Volkhard Knigge

Volkhard Knigge (2012)

Volkhard Knigge (born April 10, 1954 in Bielefeld ) is a German historian and history teacher . From September 1994 to April 2020 he headed the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation for the former Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora concentration camps and for the special camp No. 2 Buchenwald near Weimar .

Life

Volkhard Knigge, who grew up in Jöllenbeck in what was then the Bielefeld district , graduated from the Max Planck Grammar School in Bielefeld. He studied history, German and educational science at the Carl von Ossietzky University in Oldenburg . In Paris he made additional training in psychodrama , including with Jacques Lacan . He received his doctorate in 1986 with a psychoanalytical and history- didactic- oriented work on the trivial historical consciousness . 1992–1994 he was assistant to Lutz Niethammer at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . From September 1, 1994 to April 30, 2020 he was director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation. In 2002 he became an honorary professor at the University of Jena, specializing in "History and the Public". Later he was appointed to the chair for "History in Media and Public" in Jena.

In 2011 there was a public and court dispute between Knigge and the Buchenwald survivor Stefan Jerzy Zweig . He felt hurt by the term "sacrifice exchange" that Knigge used to describe Zweig's fate. The dispute was ended in February 2012 by a settlement . Knigge agreed not to use the term "sacrifice exchange" in interviews with reference to the circumstances of Zweig's rescue.

Honors

1999: Richard Frank Prize of the German Library for Contemporary History, Stuttgart

2000: Culture Prize of the City of Weimar

2001: Collaborator's Award from the American Society of Group Psychotherapy and Psychodrama

2005: Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland

2006: Federal Cross of Merit

2006: Carl von Ossietzky Prize of the City of Oldenburg

2007: Heinz Galinski Prize of the Berlin Jewish Community

2011: Wartburg Prize from the Wartburg Foundation

2013: Knight of the Legion of Honor of the Republic of France

2019: Hildegard Hamm-Brücher sponsorship award

Fonts

History as uncertainty: concepts for a historical understanding of the 20th century. Edited by Axel Doßmann. Wallstein Verlag , Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8353-3696-4 .

literature

The dilemma of the past . In: Der Spiegel . No. 21 , 2008 ( online - Knigges position on the draft for “updating the memorial concept”).

Web links

Literature by and about Volkhard Knigge in the catalog of the German National Library

Volkhard Knigge employee page on the website of the FSU Jena

Interviews

To the future of memory. Interview by Stefanie Zobl, November 2010.
Sweep under the carpet? Conversation with Volkhard Knigge and the filmmaker Nico Hofmann in chrismon , May 2015.
Culture of remembrance in Germany: “Asking about the fabrication of crimes” deutschlandfunk.de , December 30, 2018.

Individual evidence

^ Lecture Buchenwald - Prof. Knigge. CVJM -Männertreff Bielefeld- Jöllenbeck , accessed on February 13, 2019 .
↑ Prime Minister Ramelow: Volkhard Knigge made the memorial a place that former prisoners can visit again today. In: Media information from the Thuringian State Chancellery , April 29, 2020.
^ An interview with Wagner for Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial. In: mdr.de , February 22, 2020.
↑ Berlin Regional Court: Complaint by a former concentration camp prisoner against the director of the Buchenwald memorial was partially unsuccessful. Press release from the Berlin Regional Court, March 22, 2011.
↑ Constanze von Bullion: Concentration camp survivor defends himself against the term "victim exchange". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 25, 2012.
^ Supreme Court: Trial of a former Buchenwald prisoner against the director of the “Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation” ended by settlement. Press release from the Berlin Regional Court, February 23, 2012.
^ Legal dispute between Stefan Jerzy Zweig and Prof. Dr. Volkhard Knigge amicably settled. Press release from the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, February 23, 2012.
↑ Prof. Dr. Volkhard Knigge on the staff page of the University of Jena
↑ Professor Dr. Volkhard Knigge receives the Carl von Ossietzky Prize 2006. Website of the city of Oldenburg.
↑ Hildegard Hamm-Brücher-Förderpreis: Prize winners 2019. www.demokratisch-handeln.de

personal data
SURNAME	Knigge, Volkhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German historian and history teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	April 10, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bielefeld

[1] Lecture Buchenwald - Prof. Knigge. CVJM -Männertreff Bielefeld- Jöllenbeck , accessed on February 13, 2019 .

[2] Prime Minister Ramelow: Volkhard Knigge made the memorial a place that former prisoners can visit again today. In: Media information from the Thuringian State Chancellery , April 29, 2020.

[3] An interview with Wagner for Buchenwald Concentration Camp Memorial. In: mdr.de , February 22, 2020.

[4] Berlin Regional Court: Complaint by a former concentration camp prisoner against the director of the Buchenwald memorial was partially unsuccessful. Press release from the Berlin Regional Court, March 22, 2011.

[5] Constanze von Bullion: Concentration camp survivor defends himself against the term "victim exchange". In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , February 25, 2012.

[6] Supreme Court: Trial of a former Buchenwald prisoner against the director of the “Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation” ended by settlement. Press release from the Berlin Regional Court, February 23, 2012.

[7] Legal dispute between Stefan Jerzy Zweig and Prof. Dr. Volkhard Knigge amicably settled. Press release from the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, February 23, 2012.

[8] Prof. Dr. Volkhard Knigge on the staff page of the University of Jena

[9] Professor Dr. Volkhard Knigge receives the Carl von Ossietzky Prize 2006. Website of the city of Oldenburg.

[10] Hildegard Hamm-Brücher-Förderpreis: Prize winners 2019. www.demokratisch-handeln.de