Sigmund Jähn

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Sigmund Jähn
Sigmund Jähn
Signature of Sigmund Jähn
German cosmonaut
The first German in space
Country: GDR
Organization: Air Force
selected on November 25, 1976
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: August 26, 1978
Landing: 3rd September 1978
Time in space: 7 d 20 h 49 min
retired on September 1978
Space flights

Sigmund Werner Paul Jähn (born February 13, 1937 in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz ; † September 21, 2019 in Strausberg ) was a German fighter pilot , cosmonaut and major general of the NVA . He was the first German to fly into space .

Career before cosmonaut training

Sigmund Jähn was born as the son of a sawmill worker and a housewife in Vogtland . After primary school he completed an apprenticeship as a printer from 1951 to 1954 . Then he was a pioneer leader at the central school in Hammerbrücke . On April 26, 1955, Jähn began his military service with VP-Luft , the forerunner of the GDR's air forces , in Preschen . After his basic training, he was trained as an officer student at the officers' school of the LSK / LV in Kamenz and at the pilot's school in Bautzen , the forerunner of the later OHS for military pilots in Bautzen . In 1958 he returned to his squadron, Jagdfliegergeschwader 8 , in Preschen. In 1960 he and his squadron were relocated to their final location in Marxwalde (now Neuhardenberg again). From 1961 to 1963 Jähn was deputy commander for political work in a squadron squadron. He then headed the air tactics / air shooting division in the squadron until 1965. At the same time, he graduated from high school in 1965. Subsequently, he was delegated to study at the military academy of the air forces "JA Gagarin" in Monino near Moscow. He graduated with a degree in military science. From 1970 to 1976, Jähn held the position of inspector for fighter pilot training and flight safety with the deputy head of LSK / LV for training of the air forces in the LSK / LV command .

As part of the Interkosmos program, Lieutenant Colonel Jähn and three other candidates ( Eberhard Köllner , Rolf Berger and Eberhard Golbs) were shortlisted for cosmonaut training from 1976. Jähn and Köllner were awarded the contract. In addition to Jähn's flight experience and his very good knowledge of Russian, his background as a worker and his early entry into the SED also contributed to his selection.

Flight into space

preparation

Since 1976, Jähn and Eberhard Köllner have been trained as his substitute for a space flight as part of the Interkosmos program in Star City near Moscow . In the Institute for Aviation Medicine of the NVA in Königsbrück , the two potential cosmonauts were medically prepared for space flight , primarily by the scientist Hans Haase . At first Jähn was not assigned to Bykowski, but to Alexei Leonow .

Stay in space

Soyuz 31
postage stamp of the GDR 1978
MiG-21 fighter plane, which was also flown by Jähn, in front of the German Space Exhibition in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz (2015)

On August 26, 1978, Jähn flew in the Soviet space capsule Soyuz 31 together with Valeri Fyodorowitsch Bykowski to the Soviet space station Salyut 6 . The flight lasted 7 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes and 4 seconds. Jähn carried out numerous experiments during the 125 orbits of the earth. These included scientific and technical experiments with the MKF 6 multispectral camera for remote sensing of the earth, material science experiments, experiments on crystallization , shape cultivation and recrystallization as well as the cultivation of a monocrystal , medical experiments, investigation of the effects of weightlessness on speech, work psychological investigations, testing of the hearing sensitivity of the regular crew , biological experiments on cell growth in weightlessness and on the connection of microorganisms with organic polymers and inorganic substances.

The doll wedding of the GDR sandman brought by Jähn with the Soviet television doll Mascha , which Bykowski had provided, became known on television .

Soyuz 31 remained docked at Salyut 6 as a return capsule for the regular crew, and the tailor-made seats were reloaded into the Soyuz 29 return capsule .

An unexpectedly hard landing of the capsule caused Jähn to suffer permanent spinal damage . Since the relatively small capsule commander reached the switch for detaching the parachute only with difficulty late, the parachute did not detach from the landing capsule in time, which caused it to overturn several times and drag it through the steppe.

reception

Sigmund Jähn in front of the bust of Yuri Alexejewitsch Gagarin , 1981

Jähn's space flight was extensively covered and celebrated in the GDR media, as the smaller German state provided the first German in space. On Sunday, August 27, 1978, the New Germany published a special edition with the headline “The first German in space - a citizen of the GDR” , although the demonym “German” was usually not used in the GDR media. The current camera also brought numerous special programs.

After his return Jähn received the awards Hero of the GDR and Hero of the Soviet Union . In the grove of the cosmonauts in front of the East Berlin Archenhold observatory , a bust with his image was unveiled. Schools, leisure centers, roads and a Neptun 421 cargo ship also received his name during his lifetime. The bust of Jähn was removed in 1990, but placed again on February 22, 2008 in the State Statistical Office of Saxony and re-unveiled with an honor.

Stele with memorial plaque in Morgenröthe diamond wreath in memory of Sigmund Jähn's flight into space

One year after Jähn's flight, an exhibition on space flight was set up in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz, his birthplace, in the former train station. In 1991/92 this exhibition was greatly expanded and has been called the German Space Exhibition since then . Since 2007, the expanded exhibition has been housed in a new building not far from the old location.

Furthermore, a 4.5 m high stele with a memorial plaque was erected in Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz to commemorate the space flight of the first German cosmonaut.

A portrayal of Jähn in the 2003 film Good Bye, Lenin! In addition to the reproduction of original recordings of the doll's wedding in space, a taxi driver who looks very similar to Jähn (played by Stefan Walz ) embodies in a fictional report by the current camera Sigmund Jähn, who was supposedly appointed President of the GDR in 1990 , who opened the borders to the FRG .

On the occasion of Jähn's 80th birthday, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk organized a three-and-a-half-hour themed evening Sigmund Jähn and the heroes of the stars in its television program on the night of February 12th to 13th, 2017 .

Thirty years after his space flight, Jähn said: “The jubilation reporting wasn't music to my ears, I didn't want to be made a folk hero. (...) I found being in the spotlight more exhausting than the journey into space. "

In 2018, Die Zeit stated : “To this day, many West Germans do not know the first German in space. ... But the reverse applies: All former GDR citizens know who Sigmund Jähn is. "

Further career

Doctoral hats made from aviator helmets of the National People's Army by Sigmund Jähn and Karl-Heinz Marek from 1983
Sigmund Jähn in May 2009
Jähn in his acceptance speech for the laudation in the Leibniz Society of Sciences in Berlin on the occasion of his 80th birthday in 2017

After the successful Soyuz 31 space mission , Jähn was promoted to colonel in 1978 and appointed deputy head of the Center for Cosmic Training in the LSK / LV command. In 1979 he became the head of this center and remained so until 1990.

In 1983 Jähn obtained his doctorate in the field of remote sensing of the earth at the Central Institute for Earth Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in Potsdam. rer. nat. This was done under the direction of Karl-Heinz Marek, who at that time was head of the remote sensing area of ​​the central institute. Jähn's doctoral thesis was based, among other things, on the joint scientific elaborations and evaluations of the flight.

Jähn was one of the founding members of the Association of Space Explorers in 1985 .

On March 1, 1986, Jähn was appointed major general. On October 2, 1990, he was one of the last command staff officers, along with Major General Lothar Engelhardt and Admiral Theodor Hoffmann, to be released from the NVA and for whom there should be no remaining.

After the German aerospace organization DLR also worked with the Russian space agency, Jähn became a consultant for the ESA (European Space Agency) in the Russian space center , a position he had received with the support of his West German astronaut colleague Ulf Merbold . He stayed that way for 15 years. Jähn had already met Merbold in 1984 on the fringes of a conference in Salzburg.

Private life

Sigmund Jähn lived in Strausberg until the end , was married and had two daughters. When he returned from space, he was greeted with a photo of his grandson, who had been born shortly before the start, but this was not mentioned in the GDR media coverage because the grandfather role would not have fitted into the desired image. Jähn died on September 21, 2019 and was buried in Strausberg. His wife Erika died a few days after him.

Honors

Relief panels of the former memorial for the GST flying school "Fliegerkosmonaut Sigmund Jähn" at the Chemnitz-Jahnsdorf airfield
  • 1977 Honored military pilot of the GDR
  • 1978 Hero of the Soviet Union
  • 1978 hero of the GDR
  • 1978 Karl Marx Order (according to the award regulations Hero of the GDR )
  • 1978 Leibniz Medal from the Academy of Sciences of the GDR
  • Sigmund Jähn was the only bearer of the honorary title of flying cosmonaut of the German Democratic Republic .
  • The space flight planetarium , which opened on the Peißnitz Island in Halle (Saale) in 1978 , was named after him.
  • In 1978 Jähn became an honorary citizen of East Berlin, and an honorary citizen of Berlin after reunification. The picture of the cosmonauts Jähn and Bykowski hangs in the honor gallery of the Berlin House of Representatives.
  • On March 30, 1979, in honor of the German shipping company Rostock, their second cargo ship from the series "Freighter 'Cam Doussié' (type Neptun, 4th modification)", NEPTUN-421 (DSR), named Fliegerkosmonaut der GDR Sigmund Jähn put into service. This was not only the longest DSR ship name of all time, but also the world's longest at the time, which is even said to have been included in the Guinness Book of Records. Sigmund Jähn was embarrassed about this. (see literature 5 and 6)
  • In 1982 the GST-Fliegerschule in Jahnsdorf was given the honorary name GST-Fliegerschule "Fliegerkosmonaut Sigmund Jähn" and a memorial was erected.
  • In 1999 Jähn received the Golden Hen Media Prize . The pop group Die Prinzen released their song Wer ist Sigmund Jähn? on their album So much fun for little money .
  • In 2001 the asteroid 1998 BF14, discovered on January 27, 1998 at the Drebach observatory in the Ore Mountains , was named after Jähn and bears the designation (17737) Sigmundjähn .
  • He has been an honorary citizen of Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz since 2002.
  • On January 20, 2007, Jähn became an honorary citizen of Neuhardenberg . A memorial plaque was unveiled there on Jähn's former home.
  • In 2011 Jähn became an honorary member of the Leibniz Society for Science in Berlin .
  • On May 30, 2012, Jähn became an honorary citizen in his place of residence in Strausberg .
  • In Fürstenwalde / Spree , Brandenburg , a primary school is named after Sigmund Jähn.
  • The German astronaut Alexander Gerst took a badge with pictures of Bykowski and Jähn on his first flight to the ISS in 2014 and sent Jähn a photo of it.
  • On September 29, 2017, a primary school in Dommitzsch, Saxony, was named after the cosmonaut.

Quotes

"Dear TV viewers of the German Democratic Republic, I am very happy to be the first German to take part in this manned space flight"

- Sigmund Jähn : on the radio during his stay in space

“The voice of the flight controller in the headphones sounded almost solemn: 'Podjom - ascent!' At first it was as if it were thundering in the far distance. The dull rumble quickly came closer and closer. The rocket began to vibrate, as if shaking, getting away from the crater of the volcano it was sitting on as quickly as possible. I did not see it from our capsule 50 meters above the earth, but eyewitnesses later told me about this unique spectacle. It looked like a fire-breathing dragon puffing out a sea of ​​flames and smoke. The rays from the five engines raged in red, yellow, blue and violet. A fascinating sight. My heart rate was increased. But this palpitation of the heart was not fear, rather stimulating. And what I then saw was total bliss: Our earth, wrapped in bright blue. Simply fantastic."

- Sigmund Jähn : in an interview with Superillu in 1998

"As a pilot, I just couldn't resist the offer to fly such a space capsule ..."

- Sigmund Jähn : in the DLR lecture 2005

Publications

literature

  • Horst Hoffmann: Sigmund Jähn. The flying Vogtlander. Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-360-00848-0 , (authorized biography with a foreword by Thomas Reiter ).
  • Horst Hoffmann: The Germans in space. On the history of cosmos research and space travel in the GDR. Foreword by Sigmund Jähn, Edition Ost, 1998, ISBN 3-932180-49-6 .
  • Horst Hoffmann: Sigmund Jähn. Looking back into space: the biography of the first German cosmonaut. Das Neue Berlin, 2nd edition, Berlin 2008, ISBN 3-360-01947-4 .
  • Helmut Müller-Enbergs :  Jähn, Sigmund . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • German shipping companies, Volume 23, DSR , Verlag GU Detlefsen, Bad Segeberg, 1996.
  • Bordgeschichten II , DSR-Seeleute e. V. Freiberg & SGO Rostock, 2002.
  • 80th birthday of Sigmund Jähn. In: FliegerRevue , No. 4/2017, pp. 44–45.
  • Uwe W. Jack: Sigmund Jähn died. In: FliegerRevue , No. 11/2019, pp. 54–55

Radio documentation

  • Thomas Gaevert : "Research Cosmonaut and Citizen of the GDR - The Mission of Sigmund Jähn"; Production: Südwestrundfunk 2001 - 30 minutes; First broadcast: January 8, 2002 on SWR 2

See also

Web links

Commons : Sigmund Jähn  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h Jana Hensel: Sigmund Jähn: Why is this man not a hero? In: ZEIT ONLINE . August 22, 2018 ( zeit.de [accessed August 26, 2018]).
  2. ↑ Sigmund Jähn talks about his training as a book printer ( memento from October 20, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b An exhibition will open in Berlin on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Jähn's space flight. In: 1tv.ru (Russian).
  4. ↑ Juliane Wienss: East German television: The Sandman came, saw and scattered . In: The world . November 28, 2007.
  5. ↑ Rehabilitation from what?
  6. ^ Space travel: The flying socialist
  7. ^ Homeland GDR. Adventures. Considerations. Findings. Documents , including Gerhard Fiß: "From the laudatory speech for the restoration of the bust of Sigmund Jähn in the State Statistical Office of the Free State of Saxony on February 22, 2008", Ed. Horst Jäkel, GNN-Verlag Schkeuditz 2015, p. 353, ISBN 978-3-89819 -416-7 .
  8. ^ German Space Exhibition, new building ( Memento from October 23, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), website of the space exhibition with pictures
  9. ↑ Sigmund Jähn turns 70 - GDR citizen with all experience. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . February 13, 2007.
  10. ↑ Fear only hurts . The first German in space , Sigmund Jähn, on his historical journey, his successor Alexander Gerst and the role of the commander on board a space station, in: Der Spiegel , June 2, 2018, p. 100.
  11. ^ Biography of Sigmund Jähn , ESA, accessed on September 22, 2019.
  12. ↑ Thomas Gerlach: On the death of Sigmund Jähn: Up high with traction . In: The daily newspaper: taz . September 23, 2019, ISSN  0931-9085 ( taz.de [accessed September 25, 2019]).
  13. ↑ Freie Presse from January 28, 2011 , accessed on December 18, 2011.
  14. ↑ The first German in space is dead. In: Spiegel Online . September 22, 2019, accessed September 22, 2019.
  15. ^ Heinz Kautzleben : On the 80th birthday of Dr. rer. nat. Sigmund Jähn, honorary member of the Leibniz Society , February 13, 2017.
  16. ↑ The Princes: Who Is Sigmund Jähn? , Lyrics on wikia.com, accessed April 27, 2018.
  17. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, number 14 of June 18, 2018, p. 11.
  18. ^ City of Dommitzsch. Retrieved May 9, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Jähn, Sigmund
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jähn, Sigmund Werner Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cosmonaut, first German in space
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Morgenröthe-Rautenkranz , Vogtland , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 2019
Place of death Strausberg , Brandenburg , Germany