Ernst Müller-Meiningen junior

Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. (* June 8, 1908 in Munich ; † April 10, 2006 there ) was a German journalist .

He was an important representative of German post-war journalism and long-time chairman of the German and Bavarian Association of Journalists.

Life

He attended the Theresien-Gymnasium in Munich and studied law in Munich and Kiel from 1926 to 1930. He received his doctorate with the dissertation Insulting People in Public Life . In 1933 he passed the Great State Examination in Law.

During the regime he was banned from working for political reasons. Since he was denied admission to the civil service or to the legal profession, he found work as a legal clerk at a major bank and stayed there until 1945. To distinguish it from his father Ernst Müller-Meiningen , he had the addition "jr." In his name, which he kept until his death.

In 1946 he joined the newly founded Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) as an editor . His abbreviation “MM.jr.” in the SZ was his trademark and became legendary. He was a style-defining factor for his profession and created a tradition. For two decades, from 1951 to 1971, he headed the German and Bavarian Association of Journalists . He was a founding member of the German Press Council and was a member of this self-regulation college from 1956 to 1970.

For decades he determined the legal policy course of the Süddeutsche Zeitung and advocated the humane and free constitutional state. In his articles and comments he commented on problems of the judiciary, the press "or in the broadest sense of what was sometimes criticized, sometimes defamed as ' coming to terms with the past '". He campaigned against the introduction of the death penalty and critically accompanied the legal appraisal of Nazi injustice. According to his own statement, he had a "tendency to joke, satire, irony and, as he hopes, a touch of humor": When the CSU politician Friedrich Zimmermann was convicted in the first instance of negligent false oaths in the casino affair and publicly denounced as a " perjurer " was pointed out by Müller-Meiningen jr. pointed out that this allegation was incorrect, since it can be proven that Zimmermann never worked as a farmer. In 1979 he retired from the editorial office of the Süddeutsche Zeitung. In 1997 he spoke up for the last time in a letter to the editor on the occasion of the discussion about the great eavesdropping , in which he ironically remarked that Article 1 of the Basic Law should be supplemented as follows: "Torture is only permitted in accordance with the general laws ."

Because, in his opinion, a newspaper was a trend company , he often got into trouble with the SZ publishing company. In 1951 he heavily criticized the publishers for dismissing 42 employees. At a works council meeting he referred to the publisher Edmund Goldschagg as the “ lord pencil keeper ” and criticized the fact that, in his opinion, he was wrongly occupying the paid post of editor-in-chief. The result was that Müller-Meiningen was fired, which he did not care about, but continued to appear at his workplace and also went to play tennis with the local manager and publisher Werner Friedmann . On this occasion Friedmann took the dismissal by saying back: "We embarks 's otherwise at no dog."

“The sellout of freedom of the press is making rapid progress in the world. For fascist and communist dictators, freedom is a foolish foreign word anyway. But even in liberally organized countries, the freedom of the press is increasingly becoming an element in the sign of progressive rationalization and automation, with the ultimate effect of relentless concentration. In the journalistic field, however, this development means increasing insecurity, existential fear, adjustment journalism, and in the political field an unhealthy development towards ever hypertrophic monopolies; the ' new media ' accelerate this process. "

- Müller-Meiningen jr. (1989)

Honors

• 1965: Theodor Wolff Prize
• 1969: Ludwig Thoma Medal from the City of Munich
• 1988 Wilhelm Hoegner Prize

Works

• The party comrades . Considerations and suggestions for solving the Nazi problem. Zinnen-Verlag, Munich 1946.
• Comments from yesterday and today. Munich 1966.
• The year thousand and one. A German turning point? Verlag Helbing & Lichtenhahn, Basel 1987, ISBN 9783719009687 .
• Medals, philistines, pepper sacks. A liberal campaigner remembers. Swiss publishing house, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-7263-6598-2 .

literature

• Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 27/2006 of July 8, 2006, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely accessible)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ M.-M. jr. In: Die Zeit , No. 25/1998.
2. ^ DJV honorary member Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. died .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. German Association of Journalists , press release of April 11, 2006, accessed on December 17, 2010.  
3. ↑ Hans Durrer: A great journalist. An obituary for Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. aurora-magazin.at, August 1, 2006; Retrieved December 17, 2010.
4. ↑ cit. according to Hans Durrer: a great journalist. An obituary for Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. aurora-magazin.at, August 1, 2006; Retrieved December 17, 2010.
5. ↑ Died: Ernst Müller-Meiningen jr. In: Der Spiegel . No. 16 , 2006, pp. 186 ( online ).
6. ↑ Thomas Schuler , Sabine Rennefanz : Lower the circulation! In: Berliner Zeitung , November 11, 2002. Deep, deep, deep . In: Der Spiegel . No. 7 , 1989, pp. 100 ( online ).
7. ↑ cit. after Wolfgang R. Langenbucher : The fourth power: Guardian for democracy and freedom .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. magazine-deutschland.de, April 30, 2010; Retrieved December 17, 2010.  
8. ^ Hanno Kühnen: From old newspapers. In: Die Zeit , No. 44/1987