Peter Boenisch

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Peter Boenisch, 1983

Peter Boenisch (born May 4, 1927 in Berlin ; † July 8, 2005 in Gmund am Tegernsee ) was a German journalist . He was spokesman for the Kohl government , editor-in-chief of Bild-Zeitung and Bild am Sonntag and inventor of the youth magazine Bravo .

Life

The son of one of Odessa Jewish dating Russian mother faith and a German engineer was in the last days of the " Third Reich " Flakhelfer , paratrooper and member of the Nazi party . He briefly studied Slavic Studies and Law , but soon turned to journalism and in 1945 became a local and sports reporter for the Allgemeine Zeitung in Berlin.

Boenisch initially followed Hans Wallenberg to the editorial office of the Neue Zeitung in Munich , the publisher of which was the Information Control Division of the American occupation authorities . In 1949 he became editor-in-chief of the Schleswig-Holstein daily mail in Rendsburg . From 1952 to 1955 Boenisch was head of public relations at the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation (NWDR) in Hamburg. During this time he devised the children's airlift project , which was taken up by the station's director at the time, Adolf Grimme , whose personal adviser Boenisch was also. As a magazine editor at Kindler and Schiermeyer , Boenisch founded the youth magazine Bravo in 1956 .

Boenisch and Springer

In 1959 Boenisch became an employee of the Axel Springer publishing house . He became editor-in-chief of the Bild newspaper in 1961 and was largely responsible for its style and success. Under his leadership, the Bild newspaper reached a circulation of more than four million copies.

Because of Boenisch's bold headlines (e.g. “The moon is an American”) and his attacks against the violent part of the student movement of the 1960s that he called “left-wing fascists”, Heinrich Böll dubbed him a “ platitude warrior”. .

From 1965 to 1979 Boenisch was editor-in-chief of Bild am Sonntag . In 1971 he became managing director of the newly founded holding company Axel Springer Gesellschaft für Publizistik GmbH & Co. He had to hand over the management of Bild to Günter Prinz because the circulation fell significantly under Boenisch's leadership. From 1974 to 1976 Boenisch organized the move of the world editors-in-chief from Hamburg to Bonn. From July 1978 to March 1981 Boenisch headed the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Die Welt and reorganized the paper.

In 1985 it became known that Boenisch and Rainer Günzler had received more than one million marks from the automobile manufacturer Daimler-Benz between 1972 and 1981 for PR consultancy activities . The payments became known in connection with the investigation into the Flick affair , as Boenisch had not paid tax on the money received. As a journalist, Boenisch argued in numerous articles against restrictions on motorists, against the promotion of public transport and for a car-friendly transport policy.

Boenisch and Kohl

Peter Boenisch and Eduard Ackermann , then head of department in the Federal Chancellery

In the federal election campaigns in 1976 , 1980 and 1994 Boenisch was an advisor to the CDU politician Helmut Kohl , who appointed him State Secretary on May 19, 1983 . Boenisch became head of the press and information office and government spokesman for the then federal government under Helmut Kohl . On June 14, 1985, he resigned due to tax investigations directed against him.

Return to Springer

Returning to the press industry, Boenisch initially worked as managing director for Burda-Verlag , but soon returned to Axel Springer Verlag, for which he mainly wrote columns . From 1999 onwards, Boenisch was a member of the supervisory board of Axel Springer Verlag. In 2001 he resigned after differences because of the publication of a 51-line comment in the Süddeutsche Zeitung , which was not allowed under the house rules of the publisher . He justified his resignation with the words:

“My journalistic work is my priority. Independence and freedom of choice are imperative for this. The particular restraint imposed on a member of the supervisory board with regard to public statements hinders me. A clear separation of my activities is in the interests of both parties. "

In the ensuing legal dispute, Boenisch was represented by the lawyer Matthias Prinz .

After 2001

From 2001 onwards, Boenisch was president of the Union-Klub , which at that time also operated the Hoppegarten horse racing track , which Boenisch campaigned heavily to preserve. He resigned from this post in May 2005 in order to have more time to look after their two children after the death of his wife Julia. He remained associated with the association as honorary president.

Since 2001 Boenisch has been chairman of the Steering Committee of the Petersburg Dialogue .

On July 11, 2003, he was awarded the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for “extraordinary services to the freedom of the media” and special commitment to German-Russian relations.

Peter Boenisch died of cancer. His grave is in the Gmund mountain cemetery . He was honored by Helmut Kohl as "a contentious and contentious critic". Gerhard Schröder praised him as “a truly independent mind” who never allowed himself to be captured by anyone.

In 2007 it was alleged that Boenisch was a member of the NSDAP . This was controversial insofar as it was also assumed that he had become a member without his own knowledge. In the meantime, it is historically certain that membership in the NSDAP was not possible without your own signature and that even at the end of the war membership forms were returned for lack of a signature.

family

Boenisch's first marriage was to the set and interior designer Viktoria von Schack. The marriage ended in divorce in 1965. In 1985 Boenisch married his second wife, Susanne Fischer. In 1998 he married the journalist Julia Schramm (1962-2004), with whom he had two daughters, in his third marriage . After Julia Boenisch's death, Peter Boenisch took care of the children alone.

literature

Web links

Commons : Peter Boenisch  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Most expensive hood ornament . In: Der Spiegel . No. 26 , 1985, pp. 20-22 ( online ).
  2. ↑ Heinz Blüthmann: In the name of the people . In: The time . No. 47, November 15, 1991
  3. ↑ welt.de: Great Cross of Merit for the journalist Peter Boenisch ( Memento from November 30, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Die Welt July 10, 2003
  4. ↑ Gerd Otto-Rieke: Graves in Bavaria. Munich 2000, p. 61.
  5. ↑ a b Inga Griese: An independent head . In: Berliner Morgenpost . July 16, 2005
  6. ^ Membership directory: Eppler grants NSDAP party membership . In: Spiegel Online . July 14, 2007
  7. ↑ Time Online . February 13, 1981. Retrieved May 18, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Boenisch, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
BIRTH DATE May 4, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 2005
PLACE OF DEATH Gmund am Tegernsee