Hermann Burkhardt (journalist)

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Hermann Burkhardt , pseudonyms Charles Corot and Charles Monet (born July 4, 1910 in Eisenberg ; † July 20, 2003 in Saarbrücken ) was a German communist politician ( KPD / SED ) and journalist . Burkhardt was editor-in-chief of the German broadcaster in the GDR from 1949 to 1953 .

Life

The son of a metal lathe operator, Hermann Burkhardt, attended the secondary school in Eisenberg in Thuringia and then studied economics and law in Leipzig , Paris and Berlin . In October 1931 Burkhart became a member of the KPD and the KPD student group. He was organizational leader for agitation and propaganda at the University of Berlin .

After the transfer of power to the National Socialists and the ban on the KPD, Burkhardt also supported the party in illegality. In March 1933 he was one of the organizers of an illegal student committee. At the end of 1933 Burkhardt emigrated to Paris and began journalistic work there. From 1933 to 1939 he wrote Balkan Correspondence and European Voice for the KPD newspapers . From 1935 to 1937 Burkhart was secretary at the World Student Committee for Peace, Freedom and Progress in Paris. In 1937 he switched to the Aid Committee for Spain, where he was head of the press and propaganda department until 1939. In addition, Burkhardt was an employee of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth Association of Germany (KJVD) and the illegal radio station 29.2 in 1939 .

Burkhardt was interned in France from 1939 to 1941 . In 1942 he became a member of the illegal KPD leadership in Marseille . After conflicts with Lex Ende and Willi Kreikemeyer , he left there in 1943. In 1943 and 1944 Burkhardt fought in the Resistance under the code names Charles Corot and Charles Monet . In 1944 Burkhardt was the foreign policy editor of various newspapers of the French Communist Party (PCF) in Marseille. In the same year he took over the propaganda department for western and southern France of the Committee Free Germany for the West (CALPO). In 1945 he was the foreign policy editor of the KPD newspaper Volk und Vaterland, which was produced in Paris .

In August 1945 Burkhardt returned to Germany. From September 1945 to May 1946 he was editor-in-chief of the Neue Saarbrücker Zeitung and from 1946 to 1948 editor-in-chief of the Neue Zeit newspaper in Saarbrücken . In April 1948 Burkhardt was expelled from the Saarland by the French occupation forces for his journalistic work for the KPD and moved to the Soviet occupation zone .

In May 1948 Burkhardt joined the SED and became editor of the German voice radio station , editor of the newspaper Vorwärts and employee of the Soviet news office in Berlin-Weißensee . In May 1949 Burkhardt became an employee of the Berliner Rundfunk , then editor-in-chief of the Deutschlandsender . 1953 to 1956 Burkhardt was deputy editor-in-chief of the Berliner Zeitung . In 1956 and 1957 Burkhardt was a correspondent in Stockholm for the Berliner Zeitung and the GDR news agency General German News Service (ADN) .

From 1958 to 1962 Burkhardt was General Secretary of the Communist International Organization of Journalists (IOJ). From 1962 he was a correspondent for various GDR media in Cuba and vice president of the German-Latin American Society . Until the 1980s, Burkhardt was a commentator on the State Committee for Broadcasting in the GDR. In 1990 Burkhardt moved back to Saarland and died in Saarbrücken in 2003.

Honors

Works

  • Hermann Burkhardt: Marseille is not a port . Berlin 1955.
  • Hermann Burkhardt: The Eiffel Tower will stay in Paris . Berlin 1956.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Burkhardt, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Corot, Charles; Monet, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German communist politician (KPD / SED) and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH 4th July 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Eisenberg
DATE OF DEATH July 20, 2003
Place of death Saarbrücken