Lothar Schulz

Lothar Schulz was born in 1950 in Alt Ruppin, Brandenburg. In 1972, he completed his studies in thermal mechanical engineering at the Dresden University of Technology and became a Coordination Engineer for the assembly/commissioning of the Soviet nuclear reactor VVER-440 in Lubmin/Greifswald. Thanks to his fluency in Russian, he was recommended for a traineeship at the Energy Institute in Moscow. However, his conscience would not allow him to join the SED and he turned down the offer. The traineeship was cancelled.

After several unsuccessful attempts to advance professionally and a rejected application to leave the country, he protested by himself in the centre of East Berlin on 2 April 1978 with a banner against the SED. He was arrested and held at the Rostock remand centre of the Ministry of State Secrurity. L. Schulz was sentenced to one year and ten months' imprisonment for "obstructing state activity".

At the end of 1979, L. Schulz was released within the GDR following an amnesty. He was not allowed to leave for West Germany until May 1981. He worked there as an International Project Manager and Consultant for West German industry in the field of business/logistics software systems.

Since December 2015, he has worked as a Visitor Advisor with a focus on foreign languages at the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial and has been working for the Coordinating Contemporary Witness Office at schools and educational institutions since 2017.