Rolf Richter (historian)

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Rolf Richter (born March 12, 1945 in Pirna ; † May 21, 2009 in Berlin ) was a German historian who researched and published in particular on fascism . Until the liquidation in 1990 he was professor and director of the Institute for the History of the German Labor Movement of the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED . Most recently he was head of the historical office of the Berlin-Brandenburger Bildungswerk and research assistant at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung .

Life

Richter grew up in a family of teachers in Saxon Switzerland . After graduating from high school , inspired by his history teacher, he studied history and German at the “Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Wander” University of Education in Dresden . His diploma thesis dealt with the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany . He did military service with the National People's Army (NVA) and in 1969 applied as a scheduled aspirant to the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED in Berlin. During the admission he presented Gerhard Lozek's critical analysis of Ernst Nolte's theses . In 1980 he was with a thesis on the history of the German labor movement to Dr. sc. phil. PhD. He wrote his PhD B on contributions to the analysis and criticism of bourgeois and other non-Marxist interpretations and representations of fascism .

From 1970 until the liquidation in 1990 he worked at the Institute for the History of the German Labor Movement of the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED, which he was most recently headed. From 1984 he was a full professor for the history of the German labor movement there. Before that he was secretary at the institute from 1981 to 1983. His main focus was theories of fascism.

In 1982 he was a member of the SED delegation at an international conference on the 100th birthday of Georgi Dimitrov , an internationally prominent Bulgarian communist politician, for whom he was later to publish a German translation. His main research interests included the history of the labor movement , Christians and churches in the GDR and fascism (see Marxist Fascism Theory ). In the GDR he was a member of the fighting groups of the working class and the SED basic organization leadership as well as an activist of socialist work .

After the fall of the Wall , he left the service because of his exposed position in the GDR. In 1989/90 he initiated the right-wing extremism / anti-fascism working group in the PDS executive committee and wrote for the newsletter . In 1990 he became head of the historical office of the Berlin-Brandenburger Bildungswerk . In 1999 he became a research associate at the PDS-affiliated Rosa Luxemburg Foundation in Berlin. Richter was the author and editor of several books.

Fonts (selection)

  • with Gerhard Lozek: legend or justification? On the critique of the theories of fascism in bourgeois historiography (= On the critique of bourgeois ideology . 97). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1979. (published 1980 by Marxist Blätter in Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 3-88012-516-3 )
  • (Ed.): Georgi Dimitroff : Against fascism and war. Selected speeches and writings . Translation from Bulgarian, Reclam-Verlag , Leipzig 1982
  • Socio-economic and political aspects of the fascism discussion in the emigrated Frankfurt Institute for Social Research . In: Helga Grebing , Klaus Kinner (ed.): Workers' Movement and Fascism. Fascism Interpretations in the European Labor Movement . Klartext Verlag , Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88474-146-2 , p. 168 ff.
  • Reconciliation with Poland as a task and a way for the Protestant churches in the GDR in the seventies and eighties. Appendix Contemporary comments on church reconciliation work, contemporary witnesses remember, selected documents (= series of publications by the Institute for Comparative State-Church Research . Issue 6). Edited by the Society for the Promotion of Comparative State-Church Research, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-931232-05-0 .
  • From the life of the Russian Orthodox Church in Berlin . Verlag am Park, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-932180-69-0
  • Reconciliation work with Poland - on an achievement of the Evangelical Churches in the GDR threatened by oblivion . In: Manfred Weißbecker , Reinhard Kühnl (ed.): Rassismus, Faschismus, Antifaschismus. Research and considerations dedicated to Kurt Pätzold on the occasion of his 70th birthday (= PapyRossa-Hochschulschriften . 32). PapyRossa-Verlag, Cologne 2000, ISBN 3-89438-199-X , p. 365 ff.
  • (Ed. With Klaus Kinner): Right-wing extremism and anti-fascism. Historical and current dimensions (= Rosa Luxemburg Foundation . Writings 5). Dietz-Verlag , Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-320-02015-3 , online

literature

  • Roland Bach, Klaus Böttcher , Horst Helas, Peer Jürgens , Jürgen Plagge-Vandelaar, Reiner Zilkenat (eds.): Antifascism as a humanist legacy in Europe. Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Prof. Dr. Rolf Richter . R. Bach, Berlin 2005.
  • Reiner Zilkenat (Ed.): Germany in the 20th century. From the estate of Rolf Richter (= Rosa Luxemburg Foundation . Manuscripts 93). Dietz, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-320-02268-6 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helga Grebing , Klaus Kinner : Workers 'Movement and Fascism: Fascism Interpretations in the European Workers' Movement , Essen 1990, p. 174.
  2. ↑ see short biography of the author in: Klaus Kinner , Rolf Richter (Ed.): Right-wing extremism and antifascism. Historical and current dimensions (= Rosa Luxemburg Foundation . Writings 5). Dietz-Verlag , Berlin 2000, ISBN 3-320-02015-3 , p. 296.
personal data
SURNAME Judge, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Pirna
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 2009
Place of death Berlin