Wilfriede Otto
Wilfriede Otto (born September 20, 1933 in Zwickau as Wilfriede Klaumünzer ; † February 2, 2015 in Berlin ) was a German historian and journalist .
Life
Otto studied history at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig , where she then worked as a research assistant from 1957 to 1964 . In 1964 she received her doctorate as Dr. phil. on the subject of "On the political function of history lessons in West German schools in the period of the resurgence of German imperialism and the remilitarization of the Bonn state" . She then worked until 1991 as a research assistant at the Institute for Marxism-Leninism at the Central Committee of the SED , which later became the Institute for the History of the Labor Movement (IfGA). From 1991 until her death in 2015 she worked as a freelance historian. Until 2013 she belonged to the scientific advisory committee of the Stasi Records Authority and was a member of the PDS rehabilitation group formed in 2007 , which was supposed to politically and scientifically prepare decisions of the party executive committee on the rehabilitation of SED members who were excluded from the SED or who had been punished with other party penalties.
In her writings she dealt with the history of the GDR . One of her best-known publications is a biography of the head of the Ministry for State Security , Erich Mielke , which was published in book form in 1999 and a year later as a CD with selected speeches by Mielke.
Most recently she worked on a biography of the first Minister for State Security of the GDR, Wilhelm Zaisser , which she could no longer complete.
Fonts
Author
- On the political function of history lessons in West German schools in the period of the resurgence of German imperialism and the remilitarization of the Bonn state . Dissertation, Leipzig 1964
- The "Waldheim Trials" 1950 . Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1993
- Tension area August 13, 1961 . Helle Panke, Berlin 2001
- Forced labor in Vorkuta: German prisoners on Stalinism and repression . Helle Panke, Berlin 2006
Holdings
- 20 years of the SED: Timeline of important consultations a. Documents . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1966
- History of the SED (outline) . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1978 (member of the author collective)
- Wilfriede Otto, Helmut Meier (Hrsg.): On the biography of Erich Mielke: Legend and reality . Helle Panke, Berlin 1994
- Wilfriede Otto, Thomas Klein, Peter Grieder: Visions. Repression and Opposition in the SED 1949–1989 (2 parts). 2nd, revised edition. Frankfurter Oder Editions, Frankfurt (Oder) 1997, ISBN 3-930842-05-X
- as a media combination: Erich Mielke - biography: the rise and fall of a Chekist . Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1999 (as a book), Berlin 2000 (as CD), ISBN 3-320-01976-7
- Wilfriede Otto (Ed.): The SED in June 1953: Internal documents . Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 978-3-3200-2045-3
source
- Günter Benser , Stefan Bollinger , Wladislaw Hedeler , Thomas Klein (civil rights activist) , Helmut Müller-Enbergs , Petra Pau , Jörn Schütrumpf : The GDR lived twice: Colloquium in memoriam Wilfriede Otto (1933–2015) , Berlin 2015. Audible online: audio playback of one Event organized by the “Helle Panke” eV - Rosa Luxemburg Foundation Berlin, Tuesday, September 15, 2015.
Web links
- Brief portrait at the Federal Foundation for Work-Up
- Jörn Schütrumpf: "She wanted to free the socialist idea from prison". Wilfriede Otto - 1933–2015. An obituary .
- Literature by and about Wilfriede Otto in the catalog of the German National Library
Individual evidence
- ^ Vademecum of the historical sciences , Volume 1, 1995, p. 410
- ^ Historian Wilfriede Otto passed away , Neues Deutschland, February 6, 2015
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Otto, Wilfriede |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Klaumünzer, Wilfriede (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German historian and journalist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 20, 1933 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zwickau |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 2, 2015 |
| Place of death | Berlin |