Rudolf Bahro - in Berlin After The Fall

In Berlin After The Fall

Given the rapid decay of the GDR, Bahro went at the end of 1989 to East Berlin to the dreaded "sellout of the GDR," their "absorbed" by the FRG are to face. He would work to ensure that the regime could keep their autonomy and preserve the most important political development in his view, the primacy of politics over the economy.

Bahro on 16 December 1989 to the Special Congress of the 16th Sedam December 1989, Bahro opportunity to speak before the delegates of the Extraordinary Congress of the Socialist Unity Party, whose chairman was a week ago has become his former legal counsel Gysi. The main theme of the congress was the question of whether the party would continue, or dissolve, we finally decided on the continued existence under the new name, "SED-PDS. The request to speak Bahro, a guest speaker, found only a slight majority (54%), and granted him only 30 instead of the requested 45 minutes. Bahro was angry and had to improvise. After a reading of the names of all persons who had helped him in the alternative, he criticized the previous speaker to the prime minister and deputy party chairman, Hans Modrow, more than Karl Marx, Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin. Subsequently, he presented his vision of a just "social ecological" reconstruction of the GDR. His radical environmental ideas, which at that time in the GDR were not well known were far away from the issues raised by the delegates moved, and the polemical introduction aroused fierce resentment. Bahro came to the conclusion that it no longer bound by that party.

In the spring of 1990 he began building a temporary "Institute for Social Ecology" at the Humboldt University. Unlike the standard approach to the ecological crisis should think holistically at that institution and studied especially the deeper social and cultural causes of the crisis and practical alternatives are developed. Bahro reasoned that its own social and human sciences school, which is not to be confused with others who are also known as social ecology.

On 16 June 1990, Bahro was rehabilitated by the Supreme Court of the DDR again represented by Gysi. On 15 September, shortly before the end of the GDR, the Minister of Education and Science appointed him associate professor of social ecology at the Humboldt University. From winter semester 1990/1991 Bahro held regularly lectures on issues of environmental crisis, in which he's developed further in the logic of the rescue raised theses. The lectures, to which he invited many cases, guest speakers, is aimed at students of all semesters ( General Studies) and also found great interest among non-academic audience. In the first years of the lecture hall of the university was consistently full, and in this context is also sold the book logic of life much better than before. The Institute remained a temporary arrangement, that could only exist thanks to financial support from the Schweisfurth Foundation. Only in 1995 was it included in the university as a working group of the Agriculture and Horticulture Faculty.

In 1990 came the accusation that Bahro was striving for "eco-dictatorship". Especially argued aggressively he was the founded in Zurich Association for the Advancement of psychological knowledge of human nature, under the title The fascism of the New Left, a "ökofaschistische dictatorship" Bahro designated as the destination computer. Bahro was contrary to the indignant, but soon found himself confronted with further such accusations. These assumptions were based on quotes from his book Logic of salvation. 1992, switched his former party colleague Ditfurth into the debate by him in their polemic fire in the hearts of a trend towards esoteric, authoritarian and nationalist ideas accused.

In addition to his activities in Berlin until 1991, Bahro was still active in the learning workshop in Lower Town area, and he was planning similar experiments with new sustainable living and economic systems in the former GDR. From a conversation with the Prime Minister of Saxony Kurt Biedenkopf in the summer of 1991 led to the socio-ecological future research project in LebensGut Pommritz in Bautzen. There, that was begun at the Humboldt University of holistic and ecological research will be continued .

In September 1993, Bahro's wife Beatrice took her life following a marriage dispute. He was so shocked that he had to cancel a semester of lectures. In the spring of 1994 he suddenly fell physically ill, and a rare form of blood cancer (non-Hodgkin's lymphoma) was diagnosed in the fall of that year. Bahro was convinced that his illness was the consequence of traumatic experiences such as the suicide of his wife and he resisted conventional therapy. Instead, he made several alternative 'methods of diagnosis and therapy in right and moved temporarily to a monastery. It was not until his condition deteriorated dramatically there, he settled down again to chemotherapy. In May 1995 he married his girlfriend Marina Lehnert on his sick bed, who took care of for some time about his daughter.

After a year break due to illness Bahro was in summer 1996 to start its teaching again, but only to a limited extent. His last lecture he gave in July 1997. Then he caught pneumonia and cancer broke out again.

Rudolf Bahro died on 5 December 1997 in Berlin. He was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery there.

Some years after Bahro's death came on the suspicion that his cancer and those of two other former political prisoners may have been triggered by X-ray radiation during secret detention.