Ulla Plener

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Ulla Plener (born February 12, 1933 in Berlin ) is a German historian .

Life

Plener is the daughter of the German resistance fighters Marie-Luise Plener and Kurt Plener . Shortly after their birth, both parents had to leave Germany because of their activities in the KPD , and the family was separated. The father went to Denmark, Ulla Plener with her mother into Soviet exile. She spent her childhood in a home of the International Red Aid in Ivanowo , while her mother joined the French Resistance. After the war ended, the two met again in Berlin.

Scientific achievements

From 1951 to 1956 Ulla Plener studied history at a Moscow university. She did her doctorate and habilitation in Berlin in 1969 ( doctorate A ) and 1975 ( doctorate B ) with topics on the history of the SPD from 1945 to 1949 . This resulted in a short version of her work SPD 1945–1949 in 1981 . Conception, practice, results . She was a lecturer and head of research at the Institute for Research on Imperialism at the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED .

After the end of the GDR and German reunification , Ulla Plener continued her studies on social democracy and published the biographies of the union leader Theodor Leipart and the SPD chairman Kurt Schumacher . Closely related to this research are Ulla Plener's theoretical work on the theory and practice of economic democracy .

A second main topic was the French Resistance ; Both a collective biography of German women who were active in the Resistance and an individual biography of their mother Marie-Luise Plener-Huber appeared .

Not possible before 1989, but afterwards it became all the more important for Plener to come to terms with Stalinism . In 1997 Ulla Plener investigated the "fate of women under Stalin" and in 2006 published a commemorative volume on German victims of the Great Terror in the Soviet Union . The names of numerous, previously often unknown victims are mentioned here and their fate explained. In this context, a biography of the Spanish fighter Mirko Beer, who was shot in 1942, was published in 2009 with photos and documents.

The first publication of previously unknown diaries and letters by the communist and "Robin Hood of the Vogtland" Max Hoelz from the years 1929–1933 in an anthology edited by Ulla Plener aroused particular interest .

Until the magazine was discontinued, Plener was editor of the magazine Utopie Kreativ, published by the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung , and was active in the editing of the yearbook for research on the history of the labor movement .

Reactions and debates

Political scientist Wolfram Adolphi described Plener's life's work in a review as follows:

"If the mainstream of opinion in Germany had a real interest in the diversity of anti-fascist resistance and at the same time in how critically and self-critical communists deal with their history - and thus also that of communist anti-fascism - the historian Ulla Plener would be in large publishers and on Best-seller lists at home, and her voice could be heard not only at small specialist conferences, but also on radio and television. As it is, she does her extremely remarkable work almost in secret, without any fee from anyone, and publishes in small publishers in which the word Profit zone is a foreign word. The special thing about Ulla Plener's work is how she combines the analysis of the general history of the labor movement with the portrayal of individual fates. With her work [...] people get thrown into the dramatic class conflicts in the capitalism of the 20th Century and the devastating practices of Stalinism as well as its unmistakable face like the struggle of those thrown to act with dignity and striving for change in these circumstances. "

Wolfram Adolphi in "Das Blättchen", June 2010.

Works (chronological, selection)

As an author
  • “I don't regret my life.” Marie-Luise Plener-Huber: The life story of an idealist. NoRa, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3865572202
  • Mirko Beer - Biography in Documents, Nora-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86557-182-3 .
  • Rosa Luxemburg and Lenin: Similarities and Controversies, Berlin 2009 ISBN 978-3-86557-191-5 .
  • The SED leadership 1946–1953: from unity apostle to cold warrior in the labor movement. Chronicle and documents of their dealings with the SPD, Rostock 2008.
  • The enemy brother: Kurt Schumacher. Intentions, politics, results 1921 to 1952. Berlin 2003.
  • Ideals betrayed: on the history of German emigrants in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 2000.
  • Theodor Leipart: Personality, motives for action, work, balance sheet - a picture of life with documents (1867–1947), published in two half-volumes: 1. Biography (Berlin 2000), 2. Documents (Berlin 2001).
  • Theodor Leipart (1867-1947). Life picture of a trade unionist, Berlin 1999
  • Helmut Schinkel: between Vogeler's Barkenhoff and Stalin's camp. Biography of a reform pedagogue (1902–1946), Trafo-Verlag, 2nd edition Berlin 1998.
  • Life with Hope in Pein - The Fate of Women under Stalin, Frankfurt (Oder) 1997.
  • Labor movement - the main democratic force in capitalism, Staatsverlag der DDR, Berlin 1988.
  • Class struggle and democracy - contributions to the criticism of bourgeois ideology and revisionism, Berlin 1982.
  • SPD 1945-1949. Conception, practice, results. Berlin / GDR 1981 (Dietz).
As editor
  • The Treuhand , the resistance in GDR companies, the trade unions (1990–1994), NoRa Verlag, Berlin 2011.
  • The November Revolution 1918/1919 in Germany for bourgeois and socialist democracy, Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2009.
  • Clara Zetkin in her time - new facts, findings, evaluations, Berlin 2008. - As pdf online .
  • Women from Germany in the French Resistance: a documentary. Second extended edition, Berlin 2006.
  • with Natalia Mussienko: Sentenced to the maximum penalty: Death by shooting - Fatalities from Germany and German nationality in the great terror in the Soviet Union 1937/1938, Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2006. - As PDF online .
  • Max Hoelz: "I greet and kiss you - Red Front!" Diaries and letters, Moscow 1929 to 1933, ed. v. U. Plener. Berlin 2005 - online as PDF .
  • Kurt Schumacher in the "Schwäbische Tagwacht" on democracy and communists - essays and speeches (1926–1933) / selected and commented on by Ulla Plener on his 100th birthday, Berlin 1995.
  • with Joachim Poweleit: Social Democracy Today - Contributions to the Analysis of the Program Discussion in Social Democracy (published in the Academy for Social Sciences at the Central Committee of the SED), Berlin 1989.
  • Social Democracy in Western Europe Today: Position in the Political System, Relationship to Social and Political Forces (elaborated by a collective of the research area Awareness and Organization of the Labor Movement of Capitalist Industrial Countries of the Institute for Research on Imperialism. Led by Ulla Plener and Horst Fisch), Berlin 1986.
  • Lisa Gavrič : The road to reality. Report of a life, Berlin 1984.

literature

  • Plener, Ulla . In: Collegium Politicum at the University of Hamburg. Historiography Working Group (Ed.): Historians in Central Germany . Ferd. Dümmerls Verlag, Bonn, Hanover, Hamburg, Munich 1965, p. 74.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Ulla Plener: "I do not regret my life." Marie-Luise Plener-Huber: The life story of an idealist. NoRa Verlag, Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3865572202 .
  2. ↑ See Ulla Plener: Economic Democracy in the Program Discussion of the New Left on Linksnet.de
  3. ↑ Ulla Plener, Natalia Mussienko (ed.): Sentenced to the maximum penalty: death by shooting. Fatalities from Germany in the Great Terror in the Soviet Union 1937/38. (Karl Dietz Verlag Berlin; Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, Texts 27, March 3, 2006. PDF; 1.6 MB).
  4. ^ "Idealist in Purgatory" , Das Blättchen, June 2010.
personal data
SURNAME Plener, Ulla
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin