Ernst Cramer (journalist)

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Ernst J. Cramer (born January 28, 1913 in Augsburg ; † January 19, 2010 in Berlin ) was a German publicist and chairman of the Axel Springer Foundation .

life and work

Ernst Cramer was born in Augsburg in 1913 as the son of Martin Cramer, a Jewish entrepreneur and admirer of Bertolt Brecht . Martin Cramer founded the Augsburg Literary Society together with Brecht in 1922 . He became impoverished during the Great Depression, his son Ernst was unable to finish school as a result, and his dream of becoming a teacher remained unfulfilled. He had to work to make money for the family.

In 1933 Cramer was a co-founder of the Association of German-Jewish Youth (see also Jewish Youth Movement ). After the anti-Jewish acts of violence on November 9, 1938 , he was interned in the Buchenwald concentration camp for six weeks . In 1939 he was able to emigrate to the United States . His brother and parents were murdered in the Shoah .

In the United States, Ernst Cramer first worked on a refugee farm and then began studying at Mississippi State College and Stanford University . When the USA entered the war after the attack on Pearl Harbor , he joined the US Army . After the war ended in 1945, Cramer returned to Germany as a US soldier and American citizen.

From 1948 to 1954 Cramer was deputy editor-in-chief of the Neue Zeitung (Munich) , a high-quality German-language newspaper of the American occupation forces. From 1954 he worked in the United States for the UP news agency . Four years later he was employed by Axel Springer Verlag , a. a. as deputy editor-in-chief of the daily newspaper Welt . Until Axel Springer's death in 1985, Cramer was regarded as his closest political and journalistic collaborator and advisor.

From 1981 to 1993 Cramer was the publisher of Welt am Sonntag . Between 1983 and 1999 he was also a member of the publisher's supervisory board. From 1981 to 2010 Cramer was chairman of the board of the Axel Springer Foundation. Sebastian Haffner's companion wrote regularly for Welt am Sonntag and Die Welt as well as for other Axel Springer newspapers.

In 2006, Cramer spoke in front of the German Bundestag on the occasion of the commemoration day for the commemoration of the victims of National Socialism .

Ernst Cramer died on January 19, 2010 of complications from a heart attack. The burial took place in the Jewish cemetery in the Augsburg district of Hochfeld.

Awards

Ernst Cramer has received numerous honors, including the Great Cross of Merit with a star and shoulder ribbon, the Leo Baeck Medal , honorary citizenship of the city of Augsburg (July 24, 2003) and, as the third German after Axel Springer and Heinz Galinski, an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan -University in Israel.

In 2004 he was awarded the Heinz Galinski Prize . Cramer will be honored for his life's work, which is characterized by understanding, tolerance, mutual respect and advocacy for peace and reconciliation, it was said to justify. In 2008 he received the Order of Merit of the State of Berlin .

In memory of Ernst Cramer, the city of Augsburg named the street in the Hochfeld district (north of the Jewish cemetery).

Awards and grants named after Ernst Cramer

Since 2008, the American Jewish Committee has presented the Ernst Cramer Award for Outstanding Contributions to American Jewish-German Understanding, named after Cramer . It is awarded to persons and institutions who have made a special contribution to the understanding between American Jews and Germans. Previous winners are W. Michael Blumenthal and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation .

The Ernst Cramer Fellowship of the International Journalist Program (IJP) has enabled younger journalists from the Federal Republic of Germany to receive two-month travel and work grants since 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Jürgen Hillesheim: Augsburger Brecht Lexicon. Königshausen and Neumann, Würzburg 2000, p. 99 sv Max Hohenester.
    Project group in search of traces of the Maria-Theresia-Gymnasium in Augsburg: Helene Cramer , February 19, 2009, accessed on February 21, 2017.
  2. ^ Mathias Döpfner : Obituary for Ernst Cramer: A man who started googling at the age of 92 . Die Welt , January 19, 2010, accessed on February 21, 2017.
  3. ↑ a b 10 years of the American Jewish Committee in Berlin. American Jewish Committee press release, March 10, 2008, accessed February 21, 2017 .
  4. ↑ International journalist programs: German-Israeli journalist scholarship: The Ernst Cramer & Teddy Kollek Fellowship. Retrieved February 21, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Cramer, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cramer, Ernst J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publicist, board member of the Axel Springer Foundation
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 2010
Place of death Berlin