Helga Hörz

Helga Hörz (born Helga Ivertowski, 27 July 1935) is a German Marxist philosopher and women's rights activist. Before 1990 she was a university teacher of Ethics in the Philosophy Department at the Humboldt University in (East) Berlin. She was persuaded to retire on health grounds in October 1990,

Life

Formative childhood experiences

"... after German troops arrived in my home city [as Germany launched the invasion of Poland in 1939] I understood what it means to be a second class German. (The repetition of that experience in 1990 as former citizen of East Germany was painful.) As the assault on the Soviet Union was thrown into reverse [after 1942] and nothing was to be left behind except burned soil, those of us who lived [as children in Danzig] were simply "unnecessary ballast". As a nine year old I was burying dead bodies. My father was arrested in 1938 and sentenced to a life sentence by a Freisler court. When the allies released him he was in a death camp. These life experiences formed my antifascist conviction"

"... erfuhr ich nach dem Einmarsch deutscher Truppen in die Heimatstadt, was es bedeutet, Deutscher 2. Klasse zu sein. (Schmerzlich war die Wiederholung 1990 als nun ehemalige DDR-Bürgerin.) Als der gegen die Sowjetunion geführte Angriffskrieg zurückkehrte und nur verbrannte Erde übrigbleiben sollte, waren wir als Einwohner „unnötiger Ballast“. Ich begrub als Neunjährige Leichen. Mein Vater wurde 1938 verhaftet und vom Freisler-Gericht zu lebenslanger Haft verurteilt. Die Alliierten befreiten ihn aus dem Todeslager. Lebenserfahrungen prägten so meine antifaschistische Überzeugung. " Caught up in the ethnic cleansing of 1944/45 Maria Ivertowski and her daughters struggled to make their way towards the west, ending up in Nauen, a short distance to the west of Berlin and after May 1945 in the part of Germany administered as the Soviet occupation zone. It was here that the family were reunited with their father, although the marriage of Paul and Maria Ivertowski later ended in divorce. The light bulb plant was only a few steps from the (at this stage still porous) border with West Berlin. As a union activist within the plant she campaigned powerfully, both against the endless bureaucratic restrictions on how workers might benefit from the potential economic opportunities this presented by the border, and against workplace gender discrimination. It was later published as a book, with the snappier title "Woman as a person" ("Die Frau als Persönlichkeit"). The book was officially tolerated, but largely ignored.

Additionally, during the early 1970s she was a member of the working group on "Problems of biological, psychological and social personality determination" with the East German Academy of Pedagogical Sciences. Between 1988 and 1990 she served as a member of the Philosophy Advisory Board and headed up the permanent "Ethics" working group at the East German Ministry for Higher and Vocational Education. As a member of the (East) German Academy of Sciences she served on various advisory bodies including the one on "Women in Socialist Society".

On the international stage Hörz served as a deputy council member with the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF), participating in its congresses at Helsinki, Berlin, Prague and Moscow and numerous international consultations and seminars, also taking part in a National Women's Conference in Bangladesh. She was involved in setting up consultative meetings and expert advice in the context of collaboration between the WIDF and the United Nations, also for many years representing East Germany in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Political developments during 1989 and the realisation after November of that year that the Soviet forces had no orders to the crush street protests violently, as they had in 1953 opened the way to German reunification which followed, formally, in October 1990. The East German style of Marxist philosophy was not a priority for the new Germany and Helga Hörz was persuaded to retire early,

She published her memoires in 2009.

As soon as East Germany ceased to exist as a separate state, which happened early in October 1990, Helga Hörz's role as an East German delegate at the United Nations meetings on women's issues came to an end. 1967 Johann Gottlieb Fichte prize for a doctoral dissertation (Humboldt) 1970 Clara Zetkin Medal 1985 Patriotic Order of Merit in bronze from 1990 board member with the German Freethinkers League

Publications (selection) Einige philosophisch-ethische Probleme bei der Bestimmung der gesellschaftlichen Rolle der Frau und der Durchsetzung ihrer Gleichberechtigung. Dissertation, Humboldt-Universität, Berlin 15 December 1965. Die Frau als Persönlichkeit. Philosophische Probleme einer Geschlechterpsychologie. Unser Weltbild, Vol. 53. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1968, 2nd edition 1971. Persönlichkeit, Moral und sittliche Erziehung. Dissertation B (Habilitation), Humboldt-Universität, Berlin 1974 (vols. 1–2). Blickpunkt Persönlichkeit. Ein Beitrag der Ethik zu Theorie und Praxis der Persönlichkeitsentwicklung. Weltanschauung, Bd. 1. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1975. Ethische Probleme bei der Sexualerziehung Jugendlicher. In: H. Grassel, K. R. Bach (Hrsg.): Kinder- und Jugendsexualität. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1979, pp. 17–30. Eizelltransplantation beim Menschen als moralisches Problem. In: Medizin aktuell, Berlin 1983, S. 110–111. Ethische Positionen zur Homosexualität. In: Reiner Werner: Homosexualität. Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1987, S. 172–174. Frauenrechte sind Menschenrechte. Zur gesellschaftlichen Stellung der Frau in Deutschland. In: Gerhard Fischer u.a. (Hrsg.): Gegen den Zeitgeist. Zwei deutsche Staaten in der Geschichte. GNN Verlag, Schkeuditz 1999, pp. 224–235. Zur Evolution von Geschlechterrollen. In: Frau Musica heute. Musikakademie Rheinsberg 2005, pp. 23–33. . Patriarchalische Machtstrukturen in philosophischer und psychologischer Auseinandersetzung. Forschungsinstitut der Internationalen Wissenschaftlichen Vereinigung Weltwirtschaft und Weltpolitik, Berichte 16 (2006) 163, p. 7–27. Zwischen Uni und UNO – Zu meiner doppelten „Abwicklung“ 1990. Wir Frauen. 25. Jg. 2006, p. 11 ff. . Zwischen Uni und UNO. Erfahrungen einer Ethikerin. Reihe Autobiographien, vol. 37. trafo Verlagsgruppe Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2009, 393 S.. Der lange Weg zur Gleichberechtigung. Die DDR und ihre Frauen. trafo Verlagsgruppe Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2010, 262 S.. Ist Egoismus unmoralisch? Grundzüge einer neomodernen Ethik. trafo Verlagsgruppe Dr. Wolfgang Weist, Berlin 2013, 459 S., (with Herbert Hörz). Transhumanismus. Ist der zukünftige Mensch ein Avatar? In: Welf Schröter (Hrsg.): Identität in der Virtualität. Einblicke in neue Arbeitswelten und »Industrie 4.0« - Beiträge zum 60. Geburtstag eines Netzwerkers. Talheimer Verlag, Mössingen 2014, pp. 242–285 (with Herbert Hörz). Nehmen Drohnen im Informationszeitalter den Menschen ihre Verantwortung ab? In: Frank Fuchs-Kittowski; Werner Kriesel (Hrsg.): Informatik und Gesellschaft. Festschrift zum 80. Geburtstag von Klaus Fuchs-Kittowski. Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften, PL Academic Research, Frankfurt a. M.; Bern; Bruxelles; New York; Oxford; Warszawa; Wien 2016, (Print), E- (E-Book).

as compiler-editor Ethik. Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin 1986, 2nd edition 1989, 250 pages., (together with Ursula Wilke). Lexikon der Humansexuologie. Verlag Volk und Gesundheit, Berlin 1990, 231, XLIV S., 133 Illustrations, (with Lykke Aresin, Hannes Hüttner and Hans Szewczyk).