Hermann Boventer

Hermann Boventer (born December 8, 1928 in Düsseldorf , † June 1, 2001 in the USA ) was a German journalist , adult educator and publicist . From 1972 to 1981 he was chairman of the Society of Catholic Publicists in Germany and made a name for himself primarily as a media and social ethicist .

Life

Hermann Boventer was born on December 8, 1928 in Düsseldorf. From 1949 he studied art history , philosophy and sociology at the University of Bonn . Thanks to a Fulbright scholarship , he was able to go to the University of Wyoming in the USA for a year of study in 1951/1952 . In 1954 he did his doctorate under Erich Rothacker on the subject of " The theory of culture in American cultural anthropology ".

From 1955 Boventer worked as a lecturer at a university in New Jersey . After getting married in New York , he and his wife Dorothy returned to Germany in 1957. There Boventer initially worked as a journalist for the daily newspaper Rheinische Post and from 1958 as head of the press office at the Federation of German Catholic Youth in Düsseldorf. He later became editor-in-chief of the Catholic youth magazine kontraste in Freiburg .

In 1968 Hermann Boventer switched to adult education and until 1981 was director of the Catholic Thomas More Academy in the town of Bensberg, which was still an independent town until the end of 1974 . There he took over the chairmanship of the Society of Catholic Publicists in Germany in 1972 (also until 1981). In addition, since 1976 Boventer worked as a lecturer for media ethics and communication theory at the University of Bonn and the University of Munich .

After a dispute over the future development of the Thomas-More-Academy, Hermann Boventer lost his job. Therefore, from 1981, in addition to his teaching activities at the universities in Bonn and Munich, he worked as a freelance journalist . Since then, in his numerous publications, he has mainly dealt with the tension between media ethics and freedom of the press .

Hermann Boventer died on June 1, 2001 on a trip to the USA at the age of 72.

Work (selection)

as editor: The Christian and Society. Catholic social teaching today Thomas-More-Akademie, Bensberg 1975 (99 pages)
Give us the total school: Education as an omnipotent dream. Edition Interfrom, Zurich 1975, ISBN 978-3-7201-5063-7 (98 pages)
Broadcasting freedom: legitimation crisis of the public service system. Bachem, Cologne 1977, ISBN 978-3-7616-0389-5 (16 pages)
Political education: ethics, values, virtues. Spee-Verlag, Trier 1980, ISBN 978-3-87760-037-5 (104 pages)
Journalism Ethics. On the philosophy of media culture. Universitäts-Verlag, Konstanz 1984, ISBN 978-3-87940-248-9 (507 pages)
Truth and Lies in Journalism. Cologne 1986, ISBN 978-3-7616-0859-3 (16 pages)
as editor: Media and Morals. Universitäts-Verlag, Konstanz 1988, ISBN 978-3-87940-321-9 (188 pages)
Freedom of the press is not limitless: an introduction to media ethics. Bouvier, Bonn 1989, ISBN 978-3-416-02201-9 (310 pages)
Media spectacle: why journalism? USA and Germany. Knecht Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 978-3-7820-0695-8 (277 pages)
as editor: Europe: Cradle of Humanism and the Reformation. Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 978-3-631-32109-6 (436 pages)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Boventer, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German journalist, university professor and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH	December 8, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Dusseldorf
DATE OF DEATH	June 1, 2001
Place of death	United States