How to contact Hartmut Rührdanz?

[Basil Carmody]

I own the only Six Metre designed by Reinhard Drewitz.

In his biography of Drewitz in the Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers, Hartmut Rührdanz refers to my boat in saying ""Another new and fascinating project was his extreme design for a 6-Meter, which was built at the shipyard of Buchholz".

Mr Rührdanz holds the archives of Reinhard Drewitz. He knows more about the history of my boat than anyone else.

Mr Rûhrdanz doesn't speak English and I don't speak German.

I have tried to contact him through a German-speaking friend, but it didn't succeed.

My boat has some important mysteries related to its construction.

As I begin to re-build it, it would be extremely useful to be able to obtain Mr Rührdanz's information about these mysteries. If I don't obtain this information, the re-build will be based on guesses.

If you know Mr Rührdanz, would you be willing to act as intermediary and interpreter for my questions?

Thanks,

Basil

[manfjacob]

Hello,

please give me your e-mail adress.


Manfred
manfjacob@gmx.de

[kunzhobel]

Dear Basil,

your project needs to be supported! As you can see, my englisch is not very good but I phoned recently with Mr. Rührdanz and he gave me detailed informations to a J- Jolle "Heilige Latte". Most of the archive of Drewitz is lost because the East German secret service "Stasi" has stolen or destroyed it. Despite that a call could be worth it because Rührdanz is very interestet in the history of yachting and he will certain remember such a uniqe boot.
If you wont feel free to send me your qestions via e-mail. I could phone with Mr. Rührdanz to give you the answers you wont. My e-mail adress is:

gregor_schuchardt@hotmail.com

Best wishes
Gregor

[Andreas H.]

Ich habe einen 30qm Seekreuzer von Hartmut Rührdanz.
Herr Rührdanz hatte es sehr schwer in der DDR. Das erklärt auch warum keine Informationen mehr vorhanden sind.
Seht Euch mal diesen Link an:http://www.stiftung-hsh.de/page.php?cat ... l=0&html=0

Gruß Andreas

[Basil Carmody]

Dear Andreas,

Many thanks for your reply and the link to the Stiftung site.

I had heard part of Herr Rührdanz' story during my first attemtp to contact him.

Through a student at Göttingen Unniversity, I have managed to enter into contact with him. I will send the biography from the Stiftung site to this student.

I have tried to translate the article into English. I copy it below.

Best wishes,

Basil

Hartmut Rührdanz was born 1928 in Greifswald. He learned automotive repair and shipbuilding. Afterwards he studied to become a shipbuilding and welding engineering specialist.
In 1961, he lived in East Berlin with its wife, Sigrid Paul. In January 1961, their son Thorsten was born. Thorsten suffered at that time from a serious illness, which could only be treated by medicines from the western part of the city. When the wall was built on 13 August 1961, the child was suddenly cut off from his medicines.
Only after overcoming of numerous bureaucratic hurdles, did the Rührdanz parents succeed in having their son placed in a West Berlin hospital. However, they were denied the right to visit him.
With falsified passports they tried in vain to flee from the GDR to Scandinavia.
Later, in 1963, when they provided brief accommodations to three students, this gesture of generosity led to their being arrested. The parents had mentioned their failed escape attempt to the students. The three students, in turn, wanted to flee by a tunnel at Brunnenstrasse. The location of this tunnel had been communicated to the Ministry for public security (MfS) by an informant.
When arrested, Hartmut Rührdanz and his wife were placed in pre-trial detention in the Berlin jail of Magdalenenstraße, where they were cross-examined for 22 hours. Afterwards, they were jailed in the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen prison. There, they could occasionally communicate to one another by tapping out signals.
The district court of Rostock condemned Hartmut Rührdanz in August 1963 to four years in the penitentiary for having provided aid to others to escape the DDR
As a prisonner, Hartmut Rührdanz worked in the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen prison as a car mechanic. Later he was transferred to the Bautzenprison, after he had denounced employees of the MfS to the public prosecutor's office for extortion.
In August 1964 he was freed thanks to the payment of a cash ransom by the German Federal Republic. However, he had to remain in the GDR. From then on, he was discriminated against with regard to his professional employment.
After the fall of the SED dictatorship, he became deeply involved in the restoration and operation of a memorial to the DDR prisons. Since 1992, he works as a tour guide for groups visiting his former detention centre.