Wolfgang Harich

Wolfgang Harich (* December 9, 1923 in Königsberg i Pr; † March 15, 1995 in Berlin) was a philosopher, journalist and one of the most important and controversial Marxist intellectuals in the GDR.

Life and work

1927-1945

Wolfgang Harich came from the marriage of the literary historian and writer Walther Harich (1888-1931) with Anne -Lise Wyneken ( 1898-1975 ). He grew up in Neuruppin, later in Berlin -Wilmersdorf on. In addition to his secondary school education, he was a frequent guest at the Berlin University listener philosophical lectures, as Nicolai Hartmann and Eduard Spranger.

1942 Harich was called up for military service. After longer hospital stays and a temporary punishment for " unauthorized removal of the troops ," he deserted in 1944 and lived in hiding in Berlin. It built up connections to a communist resistance group " Ernst ".

1945-1957

Early May 1945 Harich was entrusted by Wolfgang Leonhard on behalf of the Ulbricht group with the organization of cultural work in Wilmersdorf and other districts of the later Western sectors of Berlin. The preparation of the establishment of the Cultural League for Democratic Renewal of Germany resulted in a close cooperation with Johannes R. Becher and others from exile returning artists. In February 1946 he became a member of the KPD.

Wolfgang Harich worked as a literary and theater critic, first in the French licensed courier and later - were hampered when his work possibilities in the Western sectors - at the Daily Rundschau, the daily newspaper of the SMAD. He was friends with the actors Paul Wegener and Victor de Kowa as well as the theater critic Friedrich Luft. Because an unfriendly criticism he was publicly slapped in 1946 from the stage diva Käthe Dorsch.

From 1948 Harich held at the Berlin University Lectures in Marxist philosophy. He received his doctorate in 1951 after presenting a thesis on Herder and was appointed professor at the Faculty of Arts, where he was regarded as an excellent high school teacher. Together with Ernst Bloch he gave in 1953 the German newspaper for philosophy out. After June 17, 1953 Harich openly criticized the dogmatic cultural and media policy of the party. He had to leave the university and in 1954 was chief editor of the guided Walter Janka Aufbau publishing house.

There arose after the XX. Congress of the CPSU and influenced by Georg Lukács and Ernst Bloch the "circle of like-minded people ," an informal group of Marxist intellectuals, the party called for internal reforms. Harich was asked to summarize the results of discussions as a "platform for the special German road to socialism." A copy of the platform in which the disempowerment of Ulbricht and the German reunification was demanded as a neutral, demilitarized state, he handed the Soviet ambassador in Berlin. He also informed - probably without consultation with the other parties - Rudolf Augstein and staff of the East Bureau of the SPD on the contents of the platform. Immediately afterwards - on 29 November 1956 - Harich was arrested.

Under the impact of current events in Hungary, where the national- communist reform movement for popular uprising - combined with anti-communist attacks - led that was eventually put down by Soviet troops, the East German leadership made ​​an example: In a show trial Harich was in March 1957 convicted of "forming a conspiratorial anti-state group " to ten years in prison, with him and in a further process also received Bernhard Steinberger and Manfred Hertwig and Walter Janka, Gustav Just, Richard Wolf and Heinz Zöger multi-year prison sentences.

For fear of a threatened death sentence Harich cooperated with the investigation and judicial organs. In his closing remarks, he said:

( See also "Group Harich " )

1957-1995

Wolfgang Harich the end of 1964 was released from prison in an amnesty and assigned to the Akademie Verlag Berlin. As a freelancer he worked on the great Ludwig Feuerbach output of a publisher, he also worked on the completion and publication of his Jean Paul- book. In the seventies he worked increasingly with environmental problems encountered with the views expressed in his book Communism without growth concepts ( "eco- dictatorship " ) but in his left hand in the East and in the West to massive criticism.

Increasingly referred Harich extreme positions, so his criticism of Heiner Müller's Macbeth processing or its critical contributions to the conservative Friedrich Nietzsche reception in the GDR. Here he saw already in employment with Nietzsche the danger of fascist development. 1994, the contents of a letter of Harich in the GDR Prime Minister Willi Stoph became known, in which he called the " most reactionary, most hostile phenomenon that has existed throughout the development of the world culture from Antiquity to the Present" characterized Nietzsche. 1979 Harich was invalids. After extended stays in Austria and the Federal Republic, where he met with interest but also with suspicion, he returned in 1981 disappointed in the GDR back. 1987 Harich asked to resume in the SED, which was refused.

1990 Wolfgang Harich was rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of the GDR. The political change in the GDR was greeted by him as an opportunity for eco- socialist development of a united Germany, but the further development disappoint him. Together with the journalist Stephan stone, he drew up in 1992 a concept for the reconstitution of an all-German KPD, he became a member of the Central Committee ( "Central Coordination Committee " ) of the CP initiative.

Harich was co-founder and chairman of a Commission of Inquiry alternatives GDR history. In response to Jankas book difficulties with the truth and further allegations about his behavior 1956/1957 he wrote in 1993 No difficulties with the truth. He also went legal action against Janka. In 1994 he became a member of the PDS and joined its left wing on.

Private

Wolfgang Harich was married four times. From the marriage with his daughter Katharina Kilian Iseult comes Harich (* 1952). One of his long-standing communities was by Gisela May

Since 1975 and until his death Harich lived at Berlin's Friedrichshain neighborhood, in the house Friedenstraße 8 His grave is located in the Berlin cemetery in front of the Halle Gate.

Writings

  • Rudolf Haym, Herder and his book. Contributions to the critical appropriation of the literary heritage. Aufbau-Verlag, Berlin, 1955.
  • Jean Paul's critique of philosophical egoism. Evidenced by texts and passages from letters of Jean Paul in the Appendix. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt 1968.
  • For a critique of the revolutionary impatience. A settlement with the old and the new anarchism. Edition Etcetera, Basel 1971.
  • Jean Paul Revolution seal. Attempt at a new interpretation of his heroic novels. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974.
  • Communism without growth? Babeuf and the " Club of Rome ". Six interviews with boldness Duve and letters to him. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1975.
  • No trouble with the truth. At the national-communist opposition in 1956 in the GDR. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1993.
  • Nietzsche and his brothers. Kiro, Schwedt 1994.
  • Ahnenpass. Attempt an autobiography. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999.
  • Nicolai Hartmann. Life, work, effect. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2000.
  • Nicolai Hartmann - size and boundaries. Attempt a Marxist self-understanding. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2004.

Since autumn 2013, the " Wolfgang Harich estate " in 11 volumes appears in the Tectum -Verlag. Publisher Andreas Heyer.

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