Felix von Eckardt

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Felix von Eckardt (born June 18, 1903 in Berlin ; † May 11, 1979 in Capri ) was a German journalist, screenwriter and politician for the CDU . During the National Socialist era , he worked on a number of pro-regime films. After the war he became Konrad Adenauer's “eye, ear and mouthpiece” .

Felix von Eckardt

Live and act

Felix Heinrich Fedor von Eckardt grew up in Hamburg . After attending a secondary school, he belonged to the Prussian Cadet Institute from 1916 to 1918 , most recently at the Hauptkadettenanstalt Berlin-Lichterfelde , where he was to be prepared for the soldier profession. Instead, he completed an apprenticeship in banking after the First World War . Then he trained as a journalist at the Stuttgarter Tageblatt , from 1922 worked for his father's Hamburg newspaper , and from 1926 for the Münchner Neusten Nachrichten . In 1927 he worked as a foreign policy reporter at Ullstein Verlag , then from 1928 to 1929 as a foreign correspondent for the magazine Tempo . From 1929 to 1932 he worked as a press attaché at the Wolff telegraph office in Brussels . He then wrote reports and feature articles for various publishers.

With the film

Thanks to his friend, director Fritz Wendhausen , von Eckardt entered the film business in 1936. He mainly wrote screenplays for revue films and crime films , but also relevant propaganda films such as Head up, Johannes! , People in the Storm and the Bismarck epic The Discharge . In 1937 he was earning well enough to buy a 100-acre estate near Neustrelitz . “Felix von Eckardt is always on the winner's side. In the war he doesn't need to become a soldier, he is a screenwriter for the UFA and is important to the war effort . Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels likes what he writes . "

Newspaper maker in Bremen

Mayor Wilhelm Kaisen and Felix von Eckardt

After the Second World War , von Eckardt fled his East German estate to Bremen in 1945 . He was toying with the position of editor-in - chief at the Weser-Kurier ; However, since the Americans refused to grant him his license due to his recent past , he initially had to be content with heading up the politics department. Instead, the SPD member Hans Hackmack received the license. Günther Schwarberg , who was volunteering at the Bremer Blatt at the time, wrote about von Eckardt: “He sets the tone for the newspaper. He writes the leading articles and the commentaries. ”His texts were in line with the trivialization of German fascism and were dominated by the coming Cold War . Finally, in 1947, Eckardt also granted the license, which enabled him to become a co-owner of the flourishing Weser courier . In addition, he was state chairman of the European Union in Bremen until May 1952 .

Federal Press Chief and State Secretary

Felix von Eckardt 1961 with clerical dignitaries, Bonn

In 1952 Eckardt followed the call to set up a press and information office for the federal government in Bonn . He was effectively a government spokesman. From May 1955 to 1956 he acted as an observer at the United Nations in New York . Von Eckardt, who was considered a confidante of Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer , accompanied him on his trip to Moscow in September 1955. In July 1956 he was again government spokesman; In 1958 he rose to the position of (civil servant) State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery . He held this office until 1962. From July 1962 to October 1965 he was the agent of the Federal Republic in Berlin. From 1965 to 1972 von Eckardt was a member of the German Bundestag . He had won a direct mandate for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) in the constituency of Wilhelmshaven .

On February 8, 1962, State Secretary von Eckardt presented himself, in Schwarberg's words, “to protect against the Reichswehr Major Waldemar Pabst ”, who ordered the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht and is now an arms dealer in Düsseldorf . Eckardt wrote in the Bulletin of the Federal Government : "Pabst does not deny his responsibility for the executions, but he assures that he did it in dire need and with the conviction that this is the only way to end the civil war and save Germany from communism." Pabst was never prosecuted.

Personal

In addition to his strictly anti-communist attitude, the behavior of the well-heeled von Eckardt had "stupid" features. The dog lover, horse lover and HSV fan was also known for a vest collection. From 1945 he lived again on a large farm near Bremen. Since 1973 he lived in Hamburg. He was the son of the journalist Felix von Eckardt (* July 12, 1866 in Riga; † June 5, 1936 in Hamburg) and his wife Eva Maria Victoria, b. Geffcken, a daughter of Friedrich Heinrich Geffcken . Von Eckardt's grandfather was Consul General Julius von Eckardt , married to Isabella David, daughter of the Leipzig concertmaster Ferdinand David . Von Eckhardt himself was married to the Hamburg merchant's daughter Edith Peters. The couple had two sons. Von Eckardt died of a heart attack on Capri in 1979.

Honors

Works

  • A messy life , memories, Düsseldorf / Vienna 1967
  • Under the sign of co-determination , Stuttgart 1969

Filmography

  • 1936: family parade
  • 1936: White slaves
  • 1936: Rolf has a secret (short film)
  • 1937: crystal or porcelain (short film)
  • 1937: With a sealed order
  • 1938: I love you
  • 1938: the optimist
  • 1939: We dance around the world
  • 1940: Star of Rio
  • 1941: Cheer up, Johannes!
  • 1941: Always only you
  • 1941: people in the storm (idea)
  • 1942: White laundry
  • 1942: The discharge
  • 1942: the big number
  • 1943: The landlady of the white Rößl
  • 1943: The weak hour (also dialogue direction)
  • 1943: Light blood
  • 1943: His best role
  • 1944: The master detective
  • 1944: The perpetrator is among us (idea)
  • 1946: Peter Voss, the millionaire thief
  • 1950: When a woman loves

literature

  • Walter Henkels : 99 Bonn heads , revised and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 81f.
  • Johannes Hürter (Red.): Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871 - 1945. 5. T - Z, supplements. Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service. Volume 5: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger: Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2014, ISBN 978-3-506-71844-0 , p. 430

Web links

Commons : Felix von Eckardt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ kas  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 14, 2012@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kas.de  
  2. ^ Spiegel February 6, 1957 , accessed February 14, 2012
  3. ^ Spiegel February 6, 1957 , accessed February 14, 2012
  4. ↑ Günther Schwarberg: I'll never forget that. Memories from a reporter's life , Göttingen 2007, page 157
  5. ↑ See also kas  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on February 14, 2012: "As a busy screenwriter, von Eckardt was obviously more valuable to the Nazi regime than a soldier from the front."@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.kas.de  
  6. ↑ Schwarberg Göttingen 2007, pages 100/101
  7. ↑ Schwarberg Göttingen 2007, page 157
  8. ↑ Von Eckhardt claimed that the German peace movement was controlled by the Soviet Union, with the threads coming together in a control center in the West , cf. Schwarberg (page 139/140)
  9. ↑ Schwarberg Göttingen 2007, page 159
  10. ^ Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd, updated, revised and expanded edition. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X , p. 217.
  11. ^ Spiegel February 6, 1957 , accessed February 14, 2012
  12. ↑ Schwarberg Göttingen 2007, page 159
  13. ^ Spiegel February 6, 1957 , accessed February 14, 2012
  14. ↑ Schwarberg Göttingen 2007, page 157
  15. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.59 MB)
predecessor Office successor
Hans Riesser Head of the Permanent Mission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the United Nations
1955 - 1956 		Georg von Broich-Oppert
personal data
SURNAME Eckardt, Felix von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (CDU), Member of the Bundestag
DATE OF BIRTH June 18, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 11, 1979
Place of death capri