Harald Vocke

Harald Vocke (born February 24, 1927 in Berlin ; † February 12, 2007 ) was a German diplomat , writer , translator and journalist .

Live and act

As the son of the bank president Wilhelm Vocke and his wife Frida Ortmann (daughter of the manor owner Christian Ortmann in Schependorf in Mecklenburg ), Harald Vocke grew up with five sisters in Berlin and attended the Arndt-Gymnasium in Berlin-Dahlem .

After serving in the Second World War , he studied archeology and classical philology in Heidelberg , Hamburg and Paris . It was established in 1951 with a thesis on the Hellenistic papyri of Late Period Egyptian doctorate . During a stay in Egypt he learned, among other things, the classical Arabic language .

He then joined the diplomatic service of the Foreign Office and represented German interests in Baghdad , Damascus , Kuala Lumpur , Jeddah and other places. In 1963 he became a member of the editorial team of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . He initially worked for the newspaper for six years as a correspondent in Beirut and from 1969 to 1980 as a reporter for the Middle East and other oriental and Far Eastern topics.

From 1981 to the 1990s he was chief correspondent for the Catholic newspaper Die Tagespost in Würzburg . Vocke also stood out for his translations of Yemeni poetry. His last book publication was in 2001 a biography about the adversary of the National Socialists and diplomats Albrecht von Kessel .

Fonts (selection)

• The sword and the stars. A ride through Yemen. Stuttgart 1965.
• What happened in Lebanon? Causes and Background of the Civil War. Frankfurt am Main 1977.
• The Lebanese War: its origin & political dimension. London 1978, ISBN 0-903983-92-3 .
• The controversial war in Lebanon. Samizdats, newspaper reports, documents. 1980, ISBN 3-88693-001-7 .
• The dead Christians in Lebanon - pamphlets. Würzburg 1985, ISBN 3-88567-049-6 .
• In the scent of time. Encounter with the Orient. Frankfurt / Berlin 1988
• Albrecht von Kessel. As a diplomat for reconciliation with Eastern Europe. Freiburg 2001, ISBN 3-451-20248-4 .

literature

• Herrmann AL Degener : Who is it. Berlin 1935.
• Walter Habel: Who is who? Berlin 1962.
• Harald Vocke died. In: FAZ. February 14, 2007.
• Vocke, Harald . In: Rudolf Vierhaus (Ed.): German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE) . 2., revised. and extended edition. tape 10 : Thies-Zymalkowski . De Gruyter / KG Saur, Berlin / Boston / Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-096381-6 , p. 265 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

Web link

• Harald Vocke's estate. Library of the Center for the Modern Orient.