Klaus Kilimann (11 October 1938 – 26 May 2024) was a German physicist who became an SPD politician after

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

. Between 1990 and 1993 he served as

Oberbürgermeister Burgomaster (alternatively spelled burgermeister, ) is the English form of various terms in or derived from Germanic languages for the chief magistrate or executive of a city or town. The name in English was derived from the Dutch . In so ...

Rostock Rostock (; Polabian language, Polabian: ''Roztoc''), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (), is the largest city in the German States of Germany, state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the sta ...

Life and career

Kilimann was born in East Prussia. His father was a

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

worker. He began attending primary school in Ortelsburg, his birthplace, which was at the time in Germany. By the time the

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

arrived in January 1945 most of the population had fled, however, and in 1944 or 1945 Kilimann was among the millions of Germans forcibly relocated in a westward direction. The family ended up in

Neukloster Neukloster is a town in the east of the district of Nordwestmecklenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. This town is the administrative center of the bureau Neukloster-Warin, which includes eight more communes. Neukloster is close to th ...

not far from

in the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

of what remained of Germany, and it was here that he concluded his primary education and then attended a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

till 1956. From 1956 Kilimann attended the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock () is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continental northern Europe and the Baltic Se ...

from where he emerged in 1961 with a degree in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

. He then undertook post-graduate studies at

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

till 1963, when he returned to Rostock and took a university post as a research assistant at the

Mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

department. He transferred to the

department in 1964 which was also the year in which he received his doctorate. He remained at the university as a senior research assistant from 1970 till 1979, having in 1978 produced his Habilitation dissertation on a topic in

theoretical physics Theoretical physics is a branch of physics that employs mathematical models and abstractions of physical objects and systems to rationalize, explain, and predict List of natural phenomena, natural phenomena. This is in contrast to experimental p ...

. Between 1980 and 1990 he was employed as an associate professor. During that period, however, for three years from 1982 he was based in

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

, helping to set up a Physics education department at an academy in the capital,

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

. In October 1989 Kilimann became a member of

New Forum New Forum () was a political movement in East Germany formed in the months leading up to the collapse of the East German state. It was founded on 9 September 1989 and was the first independent (non- National Front) political movement to be rec ...

in Rostock. New Forum was a quasi-political party, sometimes described as a "citizens' initiative", that emerged during the second half of 1989 in the context of growing civil unrest in the country. As a member, Kilimann participated locally in the legal committee set up within the wider context of the

Round Table The Round Table (; ; ; ) is King Arthur's famed table (furniture), table in the Arthurian legend, around which he and his knights congregate. As its name suggests, it has no head, implying that everyone who sits there has equal status, unlike co ...

discussions that were established in various parts of the country as part of what was now becoming known as East Germany's

Peaceful Revolution The Peaceful Revolution () – also, in German called ' (, "the turning point") – was one of the peaceful revolutions of 1989 at the peak of the collapse of the Eastern Bloc in the late 1980s. A process of sociopolitical change that led to, am ...

. In January 1990, having quit New Forum, Kilimann joined the newly (in East Germany) re-formed Social Democratic Party (SDP) which had till October 1989 been effectively muted following the creation in 1946 of the East German

Socialist Unity Party The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Ma ...

. In October 1990, with the formal

reunification A political union is a type of political entity which is composed of, or created from, smaller politics or the process which achieves this. These smaller polities are usually called federated states and federal territories in a federal govern ...

of East and West Germany, the East German SDP and (hitherto West German) SPD merged, which made Kilimann a member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). On 31 May 1990, Kilimann was elected

Lord Mayor Lord mayor is a title of a mayor of what is usually a major city in a Commonwealth realm, with special recognition bestowed by the sovereign. However, the title or an equivalent is present in other countries, including forms such as "high mayor". A ...

of Rostock in succession to Christoph Kleemann. He resigned the office three and a half years later on 3 December 1993, following reports on race riots targeting asylum-seekers, fourteen months earlier, in August 1992. The reports concluded that local police chiefs and political leaders had permitted tensions to fester and then failed act quickly and decisively when rioting broke out. Kilimann himself had been out of town when the riots started and returned from his break only as the violence reached its third night. After his resignation Kilimann was unemployed for a period till September 1994. From 1994 till his retirement in 2005 Kilimann worked on a succession of consultancy projects on behalf of the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development. The consultancy work took him to

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

and

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

. Kilimann died on 26 May 2024, at the age of 85.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilimann, Klaus 1938 births 2024 deaths People from Szczytno People from East Prussia Social Democratic Party in the GDR politicians New Forum politicians Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Mayors of places in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania