Ludwig Mehlhorn

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Ludwig Mehlhorn (born January 5, 1950 in Bernsbach ; † May 3, 2011 in Berlin ) was a German civil rights activist and mathematician . During the communist regime he maintained close contact with dissidents in Poland and was a co-founder of the citizens' movement Democracy Now during the Peaceful Revolution in the GDR . Since the 1960s, he worked in illegal human rights groups in the GDR .

Life

Training, studies and work

Mehlhorn, born the son of a toolmaker and a savings bank employee, grew up in the GDR. After graduating from high school, he studied mathematics at the Bergakademie Freiberg from 1969 to 1974 . He then worked until 1985 as a research assistant and programmer in the computer center of the University of Economics in East Berlin. Because of his oppositional activities, he was banned from working and worked until 1989 as an assistant nurse in the Evangelical Stephanus Foundation in the East Berlin district of Weißensee for mentally handicapped children.

Opposition engagement

From 1968 he got involved in the action atonement and in the Protestant student community in the GDR. During this time he became interested in reconciliation work with Poland.

From the late 1970s he maintained contact with Polish Catholic intellectuals and dissidents such as Jacek Kuroń from the opposition KOR , and in the late 1980s especially with Wolność i Pokój (Freedom and Peace). In the Catholic Church of Magdeburg he took part in the Polish seminars initiated by the social pedagogue Günter Särchen , which were organized as Anna Morawska seminars at the Mehlhorn Action atonement in East Berlin from 1985 and served to facilitate understanding between Poles and Germans. He translated and distributed political texts and literature from Poland in the GDR.

From 1975 he was involved in various peace and human rights circles. Readings by opposition writers and writers who were marginalized in the SED state took place in his apartment on Kollwitzplatz . The German writers Hans Christoph Buch and Johano Strasser also read here at the end of the 1980s. Between 1987 and 1989 he and Stephan Bickhardt organized more than thirty literary readings in private apartments. In 1984 Mehlhorn refused military service as a reservist. He was instrumental in the publication of Samisdatpublikation radix leaves (with Stephan Bickhardt), member of the working group Solidarity Church and founded the Berlin East at the Bartholomew parish is moved initiative rejection of practice and principle of distinction (IAPPA) with that from the while Peaceful Revolution 1989 the citizens' movement Democracy Now emerged .

Mehlhorn was one of the few intellectuals in the GDR who had publicly criticized the division of Germany. In 1985, for example, as part of the independent peace movement and the Peace and Human Rights Initiative , he campaigned for non-alignment (the withdrawal of both German states from the Warsaw Pact and NATO ) and demanded: “The division of Europe decided in Yalta must be overcome.” In 1986 he warned the Protestant bishops Martin Kruse (West Berlin) and Gottfried Forck (East Berlin) in an eleven-page letter, “to hold on to the perspective of unity” and not to accept fatalities as well as contact and entry bans, as both bishops only closed the wall as a “consequence German guilt ”.

The MfS conducted two operations against him, and from 1981 to 1987 he was banned from traveling abroad without exception.

Life after the Peaceful Revolution

After the free elections in the GDR, Mehlhorn prepared in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs under Minister Markus Meckel for an activity in Poland, but this no longer came about due to German unification , and in 1991 he was an advisor to the Minister for Education, Youth and Sport in Brandenburg, Marianne Birthler . From 1992 he worked as a director of studies with a focus on East Central Europe at the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg . Here he mainly organized educational events that promoted reconciliation with Eastern Europeans and served to come to terms with the common history.

In 1990 he founded the Foundation for European Understanding , was a member of its board of trustees and was involved in setting up today's youth meeting center in Kreisau in Lower Silesia , Poland . From 1993 until his death he was a member of the board of the Kreisau-Initiative Berlin e. V. , an association that supports the development of the Kreisau Foundation from Germany through networking, the organization of international meeting projects and fundraising. He also maintained close relationships with the KARTA Center Foundation in Warsaw, which is dedicated to coming to terms with history. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the International Youth Meeting Center in Oświęcim ( Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp ) and advised the Heinrich Böll Foundation on the European Advisory Board. Again and again he was involved in support actions for democratic freedom movements, be it in Ukraine, in China or in Burma.

In 2010 he became seriously ill with cancer and died at the age of 61 on May 3, 2011 in the Berlin Charité . With great sympathy from German and Polish companions he was at the New Cemetery St. Marien-St. Nikolai is buried in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg .

Honors

Gravestone in the new cemetery St. Marien-St. Nikolai

In 2009, together with Wolfgang Templin , Mehlhorn was awarded the undoped DIALOG Prize of the German-Polish Society Federal Association for his special commitment to German-Polish understanding . At the award ceremony, Władysław Bartoszewski emphasized that both “contributed to the authentic dialogue between Poles and Germans, in a time of official mendacity”. On September 3, 2010, the Polish President honored him with the Solidarność Medal of Gratitude (Medal Wdzięczności), which was awarded for the first time . The Saxon state commissioner for the Stasi documents, Lutz Rathenow , and the managing director of the Saxon Memorials Foundation in memory of the victims of political tyranny, Siegfried Reiprich , describe Ludwig Mehlhorn in their joint obituary of May 4, 2011 as a “reconciler and stimulator of dialogue in the best sense of the word of the word". He belongs “to those who brought a consistently democratic-anti-communist view in the sense of the Eastern European experiences into the German discourse. Thus he can be described as one of the rare Europeans with an East German biography. "

On June 17, 2011, Ludwig Mehlhorn was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in recognition of his services to German-Polish cooperation . Poland's President Bronisław Komorowski presented the order of the widow Heimgard Mehlhorn to the widow Heimgard Mehlhorn at the embassy of the Republic of Poland in Berlin-Grunewald, referring to Mehlhorn's contacts with the democratic opposition in what was then communist Poland, the Club of Catholic Intelligence (KIK) and the Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the People Worker (KOR). The ceremony was attended by family members, including Władysław Bartoszewski , Gerd Poppe and Marianne Birthler , and the civil rights activist and confidante of Mehlhorn's Stephan Bickhardt also gave a laudatory speech . President Komorowski praised Mehlhorn as one who stood up for democracy and freedom, when not very many in communist rule did so. Bickhardt explained that Ludwig Mehlhorn's legacy was: “First stand up for the human rights of others!” In 2014, Adam Krzemiński paid tribute to Ludwig Mehlhorn's solitary oppositional role in an essay for the Federal Agency for Civic Education by informing about the Polish anti-communist rebellion in the GDR because, in contrast to the majority of the critical intelligentsia in the GDR, the Polish opposition had long since said goodbye to all Marxism.

Works

  • Günter Särchen and Ludwig Mehlhorn: Jan Strzelecki: Testing in the certificate. [Radix Verlag], undated [Berlin] undated [1989] [ radix-Blätter booklet 11. - Samizdat printing] (in the holdings of the Robert Havemann Society )
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: The speechlessness between Poland and the GDR: A mortgage , in: Ewa Kobylinska, Andreas Lawaty, Rüdiger Stephan (ed.): Germans and Poland. 100 key terms, Munich / Zurich 1992.
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: The political upheaval in Central and Eastern Europe and its significance for the citizens' movement in the GDR , in: Materials of the Enquete Commission "Processing the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany" , ed. from the German Bundestag, Volume VII / 2, Baden-Baden: Nomos 1995.
  • People in resistance. Helmuth James von Moltke. ed. from the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg and the Kreisau Initiative Berlin. Editor: Ludwig Mehlhorn. Berlin 1995.
  • People in resistance. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's effects in Poland and Germany. ed. from the Evangelical Academy Berlin-Brandenburg and the Kreisau Initiative Berlin. Editor: Ludwig Mehlhorn. Berlin 1996.
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: "Democracy Now". In: Eberhard Kuhrt (Hrsg.): Opposition in the GDR from the 1970s to the collapse of SED rule. Opladen 1999, pp. 573-597.
  • Texts by and interview with Ludwig Mehlhorn in: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk (Ed.): Freedom and Public. Political samizdat in the GDR 1985–1989. Berlin 2002. (= series of publications of the Robert Havemann Archive; 7)
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: Compulsory friendship? On the development of relations between the GDR and Poland. In: Basil Kerski u. a. (Ed.): Compulsory friendship? Osnabrück 2003.
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn (Ed.): Ear of the Church, Mouth of the Mute. Harald Poelchau : a conference on his 100th birthday. Wichern, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-88981-166-3 .
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: A difficult learning process. "Solidarnosc" and the opposition in the GDR. In: Jürgen Haase (Ed.): Strajk. Berlin 2007. (Book about the film)
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: The year 1989 and the ongoing problem of the delegitimization of communism. In: Marek Zybura (Ed.): The political turnaround 1989/90 in the public discourse of Central and Eastern Europe. Willy Brandt Center at the University of Wrocław, 2007.
  • Kreisau / Krzyzowa: History and future workshop for Europe. with contributions by Jürgen Telschow, Annemarie Franke, Ludwig Mehlhorn, Annemarie Cordes, Adam Krzeminski, ed. from the Kreisau Initiative Berlin. Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-422-02180-8 .
  • Ludwig Mehlhorn: Live in the truth. From the history of resistance and opposition in the dictatorships of the 20th century. Book accompanying the exhibition. Kreisau Foundation for European Understanding, Kreisau 2012, ISBN 978-83-926273-5-7 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs : Ludwig Mehlhorn. In: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk , Tom Sello (ed.): For a free country with free people. Opposition and Resistance in Biographies and Photos. Robert Havemann Society in conjunction with the Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938857-02-1 , pp. 314-317, here p. 314. (online) ( Memento from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 15 kB), accessed on May 4, 2011.
  2. ↑ Barbara Cöllen / Magdalena Szaniawska-Schwabe: Odszedł Ludwig Mehlhorn - przyjaciel Polski Obituary by the Polish editorial team of Deutsche Welle on May 3, 2011, accessed on May 4, 2011.
  3. ↑ Anna-Morawska Society , accessed on 4 May 2011th
  4. ^ Władysław Bartoszewski: Laudation on the occasion of the award of the Dialog Prize 2009 to Ludwig Mehlhorn and Wolfgang Templin ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 71 kB), Versmold, November 6, 2009, accessed on May 4, 2011 .
  5. ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs : Ludwig Mehlhorn. In: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk , Tom Sello (ed.): For a free country with free people. Opposition and Resistance in Biographies and Photos. Robert Havemann Society in conjunction with the Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938857-02-1 , pp. 314-317, here p. 315. (online) ( Memento from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 15 kB), accessed on May 4, 2011.
  6. ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs: Ludwig Mehlhorn. In: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Tom Sello (ed.): For a free country with free people. Opposition and Resistance in Biographies and Photos. Robert Havemann Society in conjunction with the Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship , Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938857-02-1 , pp. 314-317, here p. 314. (online) ( Memento from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 15 kB), accessed on May 4, 2011.
  7. ↑ In detail: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : In the view of the State Security Service - Ludwig Mehlhorn. In: Stephan Bickhardt (ed.): Living in truth. Texts by and about Ludwig Mehlhorn. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2012, ISBN 978-3-374-03011-8 , pp. 214–241.
  8. ^ Helmut Müller-Enbergs: Ludwig Mehlhorn. In: Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk, Tom Sello (ed.): For a free country with free people. Opposition and Resistance in Biographies and Photos. Robert Havemann Society in conjunction with the Foundation for the Processing of the SED Dictatorship, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938857-02-1 , pp. 314–317, here p. 317. Article online ( Memento from October 27, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 15 kB), accessed on May 4, 2011.
  9. ↑ "Foundation for European Understanding"
  10. ^ Kreisau Initiative Berlin e. V.
  11. ^ Andrea Conrad: Funeral service for the GDR civil rights activist Ludwig Mehlhorn , in: Der Tagesspiegel from May 10, 2011, accessed on May 10, 2011.
  12. ↑ DIALOG Prize 2009  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) German-Polish Society Bundesverband e. V., accessed on July 11, 2014.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.dpg-bundesverband.de
  13. ^ Władysław Bartoszewski : Laudation on the occasion of the award of the Dialog Prize 2009 to Ludwig Mehlhorn and Wolfgang Templin ( Memento from July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 71 kB), Versmold, November 6, 2009, accessed on May 4, 2011 . see. also: Wladyslaw Bartoszewski: A laudation for the winners of the DIALOG Prize 2009 , accessed on July 11, 2014.
  14. ↑ Gerald Praschl: Poland says thanks to eleven Germans ( memento from September 3, 2010 on WebCite ), in: SUPERillu from September 3, 2010, accessed on May 4, 2011.
  15. ^ Obituaries on the death of civil rights activist Ludwig Mehlhorn on the website of the Robert Havemann Society. V., accessed on May 4, 2011.
  16. ↑ Award of the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr. Bronisław Komorowski to Mr. Ludwig Mehlhorn. , accessed June 19, 2011.
  17. ^ NEWS from Poland: Polish-German relations celebrated in Berlin , June 17, 2011, accessed on June 22, 2011.
  18. ↑ ap / PAP: Prezydent pośmiertnie odznaczył niemieckiego opozycjonistę , June 17, 2011, accessed on June 22, 2011.
  19. ^ Adam Krzemiński: Resistance and Opposition to Soviet Communism in East Central Europe , accessed on July 11, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Mehlhorn, Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German human rights activist and dissident (GDR)
DATE OF BIRTH 5th January 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Bernsbach , Karl-Marx-Stadt district , German Democratic Republic
DATE OF DEATH May 3, 2011
Place of death Berlin , Germany