Günter Beaugrand

Ludwig Günter Beaugrand (born August 24, 1927 in Düsseldorf ; † November 21, 2018 in Hamm ) was a German publicist . From 1965 he lived in Hamm ( Westphalia ) and did a lot of voluntary work there.

Life

Günter Beaugrand was born the son of a master painter. He died in 1936, so that his mother took care of the family alone. After a long stay with a rural family in Essentho ( Marsberg ), Günter Beaugrand returned to Düsseldorf in 1940 and continued to attend school at the Scharnhorst high school. From March to September 1941, he and his class took part in the Kinderland deportation to Spindleruv Mlyn / Sudetenland . He was a member of the Catholic youth of the parish St. Albertus Magnus in Düsseldorf and saw this as a counterbalance to the ideological influence of the Hitler Youth. In mid-July 1943, Günter Beaugrand was commanded as an air force helper to the flak in Düsseldorf, then in autumn 1944 he was deployed in the war in excavation of tank trenches on the Westwall on the Lower Rhine , Reich labor service in Flensburg and, from December, training as a tank grenadier on the Hardthöhe in Bad Godesberg . Relocated to the Netherlands in January 1945 , Günter Beaugrand was taken prisoner of war by the British on April 1st . Until September 1945 he was in a camp near Bruges in Belgium . After his release, he continued attending the Leibniz Gymnasium (previously Scharnhorst Oberschule) and graduated from high school in a special course there in March 1947 .

Journalistic activities

After unsuccessful efforts to get an apprenticeship or study place, Günter Beaugrand was employed by the press service of those persecuted by the Nazi regime in Düsseldorf in July 1947 as a volunteer and later as an editor for the weekly newspaper “VVN-Nachrichten” and later for her successors “Das 20 . Century ”,“ Newspaper Without a Name ”and“ Das Freie Wort ”employed as editor. Until 1953, Günter Beaugrand's career path led him to various areas of responsibility: Editor at the “ Bonner Rundschau ” in the regional edition for the Ahrweiler district in Bad Neuenahr (1953–1955), press officer for “Haus Hoheneck” and the Federal Working Group for Youth Protection in Hamm (1955–1957 ), Editor of the catholic radio and film illustrated magazine “Funkkalender” in Hamm and Cologne (1957–1962), deputy editor-in-chief of the radio illustrated company Gong in Nuremberg and editor-in-chief of the catholic illustrated magazine “Feuerreiter” in Cologne (1962–1964). He then returned to Hamm as the deputy editor-in-chief of the “ Liboriusblatt ”, where he was editor-in-chief from 1969 to 1994, meanwhile with the same task at the “Bayerischer Sonntagsblatt”, which cooperates with the “Liboriusblatt”.

Social Commitment

In addition to and during his professional activity, Günter Beaugrand turned to various sociopolitical and church tasks, for example as a board member and spokesman for the editors in the "Arbeitsgemeinschaft Katholische Presse", the federal workgroup Aktion Jugendschutz and the Landesarbeitsgemeinschaft Jugendschutz NRW, board member of the Institute for Media Information, Cologne, for the publication of the " film-dienst " and the "Funk-Korrespondenz", chairman of the Catholic Press Association , Bonn, chairman of the Friends and Sponsors of the Volkshochschule Hamm.

In these and other committees, Günter Beaugrand primarily sought to address current problems in media studies and media education and to provide practical help for dealing with film and television. For many years he was jointly responsible for the selected, artistically demanding feature films shown weekly in the VHS cinema in Hamm. Early on, he headed the “New Media” working committee of the Catholic press and the Catholic News Agency (KNA). Since the beginning of the “Lippewelle Hamm” he was a member of the organizing community as a representative of the Catholic Church for the Archdiocese of Paderborn and the Diocese of Münster .

Günter Beaugrand died in November 2018 at the age of 91.

Works (selection)

Günter Beaugrand published numerous books and writings during his professional career, but also after his retirement in 1994:

• Television in early childhood, Hamm 1966
• TV murder for millions, Hamm 1971
• Living with the screen, Hamm 1973
• Family partner television, Hamm 1979
• Cardinal von Galen - The Lion of Münster, Aschaffenburg 1985
• Consolation of Silence, Hamm 1989
• Nikolaus Groß , Augsburg 1989
• Cardinal von Galen - The Lion of Münster, Münster 2005
• St. Liborius in the Stream of Time, Paderborn 1997
• Unity and unity - Dr Günter Rinsche- Portrait of a German European Hamm 1997
• Paradiese Abbey, Hamm 2002
• The Konrad Adenauer Foundation, St. Augustin 2003
• Between resistance and reparation, Münster 2005

Günter Beaugrand worked on many edited volumes. Since 1994 he has designed the Westfälische Heimatblätter as a regular supplement to the Westfälischer Anzeiger , Hamm. Every year a selection of the articles published there appeared in the yearbook “Our Westphalia”.

Honors

• For his services to the Catholic press and the protection of minors in the media, Pope John Paul II honored Günter Beaugrand in 1987 with the appointment of Knight of St. New Years Eve .
• The City Council of Hamm awarded him the coat of arms plate in 2007.
• In 2014 the Federal President awarded him the Federal Cross of Merit on ribbon.

Web links

• Literature by and about Günter Beaugrand in the catalog of the German National Library