Franz Barsig

Franz Albert Barsig (* 22. February 1924 in Bytom ; † 20th December 1988 in Goettingen ) was a German journalist , SPD - press secretary and director of Radio Free Berlin .

Life

Franz Albert Barsig was born in what is now Bytom, the son of a miner. Originally, he wanted to become a teacher, so after graduating from high school he first attended a state teacher training institute. However, this training was terminated prematurely when he was drafted into the Wehrmacht. Barsig was trained as a fighter pilot and shot down during World War II.

At the end of 1945 he became a correspondent for the Braunschweiger Zeitung , switched to the Hanoverian Volksstimme for two years in 1946 , and then became deputy head of the office of the German news agency (DENA) in Hanover . In 1948 he joined the SPD . Franz Barsig came into first contact with the then SPD executive committee through Fritz Heine 's father . Due to his job, he moved to Bonn in the early 1950s , where he got a job as editor of the newly founded Neuer Vorwärts . Like many other journalists from Bonn, Barsig lived with his family in a federal apartment in the Reutersiedlung . The older of his two sons, Dietmar , later also became a successful journalist as a ZDF correspondent. He died in 2011 at the age of 49.

Franz Barsig began his career in the SPD as a press officer for the SPD parliamentary group until he was appointed press spokesman for the SPD party executive. From 1965 on, Barsig was editor-in-chief and deputy director of Deutschlandfunk . He was able to conclude his journalistic career with two five-year terms from 1968 to 1978 as director of the SFB , although his conservative attitude made him increasingly marginalized in the SPD. During his term in office, he was always certified as having a high level of social competence in the Sender Freies Berlin. He is considered one of the formative directors of the broadcaster Free Berlin. Under Barsig's leadership, the SFB u. a. the first editorial board of a public broadcaster installed. During his tenure, he received numerous awards for radio and television play productions by the SFB (legendary in 1971 the film adaptation of Siegfried Lenz's " Deutschstunde " ) as well as successful artistic contacts in Great Britain and the Soviet Union with the SFB dance orchestra. After leaving the SFB on February 28, 1978, Barsig continued to work in Bonn as a freelance journalist until his death.

Franz Barsig died of a heart condition in Göttingen at the age of 64. He was married and had two children. His grave is in the Röttgen cemetery (Bonn) .

literature

• Walter Henkels : 99 Bonn heads , reviewed and supplemented edition, Fischer-Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1965, p. 28f.

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Barsig in the catalog of the German National Library
• Franz Barsig in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)
• Franz Barsig in the general catalog of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ernst Goyke, "Die Reutersiedlung", in: Rudolf Pörtner (Ed.), Kinderjahre der Bundes Republik . Düsseldorf 1989, pp. 76-82.
2. ^ Franz Barsig and the Left. The Affair in the SFB / By Cornelia Jacobsen (accessed July 4, 2011)