Georg Friedrich Alexan

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Georg Friedrich Alexan , actually Georg Kupfermann , (* July 12, 1901 in Mannheim ; † January 11, 1994 in Dornum ) was a German journalist and editor-in-chief of the GDR newspaper USA in words and pictures .

Life

After elementary school , the son of a Jewish businessman, Georg Friedrich Alexan, began an apprenticeship as a commercial clerk in 1916 . From 1921 to 1931 he worked in his parents' shop and also attended the commercial college . He also attended evening classes in French and English literature and social history at the community college . In 1931 Alexan went to Paris and worked there as a freelance writer . In 1933 he joined the Association of German Writers and founded the Editions meteor publishing house . There he published two of his own novels under the name Friedrich Alexan . In 1937 Alexan married Maria Kotz and went to the USA with her.

From 1938 Alexan was second secretary of the German American Writers League , which split in 1940. Together with Ernst Bloch and others, Alexan founded the exile association of anti-fascist writers The Tribune for Free German Culture on behalf of the KPD and was its cultural-political director until 1945. From 1939 to 1945 Alexan was also a committee member and advisor to the German American League for Culture. In 1942 Alexan's daughter, who later became a publicist Irene Runge , was born. From 1945 to 1949 Alexan was director of the Tribune Subway Gallery in New York and from 1947 to 1949 he was also co-director of Touchstone Press .

In May 1949 Alexan returned to Germany and joined the SED . From June to September 1949 he was an assistant at the Franz-Mehring-Institut at the University of Leipzig . Until January 1950 he was the main advisor to the German Economic Commission and then main advisor in the press department in the Office for Information (AfI). In this role, Alexan was head of the US and Imperialism Division and editor-in-chief of the radio show The Truth About America . From 1950 to 1953 Alexan was editor-in-chief and the sole author of the monthly USA in words and pictures . From December 1951, Alexan was head of the USA Department in the Peace and Plan Propaganda Department at the Information Office. After the office was terminated, Alexan became a freelance worker in 1954 for radio and later for television in the GDR .

Alexan also worked as a translator since the 1950s. He translated propagandistic works on contemporary history by Arthur David Kahn , Agnes Smedley , William E. Dodd and Herbert Aptheker, among others , into German. Alexan had been a member of the GDR's Association of Journalists since 1950 and also published in the magazine Die Weltbühne . In 1961 Alexan retired.

Works

  • With us the flood . Editions meteor, Paris 1934.
  • In the trenches of home . Editions meteor, Mannheim 2008 (first edition: Paris 1935).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexan, Georg Friedrich in the DNB
  2. ^ Georg Friedrich Alexan in the ADK archive
personal data
SURNAME Alexan, Georg Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Georg Kupfermann (maiden name); Alexan-Kupfermann; Alex C. Schlichting (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and editor-in-chief
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH January 11, 1994
Place of death Dornum