Walther Karsch

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Walther Karsch (born October 11, 1906 in Dresden , † October 16, 1975 in Berlin ) was a German journalist , theater critic and editor of the Berlin daily newspaper Der Tagesspiegel .

Life

Walther Karsch was born in Dresden, but grew up in Berlin. He studied German, history, philosophy and English. Karsch worked for the Berlin magazine Die Weltbrille from 1928 to 1929 . He also published in the magazines Die Friedens-Warte and Neue Generation . From January to June 1929 he headed the magazine Der Schulkampf , which was published by the Socialist Student Union in Berlin-Neukölln .

From 1930 on he became an employee of the Weltbühne under its editor-in-chief Carl von Ossietzky via an editorial assistant . When von Ossietzky had to start a prison sentence as a result of the Weltbühne trial in May 1932 , Karsch acted from then on as the so-called seat editor of the paper. While Hellmut von Gerlach took over the content management of the Weltbühne , Karsch was the responsible editor in terms of press law and could have been made liable in the event of press law violations.

When, after the Reichstag fire, von Ossietzky was arrested and von Gerlach fled, Karsch is said to have been appointed editor-in-chief for a short time in early March 1933. However, the Weltbühne was banned a few days later, the last edition appeared on March 7, 1933. The National Socialists then imposed an absolute writing ban on Karsch, so that Karsch earned his living as a craftsman and sales representative during the Third Reich . Towards the end of the Second World War he headed the press department of the district office in Berlin-Zehlendorf .

After the end of the war, Karsch was briefly a member of the KPD . In September 1945 Karsch founded the Berlin daily Der Tagesspiegel together with Erik Reger and Edwin Redslob . In 1952 he became the first chairman of the newly founded Berlin Press Club . He was a member of the jury for the 1st Berlinale . He was also chairman of the Association of German Critics and a member of the PEN Center Germany .

In the 1960s Karsch also worked as a publisher, e.g. B. for the Herbig publishing house , for which he obtained, for example, prose anthologies .

Shortly before his death he was awarded the Silver Leaf of the Dramatiker Union in 1975 for his services .

Walther Karsch died in Berlin in 1975, just five days after his 69th birthday. His grave is in the forest cemetery in Zehlendorf .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ursula Heukenkamp (Ed.): Untererm Notdach: Post-War Literature in Berlin 1945-1949 . Schmidt, Berlin 1996, p. 541 f
  2. ↑ Nicolai Riedel (Ed.): International Günter Kunert Bibliography 1947-2011 . Berlin 2012, p. 1011
  3. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 634.
personal data
SURNAME Karsch, Walther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and editor
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1975
Place of death Berlin