Martin Boettger

Martin Böttger (born May 14, 1947 in Frankenhain ) is a politician and former representative of the civil rights movement in the GDR . From 1990 to 1994 he was a member of the Saxon state parliament and chairman of the New Forum - Alliance - Greens (Forum) parliamentary group .

Life and politics

Böttger studied physics at the TU Dresden from 1965 to 1970 and was then a construction soldier until 1972 . Since 1972 he has been active in church peace work. Until 1976 he worked as a programmer at Robotron Karl-Marx-Stadt , until 1979 at the leather supply office and until 1983 as a research assistant at the German Building Academy . In 1982 he received his doctorate in technical mechanics from the TU Dresden under Günther Landgraf .

In 1976 and 1980, after participating in May demonstrations, he was "brought in" by the MfS with a self-made banner and arrested in September 1983 for "attempting to participate in a human chain on World Day of Peace". From 1985 Böttger worked as a programmer at the Minol combine . In 1985 he co-founded the Peace and Human Rights Initiative (IFM), of which he headed the “Human Rights and Justice” working group, and was involved in the publication and distribution of samizdat magazines.

In 1989 he was a founding member of the New Forum and coordinator of this citizens' movement in the Karl-Marx-Stadt district . In March 1990 he was elected to the People's Chamber on the Alliance 90 list, but gave the mandate directly to Werner Schulz . Until 1994 he was a member of the Saxon state parliament, including parliamentary group chairman until 1992. From 1994 he was managing director of a senior care facility in Kirchberg . From 2001 to 2010 he was head of the Chemnitz branch of the Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former GDR . He lives in retirement in Saxony and has been a member of the Zwickau city ​​council since 2009 as a Green MP . He is chairman of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolence and Civil Courage in Werdau .

Böttger is an active organ player and also tried his hand as a conductor.

Awards

On May 26, 1997 he was awarded the Saxon Constitutional Medal by Landtag President Erich Iltgen . In 2000, it honored the German National Foundation for his involvement in the founding of New Forum alongside other first signatories of the founding call with the German National Prize . On October 13, 2009, he received the Saxon Order of Merit on the occasion of "20 Years of Peaceful Revolution " .

On May 22, 2018, Martin Böttger received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class on the occasion of Constitution Day .

Publications

• Was the SED a criminal organization? (PDF; 1.2 MB) Freedom and Justice , 2/2010, page 12
• IFM-Archiv Sachsen eV: Rejection of practice and the principle of demarcation , Whitsun 1987, digitized. Signatories: Almut Berger, Karl-Heinz Bonnke, Dr. Hans-Jürgen Fischbeck, Reinhard Lampe, Stephan Bickhardt , Dr. Martin Böttger, Dorrit Fischer, Ludwig Mehlhorn , Anette von Bodecker, Erich Busse and Martin König.

Bureaucratopoly

Bureaucratopoly is an educational game from the GDR. In the early 1980s, the author Martin Böttger targeted the GDR state. The game spread to the political underground. More than 30 years after its creation, it was reworked and optimized for use in lessons. Bureaucratopoly gives the students an authentic look at the GDR in a playful way and stimulates discussion about democracy, politics and human rights.

literature

• Werner Schulz (ed.): The alliance case. Political Perspectives 10 years after the founding of the Alliance 90th Edition Temmen, Bremen 2001, ISBN 3-86108-796-0 .
• Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk & Tom Sello (eds.): 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, pp. 318-320, ISBN 3938857021 .
• Eckhard Jesse (ed.): Peaceful revolution and German unity. Saxon civil rights activists take stock. Christoph Links, Berlin 2006, ISBN 978-3-86153-379-5 .
• Karl-Heinz Baum & Roland Walter (eds.): "... honest and conscientious ..." Mielke's men against the New Forum. zba.BUCH, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-9811977-2-3 .
• Ehrhart Neubert : History of the opposition in the GDR 1949–1989. Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 1997, ISBN 3-86153-163-1 .
• Jan Wielgohs, Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Böttger, Martin . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Martin Thiele, Michael Geithner: Imitation. Game copies from the GDR with a contribution "Double Society Game " by Martin Böttger; DDR Museum Verlag Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-939801-18-4 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Martin Böttger with other members of the IFM 1987
2. ↑ Martin Böttger on founding the New Forum in Grünheide
3. ↑ Leipziger Volkszeitung (LVZ-online) of May 23, 2010 "Stasi review of West German state parliaments required", dpa report ( memento of the original from May 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Election results for Zwickau City Council 2009 ( memento of the original from January 18, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Freie Presse Chemnitz December 7, 2012
6. ↑ Saxon State Chancellery: October 13, 2009 - Award of the Saxon Order of Merit ( Memento of the original from March 26, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
7. ↑ Office of the Federal President: May 22, 2018 Constitutional day award
8. ^ DDR-Museum: Bureaucratopoly - An educational game from the GDR. In: www.buerokratopoly.de. 2014, accessed January 16, 2016 .