Günter Gaus

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Günter Gaus (1982)

Günter Gaus ( Günter Kurt Willi Gaus ; born November 23, 1929 in Braunschweig ; † May 14, 2004 in Hamburg-Altona ) was a German journalist , publicist , diplomat and politician .

Life

Günter Gaus grew up as the son of the businessman Willi Gaus and his wife Hedwig in Braunschweig. His parents ran a vegetable and tropical fruit shop . Nights by bombs in air raid shelters and the devastating bomb attack of October 15, 1944 had a lasting impact on the child. Gaus visited the location near the family home Gaußschule where 1949 he the Abitur stored. During the last years of his school days he was editor-in-chief and co-editor of “Der Punkt”, one of the first school newspapers of the post-war period in Germany . At that time he already wanted to become a journalist and sat in on the Braunschweiger Zeitung . He then studied German and history at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He also worked as a journalist during his studies.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Gaus worked for various daily and weekly newspapers, including Der Spiegel and the Süddeutsche Zeitung , where he was political editor from 1961 to 1965. His series Zur Person , which was broadcast for the first time on April 10, 1963 on ZDF , became famous. Gaus presented one guest in each case in the form of an interview . The portraits of politicians, scientists and artists that were created in this way are considered classics today and are repeated on television to this day. Gaus, who himself was mostly only heard in the programs, continued the series (partly among other titles) on various third programs , at times also for dctp on Sat.1 , for decades.

From 1965 to 1968 he was program director for radio and television at Südwestfunk , and in 1966 also head of the political TV magazine Report Baden-Baden . After commenting on the current political situation in the Federal Republic in books in the mid-1960s, he became editor-in-chief of Spiegel in 1969 . The sheet and Gaus supported the Ostpolitik of the social-liberal coalition .

Günter Gaus as permanent representative of the Federal Republic in 1974 in conversation with Erich Honecker

In 1973 Gaus switched to politics and became State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery . He was intended to be the first head of the Permanent Representation of the Federal Republic of Germany to the GDR and took over this position after the Basic Treaty came into force and the establishment of the Permanent Representation in 1974. In this position, which he held until 1981, he was able to act as "chief negotiator" negotiate many humanitarian reliefs for German-German contacts with the GDR government. His merits include 17 agreements that, for example, made it possible to build the Hamburg-Berlin autobahn and facilitate transit traffic .

In 1976 Gaus joined the SPD . In 1981 he handed over the position of permanent representative to Klaus Bölling and for a short time became Senator for Science and Art in Berlin . After the SPD's defeat in the 1981 parliamentary elections , he turned back to journalism. In the 1980s he wrote several books on the situation in the Federal Republic and German-German relations as well as on security policy. He has received several awards for his journalistic work. Since 1990 he has been co-editor of the left-wing weekly newspaper Freitag . He was also co-editor of the political and scientific monthly magazine Blätter for German and international politics . He accompanied the reunification critically, especially a lack of "inner unity" he repeatedly problematized. In 2001 Gaus resigned from the SPD because of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's declaration of “unlimited solidarity” with the US government .

Gaus' grave of honor in Berlin

In 1955 he married Erika Butzengeiger in Munich, born in 1931, daughter of the bank manager Karl Butzengeiger . In 1956 their daughter Bettina Gaus was born. She also became a journalist; since 1999 she has been the political correspondent for the national daily newspaper . From 1969 until his death in 2004, the couple lived in Reinbek near Hamburg, interrupted by work-related moves . The grave of Günter Gaus is in the Dorotheenstädtisch-Friedrichswerder cemetery in Berlin-Mitte . Since November 2010 it has been an honorary grave of the State of Berlin . His - unfinished - memories contradictions appeared after his death that same year.

Awards

Works (selection)

  • Bonn without a government? Chancellor regiment and opposition. Report, analysis, criticism. Piper, Munich 1965.
  • State-preserving opposition or has the SPD surrendered? Conversations with Herbert Wehner . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1966.
  • Where Germany is. A location determination. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1983, ISBN 3-455-08694-2 .
  • Germany and NATO. 3 speeches. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1984, ISBN 3-499-15446-3 .
  • The world of the West Germans. Critical considerations. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1986.
  • Germany in June. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-462-01889-2 .
  • Turning rage. A story. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-455-08379-X .
  • What remains are questions. The classic interviews. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-360-01012-4 .
  • To person. Witness to history. Verlag Das Neue Berlin, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-360-01025-6 .
  • Contradictions. Memories of a left conservative. Propylaea, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-549-07181-7 .

literature

  • Thomas Grimm : Günter Gaus. The most famous back of the head in Germany. In: Left Fatherland Journeyman. Socialists, anarchists, communists, ruffians, and other non-conformists. Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-932529-39-1 , pp. 194-225.
  • Werner Breunig, Andreas Herbst (ed.): Biographical handbook of the Berlin parliamentarians 1963–1995 and city councilors 1990/1991 (= series of publications of the Berlin State Archives. Volume 19). Landesarchiv Berlin, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-9803303-5-0 , p. 149 f.
  • Gudrun Hirschmann: Günter Gaus. In: Working group other history (ed.): Braunschweiger personalities of the 20th century. Volume 1, oedingDRUCK, Braunschweig 2012, ISBN 978-3-925268-42-7 , pp. 88-91.
  • Hans-Dieter Schütt : Günter Gaus. From the hopes of a skeptic. Dietz Verlag 2014.

Web links

Commons : Günter Gaus  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

obituary

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Günter Gaus: contradictions. Memories of a left conservative. P. 34f.
  2. ^ Karl-Heinz Löffelsend: The Helmstedt. The history of a street and its inhabitants , Braunschweig 2005, pp. 21–23.
  3. ↑ Cornelia Steiner: 1976 Zeitzeugen: "The years as a permanent representative in the GDR were his best". Interview with Bettina Gaus about her father, the journalist, publicist and diplomat Günter Gaus. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung of July 23, 2009.
  4. ^ Günter Gaus: contradictions. Memories of a left conservative. P. 120.
  5. ↑ Juliette Maresté: Who was Günter Gaus? A search for traces in Braunschweig. In: Braunschweiger Zeitung from September 11, 2019.
  6. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 30, No. 219, November 21, 1978.
personal data
SURNAME Gaus, Günter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gaus, Günter Kurt Willi (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German diplomat and journalist, MdA
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Braunschweig
DATE OF DEATH May 14, 2004
Place of death Hamburg-Altona