Johannes Steel

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John Steel , actually Herbert steel , (* 3. August 1908 in Elberfeld heard today Wuppertal ; † 30th November 1988 at Newton (Connecticut) ) was a German journalist , in 1933 against the Nazi rulers to emigrate had and from 1934 in the USA made a career as a newspaper columnist , radio commentator and book author .

Life

Herbert Stahl , who was of Jewish descent , grew up in Elberfeld. After graduating from high school, he studied in Heidelberg , Oxford , Geneva and Berlin and then worked as a journalist and foreign correspondent for newspapers. In the mid-twenties he became a member of the SPD . Shortly after the National Socialist seizure of power in 1933, he had to flee via France to the United Kingdom , where he published a book on the Nazi regime under the name of Johannes Steel ( Hitler as Frankenstein ) in the autumn of that year, which caused a sensation because of a number of predictions that had occurred. In early 1934 he emigrated to the United States . He quickly managed to gain a professional foothold as an expert on political events in Germany. His first articles appeared in The Nation and other magazines in 1934 . The New York Post hired him as a foreign editor and radio stations like WMCA employed him as a commentator. He also wrote a few books and brochures and published his own news letter from 1947 to 1948, the Johannes Steel Report on World Affairs .

Because of his anti- National Socialist press articles and books, Herbert Stahl , alias Johannes Steel , was expatriated from the German Reich at the end of February 1936 . His parents, who remained in Germany ( Krefeld ), were monitored and harassed by the Gestapo .

In February 1946, Johannes Steel, who had meanwhile assumed American citizenship , ran unsuccessfully for the left-wing American Labor Party .

Works

  • Hitler as Frankenstein , London: Wishart 1933
  • The Second World War , New York: Covici, Friede Publishers 1934
  • Escape to the present , New York [u. a.]: Farrar & Rinehart 1937 ( autobiography )
  • Men behind the war, a "who's who" of our time , New York: Sheridan house 1942, 1943
  • The Future of Europe , New York: Holt 1945

literature

  • Guido Rotthoff (editor): Krefelder Juden , Bonn: Röhrscheid 1981, pp. 189–190 and 389 ( Krefelder Studies; 2 ) ISBN 3-7928-0442-5
  • Sigrid Schneider: Johannes Steel - a journalistic career in exile , in: Symposium Exil USA: 20 and 21 March 1985; in memoriam Ludwig Wronkow , PEN International / PEN Center for German-Speaking Authors Abroad (Ed.), Schriesheim: Albrecht 1985, pp. 79–84 (with further references) ISBN 3-926360-02-X
  • Glenn Fowler: Johannes Steel, 80, Commentator , in: New York Times , December 3, 1988, p. 33 ( obituary )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The expatriation of German citizens 1933-45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger [...] , ed. by Michael Hepp, Munich: Saur 1985, Volume I, List 5, pp. 6-7 ( Deutscher Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette No. 53 of March 3, 1936) ISBN 3-598-10538-X
  2. ↑ Lonely Voice in Time Magazine, February 18, 1946

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steel, Johannes
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stahl, Herbert (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH August 3, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Elberfeld
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1988
Place of death Newton (Connecticut)