Robert Rompe

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Robert Rompe (first row, far left) at the 5th SED party congress in 1958

Robert Wilhelm Hermann Rompe (born September 10, 1905 in St. Petersburg , †  October 6, 1993 in Berlin-Müggelheim ) was a German physicist and resistance fighter against National Socialism . He was a member of the Central Committee of the SED .

Rompe studied physics and telecommunications technology in Berlin from 1923 and received his doctorate in 1930 with a spectroscopic work under Peter Pringsheim . He then worked until the end of the war as a research assistant at the study society for electrical lighting at Osram KG in Berlin. There he published articles on light generation technology and participated in the development of energy-saving light sources and special high-pressure light sources. He is considered to be the inventor of the high pressure mercury lamp .

Rompe joined the KPD in 1932 . Before that and until 1935 he worked for the BB apparatus (KPD intelligence service, industrial espionage) and for the GRU . From 1933 to 1936 Ulfert belonged to the illegal group of Hermann Ulfert , later he also had contacts with other resistance groups. In the period from 1935 to 1945 he was briefly detained and interrogated several times. From 1939 to 1945 Rompe worked as a biophysicist at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Genetics in Berlin-Buch.

In 1945 he took over the management of the main department for universities and scientific institutions in the Central Administration for Popular Education , which he held until 1949. In this role he was responsible for the establishment and operation of the institutions and had a decisive influence on the scientific landscape before the GDR was founded . As a member of the SED party executive (until 1949), he was one of the most influential scientists and science organizers in the Soviet occupation zone .

The grave of the Rompe family in Kloster on Hiddensee

At the same time he was full professor from 1946 and until 1968 director of the Second Physics Institute at the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1949 he also took over the management of the Physics-Technical Institute of the re-established German Academy of Sciences (DAW) until 1970 . Here he built up a group of distinguished scientists, from which professors such as Klaus Thiessen , Marion Asche and others later emerged . At the same time, he headed the Academy Institute for Radiation Sources from 1950 to 1958, where, since 1953, the later founder of the first Institute for Control Engineering Heinrich Kindler (Dresden) worked in the German-speaking area .

In 1951 he was awarded the National 2nd Class Prize for his achievements . In 1953 he became a member of the academy and was then chairman of the newly established physics class . This emerged from his significant work based on a memorandum from 1953.

Rompe lost all political offices in connection with the Noel Field affair in the early 1950s , but was fully rehabilitated after Stalin's death and again held high positions. In 1955 he became deputy chairman of the Scientific Council of the GDR , from 1957 until its dissolution in 1990 he was also a member of the newly founded Research Council , from 1979 also an honorary member. From 1958 he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED, until his retirement in 1970 he headed the Central Institute for Electron Physics of the DAW. 1963–1968 he was the acting and acting general secretary of the academy. During this period he also worked closely with Ulrich Hofmann , who later became Vice President and 1st Vice President (1970 to 1990) of the AdW.

Scientifically, Rompe achieved outstanding achievements in the field of plasma physics , politically he is considered a key figure in the organization of physical education and research institutions in the early days of the GDR. His estate is stored in the archive of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences .

Rompe owned a property with a house in Kloster auf Hiddensee , where he retired to relax and where he had lived since the mid-1980s. At his request, he was buried on Hiddensee.

His stepson Arthur Alexander, Alyosha 'Rompe was the founder and lead singer of the East German punk band Feeling B .

literature

Web links

Commons : Robert Rompe  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive of BBAW, discount department: Rompe, Robert Wilhelm Hermann
personal data
SURNAME Rompe, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rompe, Robert Wilhelm Hermann (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physicist, SED functionary, MdV
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 1993
Place of death Berlin-Müggelheim