Hans Diebow

Hans Diebow (born June 24, 1896 in Oschersleben , † December 20, 1975 in Stuttgart ) (pseudonyms: Hans Pars, Totila) was a German journalist and writer.

Live and act

Diebow probably took part in the First World War as a volunteer from 1914, but no later than 1915 . After the war he studied in Erlangen , where he in 1923 with a thesis on archaeological studies of the nakedness of the woman in Greek art Dr. phil. received his doctorate.

After completing his studies, Diebow embarked on a career in journalism. Even then he was close to the anti-Semitic völkisch movement and published the book The Race Question in 1924 . Until 1928 he worked as the editor in charge of the Deutsche Witzblatt , a "folkish" Sunday publication by Richard Kunze, which was published in Berlin-Friedenau . In 1931 he was mentioned as editor of the Illustrierte Beobachter . Later, at an unexplained point in time, he joined the editorial team of the Völkischer Beobachter , whose editor-in-chief he finally took over. Diebow was also a member of the “Photo Reporter” committee of the Reich Association of the German Press and an employee of the Neues Volk newspaper .

Since the 1920s Diebow published a number of non-fiction books. He mainly wrote biographies on personalities such as Benito Mussolini , Adolf Hitler and Gregor Strasser on the one hand and - especially since the mid-1930s - anti-Semitic "educational pamphlets" on Judaism on the other. Rich illustration was characteristic of most of these works. In his Hitler biography from 1931 Diebow justified this working method with a Hitler word from Mein Kampf , according to which the word must be subject to the image.

In 1937 Diebow contributed the brochure accompanying the anti-Semitic exhibition The Eternal Jew, which opened in Munich on November 8, 1937 . The brochure later served as the basis for the propaganda film Der Ewige Jude from 1940. In 1941 Diebow added a similar volume in which he “informed” German readers about the plans of “American Jewry” and its influence on American politics and finance.

Both scriptures were widespread at the time. Last but not least, they were also received abroad and by Jewish circles. Well-known Jews who dealt with Diebow's illustrated book about the "eternal Jews" included Theodor W. Adorno and Veza Canetti , who took the book with her on her escape from Germany.

After 1945 Diebow published at least two books under a pseudonym .

After the end of the war, Diebow's writings became the characters of the German Reichstag. Drawings (Arbeitszentrale für Volkische Enlightenment, Berlin 1924), Mussolini (together with Kurt Goeltzer , Verlag Tradition, Berlin 1931), Hitler. A biography in 134 images (along with Goeltzer, publishing tradition, Berlin 1932), The Eternal Jew ( Rather , Munich-Berlin 1938) and The Jews in USA (Rather, Berlin 1939) in the Soviet occupation zone to the list of auszusondernden Literature set . In the German Democratic Republic , this list was followed by Die Rassenfrage (Arbeitszentrale für Völkische Sprachabende, Berlin-Lichterfelde 1924) and Gregor Straßer and National Socialism (Tell-Verlag, Berlin 1932).

Contents of Diebow's writings

In terms of content, most of Diebow's works were characterized by a strongly tendentious approach to their subject: based on Diebow's nationalistic basic attitude - the annual reports for German history already called him a "nationalist writer" in 1932 - most of his writings were written under the auspices of this very view. For his biographies it can be true that - as Kratzenberg attests to Diebow's Strasser biography - they were characterized by an "apologetic", critical distance to their object that missed them.

The character of Diebow's writings on Judaism as deeply anti-Semitic works of defamation written down for propaganda purposes can be seen as a fact. Henschel characterizes the work on American Judaism as "venomous" (for example: in a poisonous manner inflammatory). Methodologically, Diebow's Jewish books are particularly striking: in his book from 1941 he presents an unfavorable photograph of the allegedly Jewish one New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia next to the picture of a grimacing monkey. Photographs of American Jewish women hung with gold, pearls and silk at the dining table are provided with a comment about “the land where milk and honey flows” in order to call up the prefigured cliché of the “rich Jew” in the mind of the reader. Offe sees Diebow's picture montages, for example in comparison to John Heartfield , as "awkward". It should also be noted that Diebow in both books - apparently deliberately - twisted facts in order to place Jews as a group in a bad light: Examples of this are that he declares prominent non-Jewish American business leaders such as Charles M. Schwab to be Jews, and so on to be able to make credible the fact of the alleged “Jewishness” of the American economy. Furthermore, according to Nathan Frankfurter, he puts false quotes into the mouths of Jews, calling for the "extermination of the German people".

Fonts

• Archaeological Studies of the Nudity of Women in Greek Art. Erlangen 1923. (Dissertation; 2nd edition. 1924)
• Character heads of the German Reichstag . Berlin: work center f. völkisch Enlightenment 1924 (under the pseudonym Totila)
• The race question. Racial Studies, Heredity and Racial Hygiene, Berlin-Lichterfelde: Central Office for Völkisch Speech Evenings 1924.
• The rose-colored glasses. A picture book for children, Berlin: Verlag Tradition 1931. (together with Kurt Goeltzer)
• Mussolini. A biography in 110 pictures , Berlin: Verlag Tradition 1931. (together with Kurt Goeltzer)
• Hitler. A biography in 134 pictures. Berlin: Kolk 1931. (together with Kurt Goeltzer; 2nd edition. 1932)
• Gregor Strasser and National Socialism, Berlin: Tell 1932/1933.
• The Eternal Jew. 265 image documents. Munich: More like 1937. (2nd edition, 1938).
• The Jews in USA. Over a hundred picture documents, Berlin: Rather 1941. (2nd edition as Der Jude in USA. 1942; 3rd edition. As Die Juden in USA. Over a hundred picture documents compiled. 1943)
• But Crete was divine. The experience of the excavations. Olten: Walter-Verlag 1957. (under the pseudonym Hans Pars)
• The pictures are still glowing. Fates and adventures of masterpieces of art. Hamburg: Holsten-Verlag 1964. (together with Hans Schwarz van Berk under the pseudonym HH Pars)

literature

• Wilhelm Kosch, Bruno Berger: German Literature Lexicon. Biographical-Bibliographical Handbook. 1966, p. 162.
• Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 113.
• Wolfgang Benz (Ed.): Handbook of anti-Semitism. Vol. 2, 1, de Gruyter, Saur, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-24072-0 , pp. 170-171 Google Books .

Web links

• Literature by and about Hans Diebow in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ German Association for School Health Care : Health and Education. 1915, p. 128.
2. ^ Ernst Klee: The culture lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 113.
3. ^ Otto Büsch, Wilhelm Treue: History as a task. Festschrift for Otto Büsch on his 60th birthday. 1988, p. 562.
4. ↑ Otto Thomae: The propaganda machinery. 1978, p. 426.
5. ^ German Historical Museum: Holocaust. The National Socialist genocide and the motives of its perpetrators. 2002, p. 81.
6. ↑ Angelika Schedel: Socialism and Psychoanalysis. 2002, p. 162.
7. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1946-nslit-d.html
8. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1948-nslit-t.html
9. ↑ http://www.polunbi.de/bibliothek/1953-nslit-d.html
10. ^ Annual reports for German history , 1932, p. 287. At that time, however, you still identify him as a non-National Socialist.
11. ^ Volker Kratzenberg: Workers on the way to Hitler? 1987, p. 294.
12. ^ Klaus Hentschel : Physics and National Socialism. An Anthology of Primary Sources. 1996, p. Lxxii.
13. ^ Claus Offe: Democratization of Democracy. 2003, p. 271.