Richard Herrmann (officer)

Richard Herrmann 1963, 1985, 2006

Richard Rudolf Herrmann (born March 7, 1945 in Galtenstallung ; † November 29, 2014 in Schöneiche near Berlin ) was an officer in the National People's Army (NVA) of the GDR and an entrepreneur. He was active as an inventor and innovator, as evidenced by many patents, mainly in the field of road construction technology and the pioneer troops.

Life

Childhood and youth

Richard Herrmann was born on March 7, 1945 in Galtenstallung (Sudetenland) as the son of the shoemaker Rudolf Herrmann and the worker Elisabeth Herrmann. In August 1946 they were expelled from their Czechoslovak homeland and resettled to Marke (Anhalt) .

From 1951 to 1959 he attended primary school in Marke, as well as the eight- grade schools in Raguhn and Oranienbaum . In 1956 the company moved to Jüdenberg and Oranienbaum.

From 1959 to 1963 he did an apprenticeship as an agricultural machinery and tractor fitter in the district farm for agricultural technology in Gohrau ( district of Graefenhainichen ) with subsequent employment.

Career up to the "turnaround"

From 1963 to 1967 Richard Herrmann served in the Feliks Dzierzynski Guard Regiment . During this period, from 1964 to 1967, he studied engineering economics in Dresden as part of officer training.

• 

  with his troop (1985)

• 

  First Lieutenant (1978)

• 

  Guard regiment soldier (1963)

Since he did not want to part with his fiancée, who was in close contact with her father in the West, and he was on duty one night in which two of his soldiers fled to the West, he was demoted from lieutenant to soldier in 1967 and expelled from the party and imprisoned for eight months in the prisons of the Ministry for State Security , Berlin-Hohenschönhausen and Bautzen .

From 1967 to 1973 he was employed in the agricultural engineering district in Gohrau in the area of apprenticeship training , driving school and polytechnics . The driving instructor course at the special school for agricultural engineering in Großenhain and the advanced training to become a motor vehicle expert also took place during this period .

In January 1973 he was reactivated by the NVA and joined the NVA's first road construction regiment as a sergeant. From 1976 to 1984 he was an officer for vehicle technology in the road construction regiment "Robert Siewert".

In 1976 he completed his distance learning course at the Berlin School of Economics to obtain a degree in economics . From 1979 to 1980 he completed his military academic training at the University of Transport in Dresden , Section Military Transport and Communications.

From 1980 to 1984 he was deputy regimental commander for technology and equipment. From December 1984 he was the head of the technical base TeB 7011 in Neuseddin .

In December 1987 he received his doctorate in economics from the Technical University of Dresden . He was appointed as deputy to the minister for construction and head of the economics, science and technology department as well as three special construction companies and the institute for military buildings in the ministry for construction. From 1988 he was a member of the Special Buildings Section at the Building Academy of the GDR.

Due to personal differences with his superiors, he was transferred to the NVA reserve in September 1989 at his own request. From October 1989 he became the first deputy director of the Institute for Technology and Basic Fund Economics of the Health System in the GDR.

• 

  with son Christian (2011)

• 

  with employees in front of the bus (2007)

• 

  with the first company car (1990)

From taxi driver to group of companies

In December 1989 Richard Herrmann started his own business with a taxi. On April 1, 1990, he founded the first private driving school, and in June 1990 the first private bus company in East Berlin.

On March 1, 1993, the purchase of the former fleet of the Central Committee of the SED from the Treuhand and the associated entry into ARGE Morowski, later ABUS-Personenverkehr GmbH, of which he was managing director from 1993 to 2010, led to the entry into the regular transport of the BVG . In May 1994 he bought GFG-Fahrschulen GmbH, and in December 1994 the companies Neubert Fahrdienst and Neubert Personenverkehr GmbH.

In January 1997, certification according to DIN ISO EN 2002 by DEKRA took place, making it the first bus operator in Berlin. In October 2001, the bus company Helga Lücke was bought. In 2005, the Kitzig company in Zernsdorf was purchased.

Until 2007, Herrmann was the owner of the Dr. Herrmann Group, which he transferred to his son Christian as part of the corporate succession. In 2006 the Dr. Herrmann Wirtschaft & Verkehr Beratungs-AG, later it was converted into a driving school and travel company. As the sole owner (independent of his previous group of companies), he ran the business of his driving school for all classes with seven branches and three buses.

Private life

Richard Herrmann was married twice, from both marriages the sons Andreas (1968) and Christian (1978) emerged.

He died on November 29, 2014 at his last residence in Schöneiche near Berlin.

Work and works

Cover of the book (2006)

Articles by and about Richard Herrmann a.in the magazines military technology, Volksarmee as well as television reports in the program Radar des Fernssehen der DDR (1984-85) and in his last position, in December 1989 in the program Klartext a 60-minute interview.

After reunification, Herrmann was innovative and active as a journalist. Together with students from the FHTW Berlin, he developed a conversion kit for diesel engines to use rapeseed oil.

In 1999 he co-authored the book The Land Forces of the NVA with his former comrade, the specialist journalist Wilfried Copenhagen .

In 2006 his autobiography Life is Fighting was published.

He participated in numerous specialist publications on the subject of special buildings in the GDR as well as the military transport system of the NVA.

Web links

• David Ensikat: Obituary - tagesspiegel.de, January 16, 2015
• City talk economy - TV Berlin, with Peter Brinkmann, part 1 , part 2 , November 10, 2008