Hans Kapfinger

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Johannes Evangelist Kapfinger (born December 27, 1902 in Adldorf near Landau an der Isar , † July 28, 1985 in Passau ) was a German newspaper publisher . He founded the daily newspaper Passauer Neue Presse .

Life

The son of a postman attended the Leopoldinum grammar school in Passau as well as the grammar school in Schweiklberg monastery and studied philosophy, law and economics in Munich . In 1927 he was awarded a doctorate with a thesis on political Catholicism. phil. PhD . Kapfinger then worked from 1927 as an editor at the Straubinger Tagblatt . In May 1933, according to an article in the Straubinger Tagblatt, he was taken into protective custody because of anti-nationalist sentiments . Kapfinger had written in his article that one should examine Adolf Hitler's cabinet for his mental state. He was released again. During the time of National Socialism he was sales, advertising and advertising manager in Coburg , Bamberg , Lichtenfels , Leipzig and Berlin .

From July 1945 he worked for the Berliner Zeitung . In the same year he returned to Bavaria. In 1946 he received a license for a daily newspaper from the American occupiers in Passau, as he was classified as a victim of Nazi persecution. Allegedly he belonged to a resistance group "Aktion Riemenschneider", which was later doubted. On February 5, 1946, the first edition of the Passauer Neue Presse was published .

Kapfinger's role in the Third Reich appears doubtful. He is said to have acquired properties from Jewish owners that had been confiscated as part of the “ Aryanization ” at below market value. According to a final ruling by the Munich District Court, it has been proven that Kapfinger “enriched himself with confiscated Jewish property as a member of a preferred group of people”. In another judgment, the Passau Regional Court made the allegations made by the then SPD Bundestag member and later Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt , "that Kapfinger moved valuable furniture, carpets and other furnishings into his house [after the Russian invasion] from the houses of former National Socialists carried ”, confirmed as proven.

Kapfinger's militant advocacy for conservative Catholic values ​​aroused opposition from liberal circles. For many years the publisher was considered the prototype of the clerical conservative in Bavaria. In his newspaper articles he supported the politics of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer . In 1960 he resigned as editor-in-chief, but remained the editor. In 1961 he was said to be involved in the Fibag affair . In 1961/62 he published the news magazine Aktuell in Munich . This was intended to compete with the news magazine Der Spiegel , which featured Kapfinger on the cover of issue 11 of March 14, 1962.

From 1969 onwards, Kapfinger, who was considered a friend of Franz Josef Strauss , vehemently criticized the politics of the social-liberal federal government in numerous newspaper articles .

He had been married to Maria Schuberth since 1928 and became the father of his son Heinz. At the age of 80 he married Edith Berger. In Passau, Dr.-Hans-Kapfinger-Strasse and the Kapfinger residence hall are named after him. The newspaper appears today in the Verlagsgruppe Passau (VGP) , which now belongs to the family of the former dentist and current publisher Axel Diekmann .

Foundation establishment

In 1967 Kapfinger founded the Dr. Hans Kapfinger Foundation , today the Passauer Neue Presse Foundation or PNP Foundation for short as a foundation under civil law with legal capacity . The foundation's purpose in the statutes includes the continuation of the Passauer Neue Presse, the support of its old, former relatives and the promotion of young journalists in the circulation area of ​​the Passauer Neue Presse.

Stasi contacts

The Stasi worked against the rise of Willy Brandt in the 1961 federal election campaign in the Federal Republic of Germany and for this purpose ammunitioned political rights. Key figures were Kapfinger and the publicist Hans Frederik , who both had contacts with the Stasi. Stasi chief Markus Wolf addressed Kapfinger's contacts in his memoirs.

Awards

literature

  • Erich Kuby : Im Fibag-Wahn or his friend, the Minister. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1962
  • Dr. Hans Kapfinger and his time. A picture of the life of the founder, publisher and editor of the “Passauer Neue Presse”. Passau 1984
  • Astrid Freudenstein: A provocateur out of conviction. The Kapfinger-Diekmann family of publishers and the “Passauer Neue Presse”. In: Karl Jörg Wohlhüter (Ed.): Tradition obliges. Regensburg 1999, pp. 114-122.
  • Hans and Franz . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1961 ( online - Kapfinger's role in the Fibag affair).
  • The speci (see cover picture) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1962 ( online - Kapfinger's "triplet" process and its role in the Nazi era).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Der Spezi (see cover picture) . In: Der Spiegel . No. 11 , 1962, pp. 26 ( Online - March 14, 1962 ).
  2. ^ The Passauer Neue Presse foundation. In: Foundation aid for over 50 years! -. Retrieved September 16, 2019 .
  3. ^ Daniela Münkel (2013): Campaigns, Spies, Secret Channels The Stasi and Willy Brandt. ( Page 19 )
personal data
SURNAME Kapfinger, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kapfinger, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German newspaper publisher
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Adldorf near Landau on the Isar
DATE OF DEATH July 28, 1985
Place of death Passau