Hugo Portisch

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Hugo Portisch (2009)

Hugo Portisch (born February 19, 1927 in Bratislava , Czechoslovakia , † April 1, 2021 in Vienna ) was an Austrian journalist . Due to his way of explaining complicated political and economic relationships in an understandable way to interested laypeople, he became one of the most important journalists in Austria after the Second World War.

Life

Hugo Portisch spent his school days as the son of the Austrians Emil and Hedi Portisch, who were married in 1920, in Pressburg, which culturally in the last decades of Austria-Hungary looked like a smaller sister city of Vienna , also located on the Danube , from which it is only 60 kilometers away; German, Hungarian and Slovak were spoken in the city at that time.

His father Emil (1887–1985) from St. Pölten , Lower Austria , became editor in 1920 and in 1924 (last) editor-in-chief of the Pressburger Zeitung , a liberal, democratically oriented newspaper , first published in 1764 . When Czechoslovakia was "broken up" on March 15, 1939, under the Slovakian regime of Jozef Tiso , as it did not support National Socialism, the Jewish owners were immediately expropriated. (With the "National Socialist will to shape" it then appeared for a few more weeks.)

During the war, although the German “ethnic group leadership” was against it, the father was able to work in the newly founded Slovak news agency, which maintained international news connections. Hugo Portisch's parents finally left Pressburg at the beginning of 1945 and returned to St. Pölten, while the son in Pressburg was still attending the German grammar school, which from the summer of 1939 had no Jewish students. In order not to be called up for military training or the Waffen-SS , Hugo Portisch got involved in the volunteer fire brigade in 1944, which, in view of the constant bombing in the last year of the war and the resulting fires, could use him as a volunteer.

Hugo Portisch, according to his own statements, received his school leaving certificate after an unfinished high school course without a formal examination on April 4, 1945, just a few hours before the Red Army marched into the city. Portisch then drove, as his marching orders did not rule out this direction of travel, to St. Pölten , where an uncle ran the farm in the Oberwagram district, which his grandparents lived in until their death , and where his parents were also taken in. The marching orders induced him to go to Prague , then the course of the war shortly before the surrender of the Third Reich made the continuation of the journey obsolete.

The intention to return to Pressburg turned out to be impossible for Hugo Portisch and his parents; Although Father Portisch was a democrat, the new rulers had no longer any use for him or other Germans. Hugo then studied history, German , English and journalism at the University of Vienna and graduated in 1951 with the dissertation The Newspaper Industry and Public Opinion in the United States of America before and during the civil war of 1861–1865 as Dr. phil. from. In his 2015 memoirs, he mentioned Marianne Lunzer and Kurt Paupié , who taught at the institute.

Portisch was married to Gertraude Portisch , an author of children's books, which she published under her maiden name Traudi Reich. The couple lived in Vienna and Tuscany. Their son Edgar lived and worked in Madagascar , where he died in 2012 of complications from a tropical disease. Gertraude Portisch died on January 23, 2018, at the age of 98.

Hugo Portisch's older brother (Emil Portisch jun., Born 1921) also worked as a journalist.

After a short illness, Hugo Portisch died on April 1, 2021 in the Rudolfinerhaus private hospital in Vienna.

Journalistic career

He began in 1947 as an editorial team for the Vienna editorial staff of the St. Pöltner Pressverein. In 1948 he worked as an editorial candidate for the Wiener Tageszeitung , whose foreign policy department he was given in 1950. In 1950 he was one of ten selected Austrian journalists who were allowed to complete the six-month journalism course "School of Journalism" at the University of Missouri in the United States at the expense of the USA , and worked as an intern at the New York Times and Washington, among others Post , to this day renowned papers.

In 1953 Portisch became deputy head of the Austrian information service in New York, which was located at the Consulate General. He had to accompany Chancellor Julius Raab on his visit to the USA, Raab's first overseas voyage who did not speak English.

In 1954, Hans Dichand invited him to work on the New Courier , which was to appear as the successor to the US occupation newspaper Wiener Kurier . In 1958, the owner Ludwig Polsterer made him editor-in-chief as Dichand's successor. During his time at the courier , he also worked for Bavarian television . After the radio referendum in 1964, which he initiated at the courier with the backing of Polsterers together with other newspaper publishers, the new ORF general manager Gerd Bacher brought him to the Austrian radio in 1967, where Portisch acted as chief commentator. For many years he was the foreign correspondent for ORF in London . In addition to these activities, he wrote books about his worldwide travels like How I saw China , How I saw Siberia and others, some of which became bestsellers.

In 1991 he was proposed as the successor to the outgoing Federal President Kurt Waldheim , who did not want to run again due to the concealment of his activities in the Second World War and the fact that it became known. Because of Austria's tarnished image abroad, they wanted to elect a well-known and competent man for this office. The competing parties SPÖ and ÖVP would even have been ready to support Hugo Portisch jointly in the candidacy. Portisch showed himself to be honored by the vote of confidence, but declined with thanks, referring to the protocol restrictions associated with the office. In this context, he wrote down his thoughts for Chancellor Franz Vranitzky , which he incorporated into his speech to the National Council on July 8, 1991. In this speech Vranzitzky moved by the victim theory , and known officially the complicity of Austrians in the Nazi deeds.

Once Portisch also appeared as a film actor: in 1980 in the Austrian television film Maria Theresia , he appeared in the cast list as the first reporter. The second and third reporters were also well-known personalities: Walter Koschatzky , director of the Albertina graphic collection , and chemotherapy specialist Karl Hermann Spitzy .

Well-known documentation

Hugo Portisch became known through his books and the resulting television programs. World politics such as Peace through Fear (1969) and The German Confrontation (1974) were great successes. The books and television series Austria I (1989) and Austria II (1981–1995) were extremely successful , in which he presented the history of the First and Second Republic in a way that was easy to understand. In 2014/2015 some of these programs were re-released and commented on by Portisch aktuell. The DVD on Austria I achieved platinum status and the DVD on Austria II gold.

On the occasion of the anniversary year 2005 he produced the documentary series The Second Republic - an unbelievable story for the ORF, in which documents are shown and explained that in his previous documentaries were still under lock and key from other states, especially Russia.

Hugo Portisch was also a recognized specialist in mushrooms . With his wife he published a book about mushroom hunting and presented the ORF film from the documentary series Universum The Mysterious Life of Mushrooms .

In autumn 2021, ORF III plans to broadcast a two-part documentary entitled Hugo Portisch - Russia and We , based on the book of the same name published in September 2020. Directed by Kurt Mayer. In two parts of 50 minutes each, the documentation is intended to provide an up-to-date inventory of today's Russia with special consideration of its history.

criticism

Especially with his documentaries Austria I and Austria II Hugo Portisch shaped the collective historical awareness of Austria. However, contemporary historians criticize his portrayals of denazification and the “ self- elimination of parliament ” (the latter was commented on in the documentation as “the democrats could not agree”). Portisch responded to the criticism by stating that he was a journalist and not a historian.

other

Through his good contacts learned Portisch on 14 April 1955 as deputy editor of the Courier first in Austria that the negotiations on the Austrian State Treaty in Moscow were successfully completed (see: Moscow Memorandum ), and decided with chief editor Hans Dichand to , on the same evening the special edition Austria will be free! bring out. Since the lunchtime newspaper did not have colporteurs who would have been available in the evening, the journalists sold the newspaper in Vienna itself, Dichand and Portisch on Kärntner Strasse . However, they had to give away some of the special issue because some of the passers-by believed only in a newspaper duck after years of unsuccessful state treaty negotiations .

Awards and honors

Presentation of decorations to Hugo Portisch (2019)

After three regular Romy awards as the most popular commentator (1990, 1992, 1993), he was also awarded the Platinum Romy for his life's work in 2002.

Publications

Hugo Portisch reads from Die Olive & wir (2009)
  • That's how I saw the Soviet Union, Africa, South America . Südwest-Verlag, Munich 1964, DNB  453823459 .
  • That's how I saw China . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1965, DNB  453823440 .
  • That's how I saw Siberia . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1967, DNB  457835133 .
  • Peace through fear . Eyewitness in the arsenals of nuclear war. Molden Verlag, Vienna 1970, DNB  457835087 .
  • L'Arsenal atomique américain . In the secret of the arsenaux de la guerre atomique. Librairie Arthème Fayard, Paris 1971, DNB  57811495X (French).
  • The German confrontation . Present and future of the two German states. Molden Verlag, Vienna 1974, ISBN   3-217-0053-4  ( defective ) .
  • 25 years of state treaty . Protocols of the scientific symposium, May 16 and 17, 1980. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1980, ISBN 3-215-04519-2 (as editor).
  • Cape of Last Hope . The struggle for the south of Africa. Molden Verlag, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-217-01237-2 .
  • Eyewitnesses of world events . Connections, backgrounds and perspectives 81. Orac Verlag, Vienna 1981, ISBN 3-85368-880-2 .
  • Mushroom hunting - a pleasure . The best edible mushrooms and their doppelgangers. Orac Verlag, Vienna 1982, ISBN 3-85368-907-8 (with his wife Traudi Portisch ).
  • Austria II. The rebirth of our state. tape 1 . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1985, ISBN 3-218-00422-5 .
  • Austria II. The long road to freedom. tape 2 . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1986, ISBN 3-218-00442-X .
  • The nation's audiovisual memory . In: Series of publications by the Austrian Film Archive . No. 20 . Vienna 1988.
  • Austria I. The underrated republic. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-218-00485-3 .
  • Hear the signals . The rise and fall of Soviet communism. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1991, ISBN 3-218-00535-3 .
  • Austria II. Years of new beginnings, years of upheaval. tape 3 . Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-218-00611-2 .
  • The olive and us . Ecowin, Salzburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-902404-72-5 (with his wife Traudi Portisch).
  • What now . Ecowin, Salzburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-7110-0019-4 .
  • It was always exciting . Ecowin, Salzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7110-0072-9 .
  • Life with Trump . A wake-up call. Ecowin, Salzburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-7110-0127-6 .
  • Russia and us . A relationship with a history and a future. Ecowin, Salzburg 2020, ISBN 978-3-7110-0274-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hans Rauscher: Hugo Portisch died at the age of 95. In: The Standard . April 1, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  2. ↑ a b Journalist legend Hugo Portisch is dead. In: Today . April 1, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  3. ↑ Hugo Portisch: It was always exciting . Ecowin Verlag, Wals near Salzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7110-0072-9 , p. 18 .
  4. ↑ Hugo Portisch: It was always exciting . Ecowin Verlag, Wals near Salzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7110-0072-9 , p. 22 .
  5. ↑ Hugo Portisch: It was always exciting . Ecowin Verlag, Wals near Salzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7110-0072-9 , p. 31 .
  6. ↑ Hugo Portisch receives high distinction from the University of Vienna. In: Press release University of Vienna . June 21, 2017, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Catalog list Austrian National Library
  8. ↑ Maria Gurmann: The grandchildren are a great consolation. In: Courier . October 26, 2013, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  9. ↑ Helmut Brandstätter : Author Gertraude Portisch has died. In: Courier. January 24, 2018, accessed January 28, 2018 .
  10. ^ Journalist legend Hugo Portisch is dead. In: ORF. April 2, 2021, accessed April 2, 2021 .
  11. ^ A b Philipp Wilhelmer: Hugo Portisch: Austria's most famous journalist is dead. In: kurier.at. April 1, 2021, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  12. ↑ Franz Vranitzky on Hugo Portisch. from minute 1:00. In: Youtube. OE24.TV, April 1, 2021, accessed on April 2, 2021 .
  13. ^ Maria Theresia - Full Cast & Crew. In: Internet Movie Database . Accessed April 1, 2021 .
  14. ↑ GOLD & PLATINUM. In: IFPI Austria . Retrieved April 2, 2021 .
  15. ↑ "Hugo Portisch - Russia and We": New book and plans for ORF III documentary two-part presented. In: Meine Buchhandlung Wien. September 17, 2020, accessed September 17, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Hugo Portisch: It was always exciting . Ecowin Verlag, Wals near Salzburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-7110-0072-9 , p. 117 f .
  17. ↑ a b Hugo Portisch website. Awards. In: Awards. Retrieved April 2, 2021 .
  18. ↑ Florian Klenk is journalist of the year. In: ORF.at . December 19, 2005, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  19. ^ Concordia Prize 2010. In: Concordia Press Club . Retrieved April 1, 2021 .
  20. ↑ Christoph Leitl awards the Julius Raab Medal of Honor to Hugo Portisch, Gustav Peichl and Helmut Krätzl. In: APA-OTS . January 26, 2012, accessed April 2, 2021 .
  21. ↑ ORF correspondent Wehrschütz is journalist of the year. In: derstandard.at . December 16, 2014, accessed April 12, 2018 .
  22. ^ Viktor Frankl Prize. Award winners. In: Viktor Frankl Institute. Retrieved April 2, 2021 .
  23. ↑ Dr. Hugo Portisch is an honorary citizen. In: st-poelten.at. April 2, 2016, accessed April 1, 2021 .
  24. ↑ Margaretha Kopeinig : Hugo Portisch becomes an honorary citizen of Vienna. In: kurier.at . April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 12, 2018 .
  25. ↑ Gold Medal of Honor for Hugo Portisch. In: ORF.at . December 18, 2019, accessed December 18, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Portisch, Hugo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian journalist and non-fiction author
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Bratislava , Czechoslovakia
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Vienna , Austria