Thomas Ammer

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Thomas Ammer, 2006

Thomas Ammer (born July 19, 1937 in Eisenberg ) is a German historian and former GDR opposition activist and political prisoner in the GDR . As a co-founder of the Eisenberger Kreis resistance group , he was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1958 and ransomed by the Federal Republic in 1964 .

Life

Thomas Ammer was born on July 19, 1937 in Eisenberg. His parents were the owners of a workshop for the manufacture of historical keyboard instruments. His father, who had ties to the communist resistance from 1943 and joined the KPD in 1945 , died in January 1946.

Eisenberger Circle

When, in the spring of 1953, several pupils were expelled from the Eisenberger Oberschule because of their membership in the Young Community , Ammer - until then the FDJ secretary in his class - came into internal opposition to the SED state . He and other schoolmates campaigned unsuccessfully for the expelled students to remain. As a result of the popular uprising of June 17, 1953 , Ammer and his classmates Reinhard Spalke, Günter Schwarz, Ludwig and Wilhelm Ziehr and Johann Frömel decided to found a political group. This group, later known as the Eisenberger Kreis , set itself the task of drawing attention to cases of political arbitrariness. They made leaflets, provided walls with slogans or removed symbols of the SED . Ammer belonged to the informal leadership of the conspiratorial group. 1955 graduated Ammer his high school and took a study of medicine at the University of Jena on. In order to set an example against the remilitarization of the GDR , Ammer and other members of the Eisenberger Kreis set fire to a shooting range of the Society for Sport and Technology (GST), the SED combat groups and the people's police . In 1957 the Eisenberger Kreis planned a call to university professors to rebel against the increasing alignment of universities. Outwardly, the group behaved inconspicuously and adjusted. Ammer was even the FDJ secretary for his class. Nevertheless, the group came increasingly into the focus of the state security . In 1957 a spy from the ministry managed to contact the group.

Political detention

After nine months of investigation, Thomas Ammer was arrested by the Ministry for State Security on February 13, 1958 and taken to the MfS remand prison in Gera . By April 1958, almost 40 young people had been arrested. Five others were able to flee to West Berlin before they were arrested . The district court of Gera passed 24 judgments with a total imprisonment of 116 years. Thomas Ammer, as the head of the group, received the highest penalty. On September 27, 1958, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for "treason" . He served his sentence first in the Waldheim prison and later in the Brandenburg prison . He spent the last weeks of his imprisonment in the MfS remand prison in Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Living in the Federal Republic of Germany

After six years in prison Ammer in 1964 as one of the first political prisoners of the Federal Republic of Germany ransomed and released on August 14, 1964 there. There he studied political science , law and history at the universities of Tübingen , Bonn and Erlangen . He then worked as an editor for a magazine and as a historian at the Institute for Society and Science in Erlangen. Since he continued to deal politically with the GDR in various publications, he was also observed and processed by the MfS in the Federal Republic. From 1968 to 1982 Ammer was a member of the SPD . In 1975 he became a research associate at the All-German Institute in Bonn . Banned from entering the country by the MfS for an unlimited period, he did not return to the GDR until after the Peaceful Revolution . After the All-German Institute was closed, Ammer moved to the Federal Agency for Civic Education in 1991 . From 1992 to 1998 he worked in the secretariat of the German Bundestag's study commissions to come to terms with the SED dictatorship .

Awards

Works

  • University between Democracy and Dictatorship: A Contribution to the Post-War History of the University of Rostock , Cologne 1969.
  • with Gunter Holzweissig: Die DDR , Federal Ministry of Defense, Bonn 1979.
  • The criticism of the GDR and Germany research in the Federal Republic of Germany in the scientific journals and media of the GDR 1962-1983 (selected documents) , Gesamtdeutsches Institut, Bonn 1983.
  • From the SED to the PDS , Gesamtdeutsches Institut, Bonn 1991.
  • with Hans-Joachim Memmler (ed.): State Security in Rostock: Target Groups , Methods, Resolution , Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-8046-0337-8 .
  • with Jürgen Weber (ed.): The SED state: News about a past dictatorship , Munich 1994, ISBN 3-7892-8340-1 .
  • Resistance and opposition in Jena . In: German Bundestag (ed.): Materials of the Enquete Commission “Working through the history and consequences of the SED dictatorship in Germany” , Vol. VII / 1, Baden-Baden 1995, pp. 128-139.
  • Thoughts are free. Resistance at the universities from 1945 to 1961 . In Ulrike Poppe / Rainer Eckert / Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk (eds.): Between self-assertion and adaptation. Forms of Resistance and Opposition in the GDR , Berlin 1995, pp. 142–161.
  • Concepts of German politics by the opposition in the GDR 1949–1961 . In: German Bundestag (Ed.): Materials of the Enquete Commission “Overcoming the Consequences of the SED Dictatorship in the Process of German Unity” , Vol. VIII / 1, Baden-Baden 1999, pp. 491-510.
  • Resistance at GDR high schools 1945–1968 . In: Klaus-Dieter Henke / Peter Steinbach / Johannes Tuchel (eds.): Opposition and Resistance in the GDR , Cologne 1999, pp. 125–136.
  • with Otto Schmuck and Olaf Hillenbrand (eds.): The future of the European Union: eastward expansion and continuation of the unification path as a double challenge , Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn 2000, ISBN 3-89331-373-7 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Thomas Ammer  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Ilko-Sascha Kowalczuk:  Ammer, Thomas . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  2. ^ Announcement from the Ordenskanzlei in the Office of the Federal President


personal data
SURNAME Ammer, Thomas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian and GDR opposition activist
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenberg