Dr Sigmund Jähn
Aviation cosmonaut
Honorary citizenship awarded on 25.09.1978
Dr Sigmund Jähn was born on 13 February 1937 in Rautenkranz, Vogtland. After attending school and completing his apprenticeship, he worked as a book printer. From 1955 to 1958, he studied at the Officers' Academy of the Air Force of the National People's Army of the GDR, became a fighter pilot and studied at the Soviet military academy "Yuri Gagarin" from 1966 to 1970.
In 1976, he began his training as an aviation cosmonaut at the Soviet cosmonaut training centre near Moscow. On 26 August 1978, Dr Sigmund Jähn became the first German to fly into space.
Together with Valery Bykovsky, he flew on board "Soyuz 31" to the space station "Salut 6", where he worked on 22 scientific experiments with the regular crew, cosmonauts Vladimir Kovalyonok and Alexander Ivanchenko. After a flight time of 7 days, 20 hours and 49 minutes, he returned to Earth with Valery Bykovsky in the spacecraft "Soyuz 29".
Dr Sigmund Jähn completed his doctorate in remote sensing of the Earth, became head of the NVA Air Force's Centre for Cosmic Training and was one of the founding members of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) in 1985. Since 1990, he has worked as a consultant for space issues and liaison officer for the German Aerospace Centre (DLR) and the European Space Agency (ESA) and is a globally respected space expert. Dr Sigmund Jähn supervised all manned German and European space flights to the "Mir station". He was honoured with numerous international awards for his outstanding scientific achievements.
In recognition of his space flight, Dr Sigmund Jähn was made an honorary citizen of the city of Karl-Marx-Stadt (now Chemnitz) on 25 September 1978 and in March 1979 the city's cosmonaut centre was named after him. By maintaining close relations with the Cosmonaut Centre, Dr Sigmund Jähn made a significant contribution to making this small "star town" one of the most interesting and popular leisure facilities for children and young people in Chemnitz.
He died on 21 September 2019.
Cosmonaut Centre "Sigmund Jähn"
The "Sigmund Jähn" Cosmonaut Centre in Küchwaldpark has been an integral part of Chemnitz's educational and cultural landscape since it was founded on 14 August 1964 and is now run by "solaris Förderzentrum für Jugend und Umwelt gGmbH Sachsen". >>more