Reimar Gilsenbach

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Reimar Gilsenbach (born September 16, 1925 in the freestanding settlement near Friedrichsfeld (Lower Rhine) ; † November 22, 2001 in Eberswalde ) was a writer, environmental and human rights activist in the GDR . He played a key role in shaping the independent GDR environmental and peace movement .

Life

Reimar Gilsenbach, 1995

Gilsenbach first grew up near Friedrichsfeld on the Lower Rhine. He remained true to the ideals exemplified by anarchists , free thinkers and life reformers in his youth . In 1935 his father died and Gilsenbach moved to live with foster parents in Fördergersdorf . From 1938 he attended secondary school in Dresden . In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and deployed on the Eastern Front near Narva . There he deserted and went over to the Red Army . Here he was briefly deployed in an anti-fascist front group. The refusal of the Executive structures of the National Committee for a Free Germany subordinate, brought him several years of Soviet captivity one.

In 1947 Gilsenbach returned to Germany, passed his high school diploma and became a journalist for the Sächsische Zeitung in Dresden. After two years he was dismissed because of discrepancies with the Stalinist model of socialism. Thereupon he turned professionally to nature conservation and in 1952 became editor of the new magazine Natur und Heimat , a monthly with pictures of the German Cultural Association in Berlin, published by his so-called “Central Commission Nature and Home Friends” of a “Presidential Council” and published by Federal Urania publishing house Leipzig and Jena. He was editor-in-chief there, at least since 1959, at times together with Günter Ebert and also wrote for the paper. From October 1962, the magazine was merged with the publication Knowledge and Life .

In the 1950s he fought for the establishment of a Saxon Switzerland National Park and openly criticized the East German Ministry of Agriculture responsible at the time. As a writer, too, he increasingly devoted himself to environmental issues. His 1961 book The Earth Thirsty deals with global water scarcity and calls for the responsible use of water as a resource. There were also books for children.

Gilsenbach was elected to the central board of the Society for Nature and Environment , the GDR's answer to the growing environmental movement in West Germany . In this function he strongly criticized the great grievances in the environmental sector. In the early 1980s, Gilsenbach moved to the village of Brodowin am Plagefenn in the Mark Brandenburg, one of the oldest nature reserves in Germany. Here he founded the Brodowin Talks together with GDR artists and scientists in 1981 , in which environmental issues were discussed openly and critically.

Gilsenbach's friends included Robert Havemann and Wolf Biermann ; Since his expatriation in 1976 he kept Biermann's diaries hidden on his Brodowin property.

In 1989 attempts to reform society for nature and the environment failed. From Gilsenbach's ideas for necessary changes, the idea for a Green League as an environmental umbrella organization in the GDR emerged during the fall of the Wall , of which Gilsenbach was one of the founders in 1990.

Gilsenbach also stood up for the protection and rights of threatened peoples. In the GDR he fought for the recognition of the Sinti and Roma as victims of the Nazi regime. Two volumes of a world chronicle of the gypsies , for which he researched for years, appeared. Gilsenbach was a member of the Romani PEN Center and the writers' association of IG Medien . In the Association for Indigenous Peoples , he campaigned for the concerns of the last indigenous peoples in the Amazon region of Brazil . He is considered to be the source of ideas for the Brodowin eco-village.

In 1994 Gilsenbach received the Erwin Strittmatter Prize for Environmental Literature from the State of Brandenburg and in 2000 the Hugo Conwentz Medal from the Federal Association of Professional Nature Conservation .

Especially in the last years of his life he realized most of the projects with the support of his fourth wife, the biologist, singer and journalist Hannelore Gilsenbach . These include, above all, the joint musical and literary events on the subject of the environment, with which they traveled across the country before and after the fall of the Wall.

Because of their activities, both should be arrested under the code number 4.1.3 and interned in isolation camps as part of the Stasi secret project “ Prevention Complex” (order 1/67 by Erich Mielke ) in the event of particular internal political tensions or a defense case.

Gilsenbach has a daughter from his first and a daughter from his second marriage. In 2001 he died of a stroke. His grave is in the cemetery in Brodowin.

Works

  • Freiberg . VVV Dresdner Verlag, Dresden 1951 (31 pages).
  • with Karl Friedel: The Rossmässlerbüchlein . Cultural Association for the Democratic Renewal of Germany , Central Commission Nature and Homeland Friends, Berlin 1956 (155 pages, published on the 150th anniversary of Emil Adolf Rossmässler's birthday on March 3, 1956).
  • The earth thirsts . 6,000 years of struggle for water. Urania Verlag , Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1961 (265 pages, with drawings by Friedrich Pruss von Zglinicki and Willi Kaufmann).
  • Lords of the desert . Stories about the relationship between humans and nature (=  Passat library . Volume 49 ). Urania Verlag , Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1963 (194 pages, with drawings by Alfred Will and map sketches by Willi Kaufmann).
  • Saxon Switzerland . VEB Brockhaus , Leipzig 1963 (71 pages, photographed by Willy Pritsche ).
  • Protect nature . VEB Verlag Volk und Wissen, Berlin 1964 (55 pages).
  • The treasure in the field . Kinderbuchverlag , Berlin 1966 (260 pages, illustrations by Hans Mau ).
  • Peter discovers the world . A picture atlas for children. VEB Hermann Haack Geographisch-Kartographische Anstalt, Gotha / Leipzig 1967 (16 pages, drawings by Ingrid Schuppan and Karl-Heinz-Bobbe).
  • Around the world . Kinderbuchverlag , Berlin 1971 (144 pages, with illustrations by Gerhard Bläser and others).
  • Water: problems, projects, perspectives . Urania, Leipzig / Jena / Berlin 1971 (399 pages, with illustrations by Hasso Seyferth and maps by Rudolf Riehl).
  • The eternal Sindbad . Strange history of fantastic journeys on land, at sea and into space. Kinderbuchverlag , Berlin 1975 (415 pages, with graphics by Rainer Sacher).
  • Beauty of rivers and lakes . Greifenverlag , Rudolstadt 1976 (239 pages).
  • All about nature . Kinderbuchverlag , Berlin 1982 (175 pages, with illustrations by Rainer Sacher and Christiane Gottschlich).
  • Jacob's ladder or arduous ascent, splendor and renunciation of the circus dresser Hermann Ullmann . Henschelverlag Art and Society, Berlin 1986, ISBN 978-3-362-00016-1 (622 pages).
  • with Joachim S. Hohmann : Persecuted without a home . Contributions to the history of the Sinti and Roma (=  texts on political education . No. 2 ). Rosa Luxemburg, Leipzig 1992, ISBN 3-932725-19-0 (52 pages).
    • Who knew what? Who doesn't want to know? How the Germans pushed their crimes against Sinti and Roma, especially the genocide of Auschwitz-Birkenau, out of their memory .
    • My efforts to commemorate the victims of the “Gypsy Camp” in Berlin-Marzahn. Some data from 3 decades .
  • World Chronicle of the Gypsies . 2500 events from the history of the Roma and Sinti, the Luri, Zott and Boza, the Athingans, Tattern, pagans and Saracens, the Bohémiens, Gypsies and Gitanos and other minorities called "Gypsies" (=  studies on tsiganology and folklore ) . Peter Lang , Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Vienna.
    • Part 1: From the Beginning to 1599 Volume 10, 1994, ISBN 3-631-44529-6 (319 pages).
    • Part 2: From 1600 to 1799 (unpublished).
    • Part 3: From 1800 to 1929 (unpublished).
    • Part 4: From 1930 to 1960 Volume 24, 1998, ISBN 3-631-31798-0 (369 pages).
  • Who knew what? Who doesn't want to know? In: Wacław Długoborski Ed .: Sinti and Roma in KL Auschwitz 1943-44 against the background of their persecution under Nazi rule. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Publishing House, Oświęcim 1998, ISBN 83-85047-06-9 .
  • Oh Django, sing your anger . Sinti and Roma among the Germans. Basis-Druck, Berlin 1993, ISBN 978-3-86163-054-8 (313 pages).
  • Center de Recherches Tsiganes (Ed.): From Tschudemann to Seemann . Two processes German Sinti from history (=  interface . No. 18 ). Edition Parabolis, 2000, ISBN 978-3-88402-202-3 (188 pages).
  • Hannelore Gilsenbach, Harro Hess (eds.): Those who march in lockstep are going in the wrong direction . A biographical self-portrait. Westkreuz, Berlin / Bonn 2004, ISBN 978-3-929592-69-6 (360 pages).
  • with Wolfgang Ayaß , Ursula Körber, Klaus Scherer , Mathias Winter, Patrick Wagner : Enemy declaration and prevention . Forensic biology , gypsy research and anti- social policy (=  contributions to National Socialist health and social policy . No. 6 ). Rotbuch Verlag, Berlin 1988, ISBN 978-3-88022-955-6 .
    • The persecution of the Sinti - a road that led to Auschwitz
    • How Lolichai got his doctorate
  • The Bible. The Old Testament (=  What is What . Volume 44 ). Tessloff Verlag , Nuremberg 1998, ISBN 978-3-7886-0284-0 (48 pages, with illustrations by Wolfgang Würfel ).

Movie

  • Michael Schehl & Guntram Fink: Resisted, survived. Deserters during WWII. Documentary 1994, 146 min.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 1950s: Sachsenverlag , Dresden. At that time the organization was called "Kulturbund zur Democratic Renewal of Germany".
  2. ↑ In the 1961 year e.g. B. with texts by Bodo Uhse , Eva and Rosemarie Schuder , Annemarie Auer , Johannes R. Becher , Franz Fühmann , Erwin Strittmatter , Kurt Tucholsky , Arnold Zweig .
  3. ↑ The new magazine had both titles together. Documents up to 1981.
  4. ^ A b Til Biermann: Brodowin . From GDR resistance nest to ecovillage. In: BZ August 30, 2016 ( bz-berlin.de [accessed May 12, 2020]).
  5. ^ Carlo Jordan : A liberal ecologist . On the death of Reimar Gilsenbach. In: Listen and Look . tape 11 , no. 1 , 2002.
  6. ^ Reimar Gilsenbach. In: zeitstimmen. Retrieved May 5, 2020 .

Remarks

  1. ↑ In his autobiography ("Who marches in step ...") he writes about his place of birth on page 19: "Spellener Heide east of Friedrichsfeld (Lower Rhine)", called "Freisassensiedlung bei Friedrichsfeld". On page 20 he points out: "The settlement was not far from the village of Bucholtwelmen, in which it was incorporated." Bucholtwelmen was then a municipality in the Gahlen district, Dinslaken district . Today Bucholtwelmen is a district of Hünxe . Geographically, his place of birth is certainly closer to Friedrichsfeld (today part of Voerde (Lower Rhine) ), but officially today it belongs to Hünxe.
  2. ↑ PEN der Roma, founded in 1989 by Rajko Đurić in Belgrade and since that year also a full associate member of the International Writers' Association PEN (source: Michael Schornstheimer : Gute Wort und kein Geld . In: Die Tageszeitung . August 2, 1993, ISSN  1434 -4459 ( taz.de [accessed on May 12, 2020]). )
personal data
SURNAME Gilsenbach, Reimar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German writer, environmental and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH September 16, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucholtwelmen
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 2001
Place of death Eberswalde