (1:48 p.m.) , website of the German Historical Museum , accessed on December 31, 2016.
  9. ↑ Article 54: The People's Chamber consists of 500 members who are elected by the people for a period of five years in free, general, equal and secret elections. ( Constitution of the German Democratic Republic )
  10. ↑ Die Zeit: Bisky Understood, November 8, 2005.
  11. ↑ Bundestag Vice President: Fourth defeat for Bisky. In: Spiegel Online . November 8, 2005, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  12. ↑ Sven Felix Kellerhoff: Left History Myths: "The GDR worked better than the West". In: welt.de . July 13, 2017, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  13. ↑ ARD broadcast Entweder Broder , broadcast on November 18, 2012 excerpt on Youtube , accessed on November 27, 2012
  14. ^ Website of the European Parliament
  15. ↑ http://www.tagesschau.de/multimedia/bilder/bisky130.html ( Memento from August 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Tagesschau
  16. ↑ Hubertus Knabe: The perpetrators are among us. On the glossing over of the SED dictatorship, Propylaea 2007, p. 63.
  17. ↑ Berliner Morgenpost - Berlin: Rosenholz-Akten: Bisky was registered as IM Bienert. In: mobil.morgenpost.de. July 31, 2003, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  18. ↑ Dirk Banse, Michael Behrendt: New documents in the Bisky case. In: welt.de . July 30, 2003, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  19. ↑ Jochen Staadt: "A reliable comrade". In: FAZ.net . November 7, 2005, accessed April 12, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Stern: The thing with "IM Bienert." ( Memento of the original from May 21, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , October 20, 2005 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.stern.de
  21. ↑ Frankfurter Allgemeine: Stasi registered Bisky as early as 1966 ( memento of the original from March 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , July 30, 2003 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.faz.net
  22. ↑ netzeitung.de: Order to shoot causes Bisky a problem ( Memento from May 22, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), August 28, 2007
personal data
SURNAME Bisky, Lothar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cultural scientist, university professor and politician (Die Linke), MdV, MdL, MdB, MdEP, Federal Chairman of the Left Party
DATE OF BIRTH August 17, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Zollbrück , Rummelsburg i. Pom.
DATE OF DEATH August 13, 2013
Place of death Leipzig