Erich Fischer (journalist)

Erich Fischer (born July 10, 1908 in Essen , † 1994) was a German journalist. His career took him from press and propaganda work for the Hitler Youth to the Reich Press Office of the NSDAP and the Reich Propaganda Ministry . After taking over the management of the German press department there in 1942, he acted as press spokesman for the National Socialist Reich government. After the Second World War he worked as a publishing manager for Spiegel .

Life

Before 1945

Fischer completed elementary school in Essen and the secondary school in Baden near Vienna, which he left in 1926 with secondary school leaving certificate. From 1926 to 1929 he worked as a volunteer and from 1929 to 1931 as a surveying technician at the land registry office in Buer (Westphalia) . He became a member of the NSDAP in July 1927, was also a member of the SA from 1927 to 1930 and was active as a Gau speaker. But he was mainly involved in the Hitler Youth , in which he rose to the position of Oberbannführer. His political activities for the Hitler Youth led to his dismissal as a surveying technician in 1931. From 1928 to 1932 he worked in the Hitler Youth as press and propaganda manager for the Gau Westfalen-Nord. In 1931 he took over, initially part-time, and later full-time, the main editorial management of the Cologne HJ magazine for the HJ upper area West Fanfare , which he also co-founded. In 1933/34 he acted as editor of the Illustrieren Fanfare , which reached a circulation of 500,000 copies. At the same time, he headed the press department of the HJ Upper Area West in Cologne.

In April 1934 Fischer switched to the Reich Youth Leadership as deputy head of the press and propaganda department . In November 1934 he was entrusted with the management of this department, the later (from June 1935) press and propaganda office of the HJ. In this capacity he tried to politically cleanse the youth press and in 1935 published the HJ's handbook, Die Junge Kameradschaft . He also headed the press service of the Reich Youth Leadership and was the main editor of the Jungvolk magazine Der Morgen . In March 1936 he became HJ liaison leader for the youth press student council in the Reich Association of the German Press and in the same year also Reich speaker . According to Michael Buddrus , Fischer was dismissed as head of the press and propaganda office at his own request in January 1937 and subsequently promoted to area leader in May 1937 because of his services to the press work of the Hitler Youth. According to Willi A. Boelcke , Fischer was expelled from the Hitler Youth because he had allegedly led a "campaign of revenge" against Baldur von Schirach .

In February 1937, Fischer became head of the "Press Political Apparatus" office in the Reich Press Office of the NSDAP , which controlled all Reich German newspapers, chief editor of the Nazi press letter and head of the main youth department. At the beginning of the war it was made indispensable. In October 1939 he joined Otto Dietrich as a consultant in the press department of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda , while retaining his offices in the Reich Press Office , where he was given the rank of senior government councilor and at the same time became deputy head of the German press department. For a short time in 1939 Fischer also worked as the main editor of the magazine Der neue Weg . In April 1940 he joined the SS (membership number 382.410), while he was released from the Hitler Youth in November 1940. In the SS he reached the rank of SS-Sturmbannführer in November 1941 . In November 1940 he received the rank of senior government councilor in the Propaganda Ministry. In March 1942 he was promoted to Ministerialrat and, as successor to Hans Fritzsche, head of the German press department. Fischer acted as the last press spokesman for the Reich government and thus set the guidelines at the Reich press conferences.

In August 1942, Fischer was awarded the War Merit Cross, Second Class, for his successful “influence on German domestic press policy” and “dealing with foreign countries” . In July 1943 he had to face disciplinary proceedings before the SS court for behavior that was harmful to the SS and unworthy of the SS. In 1944 Heinrich Himmler and Joseph Goebbels faced the alternative of either firing Fischer from the SS or sending them to the front as SS riflemen to the Waffen SS . Fischer was then assigned to the 6th SS standard in December 1944 and honorably discharged from his Hitler Youth rank. In 1945 he was a leader in the SS Upper Spree section. On April 4, 1945 he was adopted by Goebbels for the Wehrmacht .

After 1945

In 1950, Fischer began to work as manager of the Hamburg press office Woischnik , which, with authors such as Paul Karl Schmidt and Hans-Georg Studnitz, produced leaflets and brochures for the anti-communist Volksbund for Peace and Freedom to promote the Marshall Plan and the European idea . In 1952, Fischer went to the news magazine Der Spiegel , for which he was responsible for advertising acquisition in the Rhine-Ruhr area as the publishing manager of the Düsseldorf office . On October 26, 1962, at the beginning of the police action against the Spiegel ( Spiegel affair ), he was arrested in Düsseldorf . BKA officials had mistaken him for Rudolf Augstein, despite the fact that there was no external resemblance .

Fonts

• (Ed.): The young comradeship. Zeitgeschichte Verl. U. Vertriebs-Ges, Berlin 1935.
• with Hans Krebs et al. (Ed.): The young comradeship. A yearbook for German youth. Westfalen-Verl, Dortmund (1938).

literature

• Michael Buddrus : Total education for total war. Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy . Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11615-2 .
• Willi A. Boelcke (Ed.): War Propaganda 1939 - 1941. Secret Ministerial Conferences in the Reich Propaganda Ministry. DVA, Stuttgart 1966 DNB 457297204 .
• Lutz Hachmeister: A German news magazine. The early mirror and its Nazi staff . In: Lutz Hachmeister, Friedemann Siering (ed.): The gentlemen journalists. The elite of the German press after 1945 . CH Beck, Munich 2002, pp. 87-120, ISBN 3-406-47597-3 .
• Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2003 (first edition), ISBN 3-10-039309-0 , updated edition 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , 2nd edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-596- 16048-8 ; Licensed edition: Akzente, Koblenz 2008, ISBN 978-3-9811483-4-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Michael Buddrus: Total education for total war. Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy . Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3598116152 , p. 1140 f.
2. ↑ Willi A. Boelcke (Ed.): War Propaganda 1939 - 1941. Secret Ministerial Conferences in the Reich Propaganda Ministry. German Verl.-Anst, Stuttgart 1966, p. 66.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Klaus Körner: From anti-Bolshevik to anti-Soviet propaganda. Dr. Eberhard Taubert. In: Arnold Sywottek (ed.). The Cold War - Prelude to Peace? . Lit, Münster, Hamburg 1994, ISBN 9783894736026 ( Yearbook for Historical Peace Research . 2), pp. 54–68, here p. 60; Klaus Körner: Political Brochures in the Cold War. 1967 (sic!) To 1963 . In: German Historical Museum .
4. ↑ Christoph Gunkel: 50 years of the SPIEGEL affair. Hunt for "dragonfly" . In: Spiegel online , September 17, 2012 (accessed December 29, 2014); Lutz Hachmeister: A German news magazine. The early mirror and its Nazi staff . In: L. Hachmeister, F. Siering (ed.): The gentlemen journalists. The elite of the German press after 1945 . CH Beck, Munich 2002, p. 87.