Siegfried Reiprich

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Siegfried Reiprich (2002)

Siegfried Reiprich (born February 15, 1955 in Jena ) is a German civil rights activist and writer . He was a founding member of the opposition working group for literature and poetry in Jena . Due to his critical attitude towards the SED regime, he was forced to de-register , later forced to leave the country and expatriate . From December 2009 to July 2020 Reiprich was managing director of the Saxon Memorials Foundation .

Life

Siegfried Reiprich was born in Jena in 1955. From the beginning he was a member of the "Working Group on Literature and Poetry" founded in 1973 by Lutz Rathenow in Jena. In the same year he graduated from high school . After several months of work as a construction worker, Reiprich began basic military service with the NVA .

Prohibition of the "Working Group on Literature and Poetry"

In 1974 he took part in the “ FDJ Poetry Seminars ” in Greiz and Schwerin for the “Working Group on Literature” and, because of critical poems and discussions, was the focus of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) for the first time . At the subsequent interrogation, the Stasi noted that Reiprich had “presumptuously refused to cooperate with our organ”. In 1975 he protested against the factual ban on the working group and began studying at the Marxist-Leninist Philosophy section in Jena . Here, too, he was observed by the MfS.

Political de-registration and operational processing

Denounced by an unofficial employee of the MfS at the party leadership, he was denounced in tribunal proceedings for "skeptical existentialism", "criticism of the measures of the brother armies of the Warsaw Pact states on the occasion of the counter-revolutionary events in the ČSSR 1968 ", solidarity with his friend Jürgen Fuchs , and "formation of a counter-revolutionary platform" excluded from the leadership of the FDJ , brought before the disciplinary committee and condemned in March 1976 to "exclusion from studies at all universities, colleges and technical schools in the GDR ".

He then worked as an unskilled worker in the glass cutting shop of the VEB Jenaer Glaswerke Otto Schott & Gen., protested against Wolf Biermann's expatriation and got involved in the underground. He was again excluded from studying precision engineering at the Jena Engineering School in 1979 for political reasons. The State Security classified him as a " PID " and "PUT" person, but preferred decomposition measures to the planned arrest. In 1980 the OPK "Opponent" was converted into the operational process "Opponent", which was directed against him and other comrades-in-arms, including Roland Jahn . The State Security tried, among other things, to discredit him in his circle of friends, for example by using photo montages to give the impression that Reiprich himself was working for the MfS.

Expatriation and Life in the West

Siegfried Reiprich in the Antarctic (1987)

As a result of an interrogation by MfS officers, he was forced to leave the GDR; In 1981 he moved to West Berlin with his wife Christine . The "anti-state group" was not imprisoned "for reasons of detente", but expatriated.

When he arrived in the West, Reiprich became involved in the peace movement . From 1981 to 1983 he was a member of the working group Atomic Weapons Free Europe in West Berlin and showed solidarity with the independent peace movement in the GDR. In 1983 he joined the SPD , also to support Helmut Schmidt's policy in NATO retrofitting . From 1982 to 1990 he studied oceanography and geophysics at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung and from December 1986 to March 1988 he was in the Antarctic at the Georg von Neumayer station of Alfred Wegener -Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven . He was also under surveillance by the Stasi in the West and was banned from entering the GDR until after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Life and work after reunification

From 1990 to 1997 Reiprich worked in the German - Turkish earthquake research project at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and in the GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam . In 1992 he resigned from the SPD in protest against the handling of the Stolpe case . In 1998 he joined the CDU together with other civil rights activists . He worked as a research assistant in the Bundestag and as a freelance author before he was nominated by the Biedenkopf government in 2000 for the office of the Saxon State Commissioner for the documents of the Ministry for State Security at the suggestion of civil rights activists such as Freya Klier and the Minister of Justice Steffen Heitmann . Due to internal power struggles, the election already scheduled in the state parliament was taken off the agenda at the last minute. Since 2001 Reiprich has worked as a consultant for political education as well as data protection officer and from 2007 to 2010 as deputy director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial . He is involved in various associations and initiatives for the concerns of the victims of the SED state. After the death of Jürgen Fuchs, he was appointed to the board of the Bürgerbüro Berlin e. V. , Association for the Processing of Consequential Damages of the SED dictatorship elected.

On April 23, 2009 Reiprich was elected managing director of the Saxon Memorials Foundation by the Board of Trustees . He was appointed on December 8, 2009. In May 2014, the Board of Trustees re-elected him as Managing Director, the state government of the Free State of Saxony confirmed this election. At his own request, he will leave his position on November 30, 2020. Shortly after this announcement, he came under fire when he compared the riots and looting in Stuttgart in June 2020 with the Nazi pogroms in 1938 . Several nationwide organizations and the Greens parliamentary group then demanded his resignation. On July 21, 2020, he was released from the Board of Trustees with immediate effect.

Under Reiprich's leadership, the foundation became a member of a non-governmental organization at European level in October 2011 in Prague, the Platform of European Memory and Conscience , and he was elected to the four-person board. In February 2014, the members of this pan-European museum and memorial association in The Hague re-elected him to their board.

In addition to his official work, Siegfried Reiprich is involved in and for civil society associations and initiatives, for example in the association in honor of the victims of Nazi "euthanasia" in Großschweidnitz , the learning and memorial site Chemnitz- Kaßberg prison, the association for the establishment of a memorial for the women of Hoheneck or the Friends of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial. He works on the committees of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial Foundation and is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the German-Russian Museum in Berlin-Karlshorst .

Works

  • The dialogue prevented. My political de-registration. A documentation. Series of publications by the Robert Havemann Archive, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-9804920-2-7 .
  • The left opposition in the GDR as a separate entity between Prague 1968 and the western European student revolt. In: Geschichtswerkstatt Jena (ed.): Left opposition in the GDR and undogmatic left in the FRG, documentation of a conference of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation and Heinrich Böll Foundation. Jena 1996, pp. 37-54.
  • Stasi on the offensive - March 14, 2006 in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. In: Gerbergasse 18. Thuringian quarterly journal for contemporary history and politics , issue 41 (II / 2006), (PDF; 77 kB) , ISSN  1431-1607 .
  • On the mechanisms of ideological disciplining at GDR universities. In: Deutscher Hochschulverband (ed.): Contemporary witnesses report. How the GDR suppressed the universities. Forum of the University Association, issue 67 (March 1999).
  • Conquest and consolidation of power - two phases in the history of the Stasi. In: Karsten Dümmel, Christian Schmitz (ed.): What was the Stasi? Insights into the Ministry for State Security of the GDR (MfS). Sankt Augustin 2002, ISBN 3-933714-02-8 .
  • Construction East: Money instead of Spirit In: liberal 3/2004, (PDF; 110 kB) , ISSN  0459-1992 .
  • Vacuum and nostalgic legends. From dealing with GDR history at the Berlin school. In: Journal of the Political-Academic Club e. V. New series No. 15 (75) 2006, ISSN  1433-4178 .
  • Nancy Aris and Clemens Heitman (eds.): Via Knast in the West. The Kaßberg prison and its history , series of publications by the Saxon state commissioner for the Stasi records. With contributions by Jan Phillip Wölbern, Ludwig Rehlinger and Siegfried Reiprich u. a., ISBN 978-3-374-03010-1 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Siegfried Reiprich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baldur Haase: Mielke versus Pegasus, authors and literature enthusiasts from the former Gera district in the sights of the State Security. Erfurt 2001, pp. 140-147.
  2. ↑ Quotation from Jürgen Fuchs: Landscapes of Lies . In: Der Spiegel . No. 48 , 1991, pp. 87-89 ( online - 25 November 1991 ).
  3. ^ Report of a spying from the documents of the State Security on the person of Siegfried Reiprich.
  4. ^ Siegfried Reiprich: The prevented dialogue. My political de-registration. Berlin 1996, pp. 66-68.
  5. ^ A b Udo Scheer: Jürgen Fuchs - A literary way into the opposition. Berlin 2007, p. 382.
  6. ↑ Underground political activity
  7. ↑ For the OPK Reiprichs, see overview sheet for operational identity control .
  8. ^ MfS files in the archive of the Robert Havemann Society Berlin, z. T. published in: Siegfried Reiprich: The prevented dialogue. My political de-registration. Berlin 1996.
  9. ↑ Stefan Wolle : The ideal world of dictatorship. Everyday life and rule in the GDR 1971-1989. Bonn 1999, p. 159.
  10. ^ A b Siegfried Reiprich: The prevented dialogue. My political de-registration. Berlin 1996. (For the operational processing of Reiprich after his relocation, see documents on "OV Weinberg" as well as a letter from the Schleswig-Holstein Minister of the Interior on the MfS interception order against Reiprich )
  11. ↑ Siegfried Reiprich: "I say what I see". Portrait of a friend. In: the daily newspaper from September 15, 1982, as well as Siegfried Reiprich: The fear of the Polish flag. In: ASTA Info from December 2, 1982. (Appeals for solidarity regarding the arrest of Roland Jahn )
  12. ↑ Konrad Adenauer Foundation : What was the Stasi? With a contribution and a short biography of Siegfried Reiprich. (PDF, 650 kB)
  13. ↑ Markus Lesch: Former GDR dissidents join the CDU. In: Die Welt from May 18, 1998.
  14. ^ Daniel Friedrich Sturm: Heitmann threatens defeat. In: Die Welt from September 8, 2000.
  15. ^ AK data retention: members and local associations of the SPD, CDU, CSU against data retention
  16. ↑ Internet presence of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial ( Memento of the original from February 22, 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 / stiftung-hsh.de
  17. ↑ Internet presence of the Bürgerbüro e. V. .
  18. ↑ Media Service Saxony: Cabinet approves Siegfried Reiprich's appointment ( memento from September 10, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ).
  19. ^ Announcement from the Saxon Memorials Foundation: Managing Director confirmed in office for another seven years.
  20. ↑ Announcement by the Saxon Memorials Foundation from June 24, 2020: Resignation of the managing director at the end of 2020
  21. ↑ Steffen Winter, DER SPIEGEL: Riots in Stuttgart: Minister distances herself from the head of Saxon memorials - DER SPIEGEL - Panorama. Retrieved July 2, 2020 .
  22. ↑ https://www.mdr.de/sachsen/reiprich-ruecktrittslösungen-bundesweit-100.html
  23. ↑ https://www.tag24.de/dresden/rauswurf-mit-ansage-saechsischer-gedenkstaettenchef-muss-noch-eher-iegen-1586591
  24. ↑ Website of the European memorial platform platform governing bodies 2011
  25. ^ "Platform of European Remembrance and Conscience" founded. Managing director explains future plans. Press release of the Saxon Memorials Foundation from October 17, 2011.
  26. ^ Announcement from the Foundation Platform of European Memory and Conscience has re-elected the board and added six new members.
  27. ↑ Die WELT to expand the exhibition at the Bautzen Memorial to include the history of Nazi repression
  28. ^ First signer of the appeal for a memorial for the victims of the communist dictatorships in Berlin
  29. ↑ HSH-Förderverein on facebook
  30. ↑ News bulletin of the HSH-Förderverein ( Memento from January 11th 2015 in the Internet Archive ), an example
  31. ↑ Board of Trustees and Advisory Board Hohenschönhausen
  32. ↑ Sponsoring Association of the German-Russian Museum Berlin Karlshorst ( Memento from January 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Reiprich, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German civil rights activist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Jena