Günter Fraschka

Günter Fraschka (born December 17, 1922 in Hindenburg (Upper Silesia) ) is a former German author , editor and journalist . Well-known pseudonyms are Ulrich Kai , Gert Pommer , Klaus Zimmer and Georg Zolin .

Life

Fraschka took as an officer in the Second World War, in part, from which he kriegsversehrt returned.

From 1958 Fraschka appeared as the author of so-called popular war literature; he had previously worked as a sports journalist. In doing so, he became the "star author" of the Rastatt Pabel publishing house . Compared to the news magazine Der Spiegel , Fraschka described “writing the war experience from the soul” as the function of his writing activity; the literary historian Jost Hermand names him in a series with Kurt Meyer and Hans-Joachim Korten an author of apologetic war literature in the form of memory books.

About Fraschka's work, first published in 1958, “... with swords and diamonds . From the life of the 27 winners of the highest German bravery award ” , the local newspaper Cellesche Zeitung judged that after“ all the long years of defamation of German soldiers [...] it was just at the right time. ”In the book,“ German youth will find them again military service has become role models to whom they can look up. "the publisher even applied the book with praise from Herbert Graberts German professors newspaper , in ... with swords and diamonds as" [e] references book for young people "and Fraschka It was himself certified that he had "shown himself to be a talented portrayal of the world of soldiers experience", "[with] an incorruptible sense of honesty of character, historical loyalty and a noble attitude to battle". According to a report by the Military History Research Office from 2004, Fraschka reported in the publication the story of a visit by the fighter pilot Werner Mölders to Hitler in favor of the Münster bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen . The story, which Fraschka describes as "truth", shows itself "embellished with further details"; the "verbatim quoted speech" contains "different formulations" than earlier publications. The expert opinion regarded the representation as "with a probability bordering on certainty" made up story. "... with swords and diamonds" was translated into several languages ​​and reprinted several times, most recently in 2005.

Fraschka was also the author of the booklet series Der Landser , also published by Pabel , where he presented in particular works on so-called knight cross bearers. The novel The Last Aufgebot , published in 1960, dealt with a Silesian Volkssturm battalion in the final phase of the Second World War. Other works by Fraschka include Ready to Shoot and Mercy for Paris , both published in 1959. They describe, without justifying National Socialism and its war plans, “the 'war experience' from the perspective of the compatriot or officer who obeys his orders or - when it is already too late - resists,” said the journalist Manfred Jenke .

Between 1962 and 1980/1981, Fraschka published the Limes magazine through the journalism bureau located in Neckarzimmern , which, according to the subtitle, was a German economic and cultural review that was available on passenger trains. Between 1981 and 1992 the Südwestdeutsche Illustrierte , a magazine for society, economy and politics , was published in the same way . According to the opinion of the news magazine Der Spiegel , the Limes was "a poorly camouflaged CDU newspaper". Fraschka was chairman, later honorary chairman of the CDU district association Neckar-Odenwald .

In the mid-1970s, the Bonn tax investigation under Klaus Förster came across financial transactions between Fraschka and Julius Steiner , a CDU member of the Bundestag who had become known in 1972 by abstaining from the no-confidence vote against Willy Brandt . According to the investigations, Fraschka had evaded taxes of more than 100,000 DM by means of bogus invoices from Steiner , which is why Fraschka was sentenced to a fine in May 1977 . Another trial before the Mosbach District Court for unduly false testimony before an investigative committee also resulted in a fine for Fraschka. According to the news magazine Der Spiegel , Fraschka had already worked as a “fundraiser” for the CDU in 1969 and was involved in illegal party financing practices .

According to a report in the weekly newspaper Die Zeit in October 1982, Fraschka was one of the largest suppliers to the press center of the German Bundestag for years . Fraschka is said to have achieved an average turnover of one million DM per year with the production of brochures through Parliament. According to the time, the Federal Audit Office criticized the fact that Fraschka received orders without a tender and found that he was being paid excessive prices.

Web links

• If the Führer only knew ... From “Getting Ready to Shoot” by Günter Fraschka . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1959, pp. 79 ( online ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Date and place of birth according to the German Literature Lexicon: The 20th Century , Volume 9: Fischer - Abendroth - Fries, founded by Wilhelm Kosch , continued by Carl Ludwig Lang , KG Saur Verlag Zurich and Munich, 2006, ISBN 978-3-908255- 09-3 , p. 2153
2. ↑ Manfred Jenke , Conspiracy from the Right? A report on right-wing radicalism in Germany after 1945. Colloquium, Berlin 1961, p. 376.
3. ↑ From all pipes . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1959, pp. 76-78 ( online ).
4. ↑ Dirk Wendtorf: Adolescent Wehrmacht Soldiers in Post-War Youth Literature : Victims or Perpetrators? ; autobiographical explanations for the motivation of adolescent soldiers . Peter Lang, Bern a. a. 2006, p. 36.
5. ↑ Quoted in: Der Spiegel . No. 36, 1959, p. 66 ( online ).
6. ↑ Quoted in Reinhold Grimm, Jost Hermand (ed.): Yearbook for contemporary German literature . Volume 4. Suhrkamp / Athenäum-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1973, p. 39.
7. ↑ Wolfgang Schmidt: Jagdgeschwader 74 “Mölders” (Neuburg ad Donau), Mölders barracks (Visselhövede) . ( Memento of the original from November 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 23 (PDF 261 kB, accessed on July 6, 2012) 
8. ↑ Schmidt, Jagdgeschwader 74, p. 25.
9. ↑ Jenke, Conspiracy , p. 376.
10. ↑ ^{a b} Pious and useful . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1977, pp. 34-39 ( online ).
11. ↑ ^{a b c} Kurt Gerhardt: Good line to Bonn. In: Die Zeit , 44/1982 (October 29, 1982).