Ammer, Thomas

Born in the family of a businessman-craftsman, manufacturer of musical instruments. Thomas Ammer's father participated in anti-Nazi resistance , in the last year of his life was in the KKE . Thomas Ammer joined the SSIS , served as secretary of the school organization of the East German Komsomol .

The early 1950s were marked in the GDR by tightening the Stalinist regime. In the spring of 1953, a group of Eisenberg students and high school students were persecuted for membership in the Christian youth organization Junge Gemeinde . On June 17, 1953 , working protests against the SED regime were suppressed. Thomas Ammer and his comrades were outraged by the arbitrariness of the authorities.

We did not want to be asked what our parents were talking about, bearing in mind the Nazi regime: why didn’t you do anything? .. And you don’t especially think about the dangers of 15-16 years.
Thomas Ammer ^[2]

With a group of classmates, 16-year-old Ammer ^[3] created the Eisenberg Circle , which developed into a large underground organization ^[4] . The group brought together activists of various political views; Ammer adhered to the social democratic ideology.

For almost five years, Thomas Ammer was the informal leader of the anti-communist underground group. The members of the Eisenberg Circle distributed leaflets, painted wall slogans, destroyed the SED symbols (such actions as abducting a gun from a military museum and setting fire to a shooting range, in which policemen and members of the SED paramilitary groups trained) were carried out . In 1955, Ammer graduated from high school and entered the medical faculty of the University of Jena . In Jena, he established ties with the local underground ^[5] .

Given the age of the organization’s members and the well-known qualifications of the state security bodies of the GDR, we can talk about the high organizational and operational qualities of Ammer.

On February 13, 1958, Thomas Ammer was arrested by state security. On September 27, 1958, a court of Hera sentenced him to 15 years in prison on charges of "high treason" (the maximum term of 24 sentences in the Eisenberg case). Ammer spent six years in various prisons of the GDR ^[6] .

Since the mid-1950s, the GDR regime has become less rigid than in the first years of its existence, when the distribution of leaflets could be punishable by death . On August 14, 1964 he was released and went to Germany . He became one of the first East German political prisoners to receive freedom for ransom.

In Germany, Thomas Ammer studied history, political science and law at the University of Tübingen , Bonn and Erlangen . He worked as a research fellow at historical institutes. Published in West German publications on the situation in the GDR and the prospects for political opposition. In 1968 - 1982 was a member of the SPD .

After the peaceful revolution in the German Democratic Republic and the reunification of Germany, Thomas Ammer repeatedly visited his homeland. In 1991 he entered the civil service at the Federal Agency for Civil Education of Germany. From 1992 to 1998 he worked in the commission of the Bundestag to investigate the manifestations of the SED dictatorship.

The activities of Thomas Ammer are perceived in modern Germany as an example of a courageous struggle against dictatorship. He was awarded the Order of Merit to the Federal Republic of Germany .

• Herbert Belter

• Photo by Thomas Ammer