Luise Ermisch
Luise Ermisch | |
|---|---|
| Personal details | |
| Born | Luise Thürmer 20 May 1916 Halle, Province of Saxony, German Empire |
| Died | 17 January 2001 (aged 84) Mühlhausen, Thuringia, Germany |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany/ Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) |
| Spouse | ______ Ermisch |
| Occupation | Politician |
Luise Ermisch (born Luise Thürmer; 20 May 1916 in Halle – 17 January 2001 in Mühlhausen (Thuringia) was a German political activist and later a senior politician in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany),[1] who balanced her political career with an ongoing involvement in the clothing industry.
She became known for the "Luise Ermisch Method" ("Luise-Ermisch-Methode"), an approach to industrial production involving detailed planning that subdivided the manufacturing process into individual work station segments and allowed for quantity and quality of output to be precisely measured, evaluated, bench-marked and attributed. The resulting statistical output could be used to feed a system of incentives and rewards. Because East Germany operated with a centrally directed
Life
The daughter of a
"Supervisor, Liselotte Ertingshausen (left), checks a skirt made by her colleague, Jutta Wolfgang, to see that she has succeeded in doing all the stitching in the right places."
(" Die Meisterin Liselotte Ertingshausen (links) prüft eine Schürze, die Kollegin Jutta Wolfgang, sie beherrscht sämtliche Positionen, genäht hat")
* VEB Kleiderwerk, Mühlhausen 1954
After the war she worked as a seamstress in the VEB[2] Halle Dress factory. She joined the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB /"Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund") in 1947. She then, in 1949, received further training at the FDGB's regional school and at the Technical High School in Neugersdorf. She became a member of the trades union leadership and was a co-founder of the first "Brigade of Outstanding Quality" ("Brigade der ausgezeichneten Qualität"). By now she was marked out as a political activist, and in 1950 she joined the country's ruling SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany/Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands)
From 1954 Luise Ermisch started to roll out the "Luise Ermisch Method" to deconstruct industrial production process within the framework of socialist competition principles. Within a factory an operating plan was developed to breakdown and identify production quantities and quality for each individual worker and team. When quantities and quality had been identified and valued the results were used to identify recipients of awards.
Between 1951 and 1971 Ermisch was responsible for operations at the Halle Dress Factory, after which, until her retirement in 1976, she took over the VEB Mühlhausen Dress Factory. In 1966 she undertook a correspondence course that qualified her as a Clothing Industry Engineer. Between 1966 and 1970 she served as the Chairman of the Clothing Industry Business Council.
Ermisch's political appointments during the 1950s appeared to place her in positions of very considerable influence. Between 1954 and 1981 she was a member of
Recognition
Ermisch was awarded a number of high level awards:
- Hero of Labour (GDR) (1950)
- Banner of Labor (1955)
- Patriotic Order of Merit (Bronze) (1966)
- Order of Karl Marx (1976)
Further reading
- Gabriele Baumgartner, ISBN 3-598-11176-2, p. 165.
References
- ^ "Biographische Datenbanken: Ermisch, Luise geb. Thürmer". Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur. Retrieved 13 October 2014.
- ^ VEB = Volkseigener Betrieb = (literally) Peoples' Own Business/Operation