Gerhard Fauth

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Gerhard Walter Fauth (born April 9, 1915 in Dresden ; † November 6, 2003 in Neuhaus am Inn ) was a German journalist .

Life

As a student, Gerhard Fauth joined a left-wing socialist group that was close to SAP . Shortly before graduating from high school, he was arrested in the summer of 1933 for describing Hitler's new government as a "gang of criminals" in a letter to a French friend and warning that Hitler was preparing the next war. In the winter of 1933, however, the proceedings against him were put down. After his release, Fauth fled to Prague , but returned to Germany for the sake of his parents.

During the Second World War he served in Greece in the Penal Battalion 999 and made it up to lieutenant . In December 1943, a member of this battalion , Falk Harnack , was supposed to be arrested on the orders of the Gestapo because of his connections to the White Rose through Lilo Ramdohr , but was informed by Fauth and also assisted by him in a truck with the escape from Athens. In 1944 he helped some Greek partisans who were to be shot by the SS to flee by first ensuring that they were assigned to his Wehrmacht battalion as slave labor , as they were supposedly urgently needed to repair the telephone lines. When the dams were to be blown up when the Wehrmacht withdrew in 1945, Fauth did not pass the order on and thus saved important buildings in Athens. At the end of the war, Fauth was taken prisoner in Yugoslavia . After his release, he turned down an offer from his friend Erich Wollenberg to work in the administration of the Soviet zone .

After the war, he lived in Munich and worked as a journalist, including for the magazine Echo der Woche , and as a freelance writer. He wrote the book Call to the German Youth , which documented in detail the first international youth rally in Munich (June 28 to July 4, 1947) ( Verlag der Zwölf , Munich, 1948), which he and Alois Lippl and Harry helped to create Wilde was instrumental. In 1950 Fauth was invited as a consultant for youth activities on a study trip to the USA as part of the US cultural exchange program for Bavaria, as were other BJR activists . In August 1953 Fauth wrote the article Critique of Civic Education in the magazine of the Federal Youth Association of German Youth .

In 1959, together with Karl Otmar von Aretin , Fauth wrote the brochure The Assumption of Power: The Development of Germany Towards a Totalitarian Dictatorship 1918–34 for the newly established Bavarian State Center for Political Education . Also in 1959 he headed the America House in Munich. In the 1950s Fauth had belonged to the German-American Friendship Association , but resigned in protest against the activities of the McCarthy Committee .

Fauth had lived in Cologne since the sixties and worked first for the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and later, from around 1970, for Deutschlandfunk , where he was editor in the science and education department. In the seventies he worked a. a. with Dieter Thoma and Henryk M. Broder . After Fauth retired in 1980, his family emigrated to Canada , but Fauth returned to Cologne. After the death of his friend and colleague Wilhelm Unger in 1985, Fauth was asked by Unger's widow to help with the processing of Unger's estate.

Fauth was a long-time member of the SPD and active in the Protestant Church. In old age Fauth suffered from Alzheimer's disease , from which he died in 2003 near Passau .

Works

  • First international youth rally. Call to the German youth. A report. Verlag der Twelve, Munich 1948.
  • together with Karl Otmar von Aretin: The seizure of power. The development of Germany towards a totalitarian dictatorship 1918–1934. Bavarian State Center for Homeland Service, Munich 1959.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Verhoeven, Mario Krebs: The white rose. Fischer, Frankfurt a. M. 1982, p. 180 ( excerpt ).
  2. ↑ Harry Wilde : Theodor Plievier , Zero Point of Freedom. Desch, Munich 1965, p. 427 ( excerpt ).
  3. ↑ Harry Wilde: Theodor Plievier, Zero Point of Freedom. Desch, Munich 1965, p. 429 ( excerpt ).
  4. ↑ Ellen Latzin: Learning from America? Steiner, Stuttgart 2005, p. 358 .
  5. ^ Dolf Sternberger : Political Education. A presentation. In: Alfred Herrmann (Ed.): From history and politics. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Ludwig Bergsträsser. Droste, Düsseldorf 1954, pp. 231–242, here p. 239 ( excerpt ).
  6. ↑ No longer working Google books excerpt .
personal data
SURNAME Fauth, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fauth, Gerhard Walter (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 2003
Place of death Neuhaus am Inn