Hans Hermann Köper

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Hans Hermann Köper (born September 15, 1925 in Quito , Ecuador ; † June 10, 1977 in Cologne ) was one of the leading military service opponents in the Federal Republic of Germany in the early 1950s . He later became a well-known journalist and, together with his partner Gerhard Schmidt, ran the Cologne film production facility "Köper + Schmidt".

Life

Hans Hermann Köper (1925–1977) was the son of the director of studies Franz Wilhelm Köper (1885–1957), who had taught as an exchange teacher at the state teacher training college in Quito in the 1920s and had been a high school teacher in Dortmund and other places in Westphalia since 1926.

In 1943, Köper volunteered for service in the Air Force after graduating from the school. He fell ill with scarlet fever and as a result contracted a severe kidney disease "which led to one hundred percent severe war damage". Nevertheless, he was ordered to the flight pilot's school in Szczecin and volunteered again for the paratroopers. As a private in a battalion fighting in Stettin, he was wounded in 1945, but was able to escape Soviet captivity and get into the Ruhr area.

After the war, Köper made a living as a cellist in variety shows before completing his training at the Cologne University of Music and the Schumann Conservatory in Düsseldorf in 1949/50 . A SPIEGEL article mentions membership in the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ), which fell into the hawk . Grünewald mentions Köper's activity as a freelance journalist for the time after his studies and his membership in the SPD as well as his involvement with the Jusos .

The Falken and the Jusos in particular were among the initiators of the Cologne Conscientious Objectors Group (GKW) in Cologne in 1953 , in whose establishment Köper was actively involved.

“At the end of this discussion, the idea arose to prevent the emergence of a Bundeswehr through mass conscientious objection. For this reason, on September 25, 1953, the Cologne conscientious objectors group (GKW) was formed by the student Albert Graf, the wire weaver Karl Jonas, the electrician Horst Keller, the representative Anton Kolzen, the journalist Hans Hermann Köper, the locksmith Heinz Wientgen and the IG -Metal youth secretary Hans-Jürgen Wischnewski founded. At least Keller and Wischnewski were in Juso management positions at the time, the others mostly came from the falcon division. "

- Fritz Bilz : Risen from the ruins. Start-up, consolidation, adjustment. The period from 1945 to 1960

The body soon became the driving force behind the GWK, which in 1954 was renamed the Group of Conscientious Objectors (GdW).

Köper was chairman of the GdW from 1954 to 1958 and publisher of the association's magazine information . In 1957, SPIEGEL saw Köper's private, rather precarious situation as the prerequisite for his involvement in the GWK / GdW: “Today, Köper lives with his wife, who studied at the Cologne University of Music, in a small apartment in a social housing complex in Cologne. Since 1952 his war suffering - dilation of the heart and chronic kidney inflammation - has been recognized as a hundred percent impairment of earning capacity through war damage, and so his pension makes it easier for him to devote himself entirely to conscientious objection; he has no job. ”The memories of the writer Ingrid Zwerenz , however, give a different picture:“ A very good friend was Hans Hermann Köper, a determined pacifist who published the first volume on returned Jews very early in the 1950s and 1960s and as a journalist was responsible for the texts in Twen . He was also a gifted cellist. He was the first to offer Günter Wallraff a forum for his early reports. We had a special standing with all of these people. The Köpers had a nice apartment halfway up in front of Cologne Cathedral across from Wallrafplatz, where the radio resided. There were often very good societies there, with Wolfgang Leonhard and others. "

After the merger of the GdW with parts of the International of Conscientious Objectors (IDK), Köper and Wilhelm Keller became chairman of the new Association of Conscientious Objectors (VK) in 1958 .

Köper was a member of the national executive committee of the UK from 1958 to 1963 and was the editor in charge of the association journal “Zivil” . Grünewald writes about his basic political attitude and his relationship to conscientious objection :

“Köper did not see himself as a pacifist, but as an anti-militarist; His goal was the abolition of conscription and the most effective representation of the interests of conscientious objectors. For this reason he advocated a close connection between the GdW and the UK and the SPD and pursued a strict policy of demarcation against all communist organizations or organizations suspected of being influenced by communism. "

- Guido Grünewald : Put down your weapons! , P. 147

After the Bundestag election in 1957 , which resulted in an absolute majority for the CDU , many VK activists had to realize that their hopes of abolishing compulsory military service together with the SPD were no longer realizable. The SPD also changed course in its previous foreign and security policy in 1960, declared NATO the starting point and frame of reference for its foreign and security policy, and advocated a common foreign policy with the German government. In 1961, out of disappointment, Köper left the SPD, "but supported it again through voter initiatives".

The film producer Gerhard Schmidt, who from 1964 ran the production company Köper + Schmidt, books and films together with Köper , referred to Köper as the former editor-in-chief of TWEN magazine , who had good contacts with WDR . Through the work for the WDR, I came into contact with Marius Müller-Westernhagen , whose song Gebt Bayern back to the Bayern (based on Paul McCartney's Give Ireland Back to the Irish ) Köper was involved as a copywriter as was Jürgen von Mangers Song Bottrop beer . In that and how body also contribution to the establishment of Kokoschka portraiture using of Konrad Adenauer had describes Nina Grunenberg detail in a TIME article. The two journalists Hans Hermann Köper and Gerhard Schmidt were also involved as editors-in-chief of the student magazine Underground , which was published by Bärmeier & Nikel since November 1968 .

Hans Hermann Köper died in 1977 “after a serious illness of the consequences of his war injury”. After that, Gerhard Schmidt continued to run the company Köper + Schmidt on his own; The production companies Cologne and Gemini later emerged from it.

Awards

Works

  • (Ed.) German Jews today , Rütten & Loening, Munich 1965.
  • (together with Gerhard Schmidt): Two volumes on the youth broadcast Robinzak in the afternoon program of ZDF, for which Köper and Schmidt were also responsible as authors:
    • Part 1: We are now playing and learning for ourselves with Robinzak, the child from another planet , and his friend Telezak , Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 978-3-421-02389-6 .
    • Part 2: School is fun with Robinzak. The second reading, play and action book by and for children, teachers and parents , Deutsche Verlagsanstalt, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 978-3-421-02399-5

literature

  • Guido Grünewald (Ed.): Lower your arms! Hundred Years of the German Peace Society (1892–1992) , Donat Verlag, Bremen 1992, ISBN 3-924444-59-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Axel Koppetsch (Hrsg.): "I'm not a writer, but just a simple son of the forest." Inventory of self-testimonials in the holdings of the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia Department of Westphalia (= State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia [Hrsg.]: Publications of the State Archive of North Rhine-Westphalia . band 40 ). Düsseldorf 2011, ISBN 978-3-932892-29-5 , pp. 172–175 ( nrw.de [PDF]).
  2. ↑ a b c d WEHRDIENST / REFUSER: Do it like Adenauer , DER SPIEGEL, January 16, 1957
  3. ↑ He was drafted to Grünewald in 1944, there is nothing to be read about a voluntary report.
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Guido Grünewald (Ed.): Down your arms! , P. 147
  5. ^ Fritz Bilz: Risen from the ruins
  6. ↑ ZEITZEUGEN LINKS / 002: Lateral thought and made difficult - The upright spirit ... Ingrid Zwerenz in conversation , Schattenblick - an electronic newspaper, 2016
  7. ↑ Materials for the analysis of opposition (MAO): civil - journal for conscientious objectors
  8. ↑ Chronicle of Germany by the Federal Agency for Civic Education: Herbert Wehner's keynote address to the German Bundestag on the SPD's foreign and security policy
  9. ↑ a b Cologne in Film: Interview with Gerhard Schmidt, film producer , January 2008
  10. ↑ Discography of Hans Hermann (HH) Köper
  11. ↑ Nina Grunenberg: The old man and his picture. 'A very clever idea': Kokoschka painted Adenauer , ZEIT NR. 20/1966 of May 13, 1966
  12. ↑ "UNDERGROUND" - Between A and U , DER SPIEGEL, November 17, 1969. However, it could be that SPIEGEL made an error in this article, because in the interview mentioned above, Gerhard Schmidt Köper does not mention in connection with Underground , but describes Wolfgang Schmitz (journalist) as his co-editor-in-chief.
personal data
SURNAME Köper, Hans Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Köper, HH
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German peace activist, journalist, film producer
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Quito
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 1977
Place of death Cologne