Gerd Bacher

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Gerd Bacher (1960s)

Gerhard Angelo Roman Bacher (born November 18, 1925 in Salzburg ; † June 27, 2015 there ) was an Austrian journalist and for many years General Director of the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) .

Life

Gerd Bacher grew up in poor conditions in Salzburg. His father Walter Bacher worked in the wood industry and his mother Elisabeth Bacher was a teacher. Both were unemployed for long periods of Bacher's childhood. Bacher became a member of the Hitler Youth in 1938 ; on April 20, 1943, he applied for membership in the NSDAP , but only achieved the status of "party candidate". In contrast to many other Austrian journalists, he later openly confessed to this past and said that he himself had to arrive in democratic Austria in 1945. Bacher initially did Reich labor service in Rankweil in Vorarlberg and volunteered as a soldier in the Wehrmacht . His service as a tank grenadier ended with a wound. In Olpe , Bacher was first taken prisoner by the British and later by the United States in early April 1945 , from which he was released in August of the same year.

In 1946 he started as a trainee in the editorial department of the Salzburger Volkszeitung , a little later he switched to the Salzburger Nachrichten . In 1954 he went to Vienna and became editor-in-chief of the tabloid Bild-Telegraf (now discontinued). During the so-called Vienna Newspaper War , he and the entire editorial team of his newspaper switched to the newly founded tabloid Bildtelegramm (now discontinued), which was re-established a little later as Express (now discontinued). Bacher was editor-in-chief of both newspapers.

Between 1967 and 1994, with interruptions, Bacher headed the public broadcaster ORF for 20 years , he was its general director five times: after the 1964 Broadcasting Referendum and the entry into force of the Broadcasting Act from 1967 to 1975, from 1978 to 1986 and from 1990 to 1994.

For several years he wrote weekly comments for the courier and was briefly its editor-in-chief in 1975. From June 1989 until he took up his fifth directorship at ORF, Bacher was editor of the Vienna daily newspaper Die Presse .

1974 to 1978 Gerd Bacher was media advisor to the German CDU politician Helmut Kohl . In 1975 he ran for the position of ZDF program director.

In 1999, Bacher was voted Austria's journalists of the 20th century by a specialist media jury together with Karl Kraus and Hans Dichand .

Gerd Bacher's grave

A few months before his 90th birthday, Gerd Bacher died on June 27, 2015 as a result of a stroke . On July 14, 2015, he was buried in a grave of honor (Group 33G, number 6) at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

After his death, Federal President Heinz Fischer paid tribute to Bacher as a “thoroughbred journalist” who “shaped the Austrian media landscape, especially the ORF, more than anyone else in the Second Republic”.

Others

He got his nickname "The Tiger" from the cartoonist Gustav Peichl alias Ironimus on the occasion of his winning election as general manager in 1967. In the caricature with the title "Tu den Tiger in den Kasten" the mighty tiger strides through the picture tube opening in the television box and at a small one The protagonists of proportional representation , a male of the SPÖ (three arrows) and one of the ÖVP (traditional costume) flee the door on the side . The saying is a modification of the advertising slogan "Pack the tiger in the tank" by Esso (see Esso-Tiger ). Bacher is known by this nickname to this day.

Gerd Bacher is the father of Helga Rabl-Stadler , an Austrian politician, entrepreneur and president of the board of directors of the Salzburg Festival .

Awards

Publications

  • Media development in the future. The role of Austria. Lecture by ORF General Director Gerd Bacher. Verlag Rainer Pinkau, Göttingen 1984, ISBN 3-86071-050-8 , 20 pp.
  • “The media democracy - politics and culture in a limitless public”. On Tuesday, June 21, 1988, in the house of the Patriotic Society, Hamburg. Übersee-Club, Hamburg 1988, 13 pp.
  • The general manager. Gerd Bacher's speeches, lectures, and statements from the years 1967 to 1994. A selection. Edited by Michael Schmolke. Böhlau, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-205-99247-4 .

literature

  • Contemporary witnesses. Paths to the Second Republic. Edited by the University of Salzburg and the Salzburg State Studio of the ORF. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-218-00444-6 , pp. 25-38.
  • Clemens Hüffel, Anton Reiter (ed.): Media pioneers tell ... 50 years of Austrian media history - from the old to the new media. Braumüller, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3-7003-1480-9 .

Web links

Wikiquote: Gerd Bacher  - Quotes
Commons : Gerd Bacher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ex-ORF general manager Gerd Bacher died , kleinezeitung.at, accessed on June 28, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b Ex-ORF General Director Gerd Bacher tot , wien.orf.at, accessed on June 28, 2015.
  3. ↑ Hausjell: Bacher "did not want to see the fascistoid with friends" Der Standard, June 28, 2015
  4. ↑ a b Former ORF general director Gerd Bacher has died , apa.at, accessed on June 28, 2015.
  5. ↑ including [1] , Der Spiegel 19/1976: "Television: ZDF in a stranglehold?"
  6. ↑ Big funeral for ORF legend Gerd Bacher on kurier.at on July 14, 2015
  7. ↑ Ex-ORF general director Gerd Bacher dead ORF, June 28, 2015
  8. ↑ All of the Great Gold Medal of Honor awarded since January 1st, 1970 with a deadline of: December 5th, 2006 ( Memento of the original from March 7th, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved June 28, 2015  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.landtag.steiermark.at
  9. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  10. ^ Krainer Prizes 2005 ; Retrieved June 28, 2015
  11. ↑ derStandard.at - DER STANDARD journalists Harrer and Graber awarded . APA notification of January 24, 2008, accessed on September 10, 2015.
  12. ↑ CONCORDIA PRICES 2013 ( Memento of the original dated May 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Press releases on the Concordia Press Club website , accessed June 28, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.concordia.at
personal data
SURNAME Bacher, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bacher, Gerhard Angelo Roman (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist, ORF general director
DATE OF BIRTH November 18, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Salzburg
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 2015
Place of death Salzburg