Roland Jahn

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Roland Jahn, 2017

Roland Jahn (born July 14, 1953 in Jena ) is a German journalist and head of the Stasi records authority BStU . As a dissident , SED opponent and civil rights activist , he was part of the opposition in the GDR . In 1983 he was one of the founders of the opposition peace community in Jena and was forcibly expatriated in the same year . On January 28, 2011, the Bundestag elected Jahn as the new Federal Commissioner for the records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic (BStU). Marianne Birthler handed over the office to her successor on March 14, 2011.

Life

As a civil rights activist in the opposition to the GDR

After graduating from high school in 1972, Jahn did basic military service with the People's Police in Rudolstadt and in 1975 began studying economics in Jena . His opposition began with public protests against Wolf Biermann's expatriation . On May 1, 1977, he carried a blank white poster at the official May rally to criticize the censorship in the GDR . On charges of Marxist “knowledge gaps”, he was de-registered in 1977 and from then on worked as a transport worker at VEB Carl Zeiss Jena on probation in production . In 1978 he met Petra Falkenberg and in 1979 their daughter was born. Jahn continued to demonstrate openly against the SED dictatorship. In 1982 he sent postcards with his own photo on which half of his face was made up as Hitler and the other half as Stalin . In the local newspaper he placed a funeral advertisement in memory of the unexplained death of his friend Matthias Domaschk , who died on April 12, 1981 in the Stasi remand prison in Gera . He also stuck the advertisement secretly in the city center of Jena as a public flyer . After a protest at the military parade on May 1, 1982, he was arrested and interrogated several times. On September 1, he was held in custody for six months because he had put the Polish national flag with the words “ Solidarność z polskim narodem” (Solidarity with the Polish people) on his bicycle. He was sentenced to 22 months' imprisonment for "publicly degrading the state order" and "disregarding state symbols", but was released after international protests and reports in the German media. While in custody, he was forced to sign an exit application , which he withdrew after his early release. In March 1983 he founded the Jena Peace Community with members of the opposition such as Frank and Eve Rub and others from the area around the Junge Gemeinde Stadtmitte such as Dorothea Rost and Andreas Friedrich, which advocated a social peace service and called for political participation with demonstrations and other activities.

The Jena Peace Community was unique in that it worked outside of public and church structures. In order to smash them, the Stasi carried out the "counter strike". From May 18, 1983 over 40 opposition peace activists from Jena and Apolda were deported to the West. On June 8, 1983, Jahn was also forcibly expatriated from the GDR. He was summoned to the housing office on a pretext, where a Stasi detachment arrested him, brought him to the Probstzella border station in toggle chains and locked him in the last compartment of the next interzonal train to Bavaria .

Activity as a journalist

After his forced departure, Jahn lived in West Berlin . He wanted to go back to the GDR and initially refused to accept the passport of the Federal Republic. He drew the attention of UN Secretary General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar to the arbitrary act of expatriation. In 1985 Jahn - coming from a trip abroad - secretly traveled to East Berlin and Jena via Berlin-Schönefeld Airport. Here he met opponents of the SED such as Gerd and Ulrike Poppe , Martin Böttger and Ralf Hirsch , who advised him to continue his support for peace and human rights groups in the GDR in the Federal Republic . From 1985 to 1987 he worked on the study project "Opposition in the GDR" at the Hamburg Institute for Social Research . As a freelance journalist under the pseudonym Jan Falkenberg , he and Peter Wensierski produced numerous articles on the opposition, human rights violations and everyday life in the SED state in the 1980s for the ARD magazine Kontraste of the broadcaster Free Berlin , including an article on environmental pollution in Bitterfeld , which with the help of was shot by Siegbert Schefke , employee of the environmental library . Jahn also worked as a freelance journalist for the daily newspaper , which reported on its East Berlin page on opposition activities in the eastern part of Berlin. Jahn and Jürgen Fuchs became the most important supporter of the GDR opposition in West Berlin . Among other things, he co-initiated “ Radio Glasnost ” in 1987 , which was broadcast by the West Berlin broadcaster Radio 100 . Until the end of 1989 he was followed and wiretapped in the West by the Ministry for State Security (MfS). The Stasi led the OV "Weinberg" against him , in which decomposition measures are documented.

The Peaceful Revolution accompanied Jahn with monthly contrasts contributions through demonstrations, occupations of the Stasi -Zentralen and maintaining power struggle of SED functionaries. Later he devoted himself again and again to topics of coming to terms with the SED dictatorship. On November 9th, 2009 he was a speaker with civil rights activist Katrin Hattenhauer at the “Festival of Freedom” at the Brandenburg Gate .

From 1991 Jahn worked for Ostdeutscher Rundfunk Brandenburg , later Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg , as editor for the political magazine Kontraste , from 2006 as head of the service and deputy editor-in-chief.

Roland Jahn, 2012

Worked as federal commissioner for the Stasi files

On November 30, 2010, on the recommendation of the Minister of State for Culture Bernd Neumann , the Federal Cabinet decided to propose Jahn to the German Bundestag for election as Federal Commissioner of the Stasi Records Authority . In the vote in the Bundestag on January 28, 2011, he received 535 votes across factions, 21 MPs voted no and 21 abstained. Two out of 579 votes were invalid. On March 14, 2011, he received his certificate of appointment at the German Historical Museum.

On April 24, 2011, Jahn declared that he wanted to part with the employees with a stasi past in his authority. He justified this with the credibility of his authority in dealing with the history of state security and the respect for the victims. With an expert opinion, he is having the legal framework for a transfer of the 47 known former Stasi employees to other federal authorities examined. In early May the domestic policy spokesman leaning SPD - Bundestag faction , Dieter Wiefelspütz , Jahns plans vehemently. The Stasi records authority is "not a facility that deals with manhunt". In contrast , the CDU parliamentary group supports Jahn's approach. On September 30, 2011, the Bundestag passed the amendment to the Stasi Records Act , which in Section 37a regulates a ban on former Stasi employees working in the Stasi Records Authority. After violent arguments between the SPD and the CDU / CSU , Jahn was re-elected for a second term on June 9, 2016.

Prizes and awards

Roland Jahn was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon on October 8, 1998 . In 2005 he received the unit price of the Federal Agency for Civic Education . On September 3, 2010 he received the Solidarność Medal of Gratitude . In 2014 he received the Prize for the Freedom and Future of the Media from the Media Foundation of the Sparkasse Leipzig .

On June 8, 2018, Jahn received an honorary doctorate from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena .

Book presentation and panel discussion in the Panitzsch church on March 30, 2014: Book author Thomas Mayer, Roland Jahn, Christoph Wonneberger and moderator Heide Binder (from left)

Voluntary work

Jahn has been on the advisory board of the Robert Havemann Society , the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial , since 1999, on the advisory board of the Foundation for Coming to terms with the SED dictatorship since 1999 and was on the advisory board of the Berlin Wall Foundation from 2006 to 2010 .

Books

Movies

literature

Web links

Commons : Roland Jahn  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Text archive of the Bundestag. Resolutions of the Bundestag on January 27 and 28. Roland Jahn elected as the new officer for Stasi documents. Retrieved January 28, 2011
  2. ^ A new boss for the "Pharmacy Against Forgetting" ( Memento from March 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ). In: Tagesschau.de . Retrieved March 15, 2011.
  3. ^ A b c youth opposition in the GDR: Roland Jahn, overview
  4. ↑ Interview with Roland Jahn in Horch und Guck , special issue Matthias Domaschk ( Memento of the original from April 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , 2003, pp. 64–66 “Matz accompanied my thoughts in prison.” ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.horch-und-guck.info @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.horch-und-guck.info
  5. ↑ Illustration of the flag on the side of the German Historical Museum German-Polish “friendship” under the sign of socialism
  6. ↑ a b c d e f biography of Roland Jahn on  jugendopposition.de  ( Federal Agency for Civic Education  /  Robert Havemann Society  ), accessed on March 27, 2017.
  7. ↑ Gerold Hildebrand: Ten are sometimes more than ten thousand . The Peace Community Jena 1982/83, in: Gerbergasse 18 ( Memento of the original from June 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Forum for History and Culture, 2nd year, issue 6 (3/1997), pp. 2–7. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.geschichtswerkstatt-jena.de
  8. ^ Youth opposition in the GDR: demo 83
  9. ^ Youth opposition in the GDR: "Counter strike" campaign
  10. ↑ The "counter strike" - a terrific own goal . Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk on the "Counter Strike Action"
  11. ↑ Interview with Roland Jahn: The expatriation on  jugendopposition.de  ( Federal Agency for Civic Education  /  Robert Havemann Society  ), accessed on March 27, 2017.
  12. ↑ Brochure "Gegenenschlag" campaign - The smashing of the Jena opposition in 1983. In: bstu.bund.de (PDF)
  13. ^ Letter from Roland Jahn to the UN Secretary General of June 13, 1983
  14. ↑ Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk : Endgame. The 1989 revolution in the GDR. CH Beck, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-406-58357-5 , p. 352.
  15. ↑ Election in the GDR - an absurd ritual. In: tagesschau.de . May 7, 2014, accessed May 7, 2014 .
  16. ↑ Gerald Praschl: Roland Jahn - How the resistance came on western television. In: praschl.net
  17. ↑ Roland Jahn: Support for the GDR opposition on  jugendopposition.de  ( Federal Agency for Civic Education  /  Robert Havemann Society  ), accessed on March 27, 2017.
  18. ^ Youth opposition in the GDR: Radio Glasnost
  19. ^ Jacqueline Boysen: The West Berlin mouthpiece of the GDR opposition. In: DLF , August 13, 2009
  20. ↑ Many of Roland Jahn's phone calls to the East German opposition scene were published in an edition for the first time in 2014. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk , Arno Polzin (ed.): Be brief! The opposition's cross-border telephone traffic in the 1980s and the Ministry of State Security . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2014. ISBN 978-3-525-35115-4
  21. ↑ Background and documents
  22. ↑ Contrasts - On the trail of a dictatorship. DVD and dossier from bpb and rbb
  23. ↑ 20 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall - this is how Berlin celebrated. In: Welt Online , November 9, 2009
  24. ↑ The Federal Cabinet proposes Roland Jahn as the new Federal Commissioner for the Stasi records authority. ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, Press Release No. 456, November 30, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bundesregierung.de
  25. ↑ SED opponent Jahn becomes master of Stasi files. In: Spiegel Online , January 28, 2011
  26. ↑ dpa: Stasi files should remain open - forever. In: Merkur , March 14, 2011
  27. ↑ Jahn does not want to continue to employ ex-Stasi employees ( memento from April 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) In: Tagesschau.de , accessed on April 24, 2011
  28. ↑ The dispute over the Stasi federal commissioner escalates. In: Fokus.de , May 7, 2011, accessed May 9, 2011
  29. ^ Mielke's kitchen helpers. In: Focus , May 9, 2011
  30. ^ The resolutions of the Bundestag on September 29 and 30. Retrieved September 30, 2011
  31. ^ Re-election of Roland Jahn - head of the Stasi records authority wants to broaden their horizons. In: Deutschlandfunk. Retrieved June 20, 2017 .
  32. ↑ Office of the Federal President
  33. ^ Winner of the 2005 Unity Prize Category Media - Observations on Unity Roland Jahn. ( Memento of the original from March 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Einheitspreis.de , accessed on October 20, 2011 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.einheitspreis.de
  34. ↑ Gerald Praschl: Poland says thanks to eleven Germans. (No longer available online.) In: SUPERillu . Burda, September 3, 2010, archived from the original on September 3, 2010 ; Retrieved September 3, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.superillu.de
  35. ↑ mdr.de: Jena: Civil rights activist Roland Jahn receives an honorary doctorate | MDR.DE . ( mdr.de [accessed June 8, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Jahn, Roland
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Falkenberg, Jan (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German GDR civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Jena