Bernd Naumann (journalist)

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Bernd Naumann (born September 24, 1922 in Frankfurt / Main ; † August 23, 1971 near Cape Town ) was a German journalist , author and athlete who, with his reports on the first Auschwitz trial , which began in 1963, got known. Naumann published a book about the process in 1965, which was reprinted and translated several times. In 1946 he was German high jump champion .

Life

Naumann graduated from high school and was drafted into the armed forces. He was wounded and taken prisoner by the Americans. During and after the Second World War he was also successful as a track and field athlete: in 1946 he was German high jump champion for SC Frankfurt 1880 .

From 1946 he completed a degree in philology and philosophy at the University of Frankfurt am Main , which he did not complete. From 1949 he was part of the editorial team of the Neue Zeitung . He received first prize in the German Journalists' Competition. From 1953 Naumann worked for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) . He started out as a local and sports reporter at FAZ , where he became head of the “Germany and the World” department in 1963. Later, in 1970, Naumann became a correspondent for the FAZ in South Africa. In August 1971 he had a fatal accident there near Cape Town.

Reports on the first Auschwitz trial in Frankfurt

Naumann's reports on the 182 days of negotiations were particularly influential because he reported extremely soberly. They are considered to be the best about the Auschwitz trial. The public prosecutor Gerhard Wiese , who was one of the prosecutors around Fritz Bauer , said: "No one reported so extensively and precisely". Hannah Arendt wrote that Naumann had written “the most solid reports” and “abstained from almost every analysis and comment”. He confronts the reader “all the more directly with the original dialogues of the great negotiation drama”. In reporting on the process, Naumann was supported, among others, by Günther von Lojewski , who at the time was the FAZ's policy editor . The play The Investigation by Peter Weiss , which appeared in 1965, also drew from Naumann's minutes. The anger over Naumann's reporting erupted in numerous, sometimes “foul-hearted letters” to the editor.

In 2013, the historian Norbert Frei wrote in Die Zeit , referring to the reporting on the Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial: “About the Auschwitz extermination camp, everyday life there, the mass murders using gas, but also about the extermination of prisoners through work - everywhere Knowing nothing had become practically impossible for West Germans in the summer of 1965, when the trial ended after 183 days of negotiations. "

Publications (selection)

  • Auschwitz: Report on the criminal case against Mulka and others before the jury court in Frankfurt. Athenäum Verlag, Frankfurt a. M./Bonn 1965, English edition 1966, Hungarian edition 1966, Portuguese edition 1969
  • Auschwitz: Report on the criminal case against Mulka and others before the jury court in Frankfurt. Edition abridged and edited by the author. Fischer library, Frankfurt a. M./Hamburg 1968 (= Fischer-Bücherei. No. 885), most recently 1995

New edition:

  • Auschwitz: Report on the criminal case Mulka and others before the jury court in Frankfurt. With an afterword by Marcel Atze and a text by Hannah Arendt. Philo, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8257-0364-9 .

literature

  • Alfons Kaiser: Germany and the world - and Auschwitz: When the Auschwitz trial began 50 years ago in Frankfurt, he found his life's theme: Bernd Naumann, then head of the FAZ department, made the horror visible from a distance. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. December 19, 2013 (online)
  • Theodor Karst: Reports. Reclam, Stuttgart 1976, p. 175.
  • Fritz Bauer Institut , Irmtrud Wojak (Ed.): Catalog Auschwitz-Prozess 4 Ks 2/63 Frankfurt am Main (book accompanying the exhibition, see below) Snoeck, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-936859-08-6 , p. 767.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theodor Karst: Reportages , Stuttgart 1976, p. 175
  2. ↑ Norbert Frei: “Holding a day of judgment over ourselves”. In the Auschwitz Trial, which began 50 years ago in Frankfurt's Römer, the republic faced the incredible crimes of the Nazi dictatorship. The way there was difficult . In: Die Zeit, November 21, 2013, pp. 22–23.
  3. ↑ Alfons Kaiser: Germany and the world - and Auschwitz: When the Auschwitz trial began 50 years ago in Frankfurt, he found his life's theme: Bernd Naumann, then head of the FAZ department , made the horror visible from a distance . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, December 19, 2013
  4. ↑ Norbert Frei: Nazi past: "Holding a court day over ourselves" . In: The time . December 20, 2013, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed September 14, 2017]).
personal data
SURNAME Naumann, Bernd
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 24, 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt (Main)
DATE OF DEATH 23rd August 1971
Place of death Cape Town