Heinz Barwich (Gerhard Barkleit)

»Heinz Barwich. A Restless World-Changer and the Power of the Atom«: Heinz Barwich, founding director of the Rossendorf Central Institute for Nuclear Research at the Academy of Sciences, was one of the few outstanding physicists in the GDR who successfully implemented innovative technologies after their ten-year internment in the Soviet Union. Oscillating between physics and politics, the brilliant individualist tried in vain to instrumentalize the secret services of East and West for his goals. 1964 he turned his back on the GDR and died in Cologne in 1966.

Dr. rer. nat. Gerhard Barkleit, born in East Prussia in 1943, studied physics at the TU Dresden and completed his doctorate at the Institute of Physical Chemistry at the Freiberg Mining Academy. He spent two decades researching nuclear energy and microelectronics at the GDR Academy of Sciences. In 1992/93, he was one of the founders of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarianism Research at the TU Dresden. His research focused on the history of industry, technology and science in the Soviet Occupation Zone/GDR. In numerous studies and articles, he analyzed the role of state security at universities and in research and development, particularly in the high-tech fields of aircraft construction, nuclear energy and microelectronics. He also published a biography of the exceptional scientist Manfred von Ardenne and »EinBlick in zwei Welten. Das Ende der DDR als Glücksfall der Geschichte«, an autobiographical comparison of the Federal Republic and the GDR, both of which have already appeared in their second edition. In 2022, the first edition of a biography of Werner Hartmann, the pioneer of microelectronics in the GDR, was published.

Buch (Paperback), Deutsch, 246 Seiten