Gerhard Freund

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Gerhard Freund (born September 5, 1925 in Vienna ; † May 29, 1979 in Vienna) was an Austrian actor, operetta buffo , journalist and cultural manager.

Live and act

The son of a teacher was drafted into the German armed forces at the age of 18 and deployed to France (there is a war diary from this period, which was edited by Freund's son René Freund ). After 1945, Gerhard Freund passed the drama exam and worked as an operetta buffo and actor, including in the city ​​theater in Baden near Vienna. He designed radio broadcasts for the Austrian Federation of Trade Unions on the American occupation station Rot-Weiß-Rot , was considered a social democrat and was involved in setting up television in Austria from 1955. Therefore - according to Thaddäus Podgorski  - he became the first television director of Austrian Broadcasting in 1957 , because Chancellor Julius Raab , who headed a government of the "grand coalition" and had to fill posts according to proportional representation, underestimated the new medium of television and preferred to secure radio for his ÖVP have.

Friend met in the sequence as a representative of the proportional representation system sharp criticism of itself be designated as independent media, especially on the part of the proponents of the broadcast referendum in 1964. With the establishment of the ORF by the OVP single-party government Josef Klaus was friend in 1967 as Director of Television by Helmut Zilk (also a Social Democrat) replaced.

In 1967 Freund became the sole managing director of the Munich TV production company Intertel . In April 1974 he was appointed director of the Wiener Stadthalle by the City of Vienna and in 1977 he was also the artistic director of the Wiener Festwochen ; as the successor to Ulrich Baumgartner (1918–1984), he was responsible for the festival programs in 1978 and 1979.

Gerhard Freund, who died of an aneurysm , was buried in the Hietzinger Friedhof (49-128). The Gerhard-Freund-Ring donated by the state newspaper “ Wiener Zeitung ” is dedicated to his memory .

Gerhard Freund's grave

Works (selection)

  • Watching TV up close Experiences and experiences of a television director . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1961
  • TV in Austria. Considerations by the Austrian television director . ÖGB publishing house , Vienna 1962
  • Rudolf Angerer (Ill.), Gert Schlegel (compilation of the pictures): But look, Mr. Brinkley! Youth and People, Vienna 1963
  • Problems of television . In: Günther Nenning (Ed.): Judges and journalists. About the relationship between law and the press. Lectures at the judges' week in 1964 in Weissenbach am Attersee . Europa-Verlag, Vienna (inter alia) 1965, pp. 47–57

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ René Freund: Father's War Diary . Ö1 , March 10, 2008, as well as
    René Freund: "Face inescapable death". Father's Diary . In: The ramp. Notebooks for literature . Volume 2010.1. Cultural Department of the Office of the Upper Austrian Provincial Government, Linz 2010, pp. 48–56, ZDB -ID 192278-6 .
  2. ^ A b Felix Czeike : Historisches Lexikon Wien . Volume 2: De-Gy . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-218-00544-2 , p. 399
  3. ↑ Gerhard Freund is dead . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna May 30, 1979, p. 3 , bottom middle ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
personal data
SURNAME Friend, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor, operetta buffo, journalist and cultural manager
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1979
Place of death Vienna