Johannes Weyl

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hugo Johannes Julius Ulrich Weyl , pseudonym: Günther Hocheisen , (born August 28, 1904 in Kiel , † September 4, 1989 in Konstanz ) was a German journalist , publisher and newspaper editor .

Childhood, adolescence and studies

Johannes Weyl was a son and the eldest child of the lawyer Richard Weyl and his wife Bertha Wagner (1877–1955). He had two sisters and a brother Richard . His parents were culturally open-minded and middle-class. From Easter 1913 he attended the Kiel School of Academics . Like his father, he wanted to do journalistic and literary work.

In March 1923 Weyl left the school of scholars with the Abitur. Then he enrolled for a degree in biology and philosophy at the University of Kiel . In 1925 he founded the “Kiel University Newspaper. Weekly for all interests of the Kiel student body ”and took over its management. Because the paper had Republican tendencies, customers refused to book ads. Therefore the paper only appeared for half a year. In addition, Weyl edited the “Social Hygiene”.

Weyl considered the situation in Kiel to be "extremely reactionary" and therefore began studying in Munich in autumn 1925. During this time he wrote articles for the Munich Post and the liberal "AZ am Abend", for which he wrote humorous court glosses in particular. There were also articles in well-known media such as the Frankfurter Zeitung , the Vossische Zeitung or the Vorwärts . In 1926 he got a job as an editor for the paper of the housewife of the Berlin Ullstein publishing house . He stopped further work on his dissertation at the Institute of Plant Physiology. One of the reasons for the change in job and place of residence was his marriage.

Work for the Ullstein publishing house

At Ullstein-Verlag, Weyl got fundamental insights into one of the leading media houses at the time and the psychology of a broad readership. He was also able to establish contacts and friendships, many of which influenced his further life. When the National Socialists wanted to bring the publishing house into line, the Ullstein brothers asked Weyl to run the Ullstein newspaper publishing house. It was important to the owners that successors in management positions were like-minded. Weyl took on the task in the hope of being able to preserve the "spirit of the house" as much as possible.

In the summer of 1934, cover companies of the NSDAP took over the Ullstein publishing house and gave Weyl the management of the magazine's central office. He could only act freely to a very limited extent. This was limited to saving a few reliable employees from being dismissed, who exchanged information with one another, maintaining secret contacts abroad and keeping the magazines as cautious as possible. Weyl himself said after 1945 that it had been a "serious compromise".

The people Weyl worked with over a shorter or longer period of time included Annedore Leber , Paul Wiegler , Helmut Kindler , Erik Reger , Max Krell , Adam Kuckhoff , Jochen Klepper and the draftsman Erich Ohser . Weyl encouraged Ohser to write his father-and-son stories and put them permanently in the Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung . In 1938 Weyl got the journalist Sebastian Haffner an assignment to work abroad. Haffner used this to emigrate to England. After 1945, many people confirmed that Weyl had been anti-Nazi and had shown moral courage. Nevertheless, he was sometimes attacked and defamed due to the fact that he had continued to work for the synchronized Ullstein publishing house.

First works

While working as editor and chief editor of the "Blatt der Hausfrau", Weyl came up with the idea of ​​writing practical books that were useful in everyday life and that appeared before 1933 within a short time. In 1932 he created "The Lexicon of Housewives" with Barbara von Treskow , the following year "The Lexicon of Health" and in 1934 "The Inexhaustible Counselor". As Günther Hocheisen , he wrote two entertainment novels, which appeared in 1937 and 1940. The novel “Maja between two marriages” was made into a film in 1937.

Weyl also created plays that did not go to print. This included "The ride of Katharina Karsten (The Commander)". This drama took place in 1534 on board a Lübeck merchant ship.

End of the war and founding of a publishing house

In 1944 Weyl was called up for military service, which he did as a medic in Bad Gastein . He experienced the end of the war in Constance . In the first weeks of the occupation, he wrote a memorandum on how future regional newspapers should be organized. At first he did not want to work in the field himself. At the end of May, for example, he wrote to the publisher Martin Hürlimann that he was no longer ready to work “from the point of view of millions of copies and machine needs”.

The French occupiers recommended Weyl to publish a daily newspaper. Then he founded the Südkurier , which was first read in September 1945. The newspaper worked excitedly on the crimes of the National Socialists. Nevertheless, a left-wing coalition from Constance quickly criticized the paper and wanted to be included in the circle of publishers. Influenced by a change in the French government and a changed occupation policy, Weyl had to surrender his license to the Konstanz party union in early 1946. He himself had previously refused to work on such a multi-party newspaper.

Weyl now concentrated on building up and expanding the half-monthly publication “Die Landpost”, which existed before the Südkurier. At the same time, he and his wife founded Südverlag . He published the magazines "Die Erzählung", edited by Ludwig E. Reindl, and "Vision", edited by Gerhard F. Hering and nominally Paul Wiegler . In addition, there were brochures for everyday life on health, clothing or tax advisors and sophisticated literary works.

Weyl published many works by writers from the inner emigration or those who were in exile. These included Martin Gumpert , Otto Zoff , Karl Jaspers , Karl Krolow , the “father-and-son” stories by eoplauen or “We were five” by Viktor Mann . As with Südkurier, Weyl employed many authors and employees at Südverlag who had previously worked at Ullstein.

At the end of 1948, Weyl got back all rights as publisher of the Südkurier. He now fully concentrated on expanding the leaf. The book publisher suffered from this and was facing increasing economic problems due to the currency reform. With the help of loans from the Marshall Plan , he was able to buy the Konstanz printing and publishing company from the trust property of the state of South Baden. This enabled him to better secure the independence of his newspaper.

In 1952 Weyl founded the "Südverlag München-Konstanz". Theodor Martens and Diedrich Kenneweg were shareholders of the publishing house, which existed until 1958. The publisher published the popular “Quick” series of novels. At the end of the 1950s, Weyl committed himself personally and in writing to creating a university in Konstanz. For this he created in 1963 the “Konstanzer Blätter für Hochschulfragen”, a year later “Konstanzer Universitätszeitung und Hochschulfragen”. Both sheets were published by his University Publishing House in Konstanz , which still exists today. Among other things, the publisher publishes the “Konstanz University Speeches”.

In 1964 Weyl successfully sued the Federal Constitutional Court. He demanded that the freedom of the press should also be applied to the advertising section of newspapers. This procedure went down in press history as the “Südkurier” judgment.

From 1985 onwards, Weyl gradually ended his activities as managing director. In the spring of 1989 he left the partners of the "Südkurier". From 1980 the publishing house went to the Georg von Holtzbrinck publishing group .

Personality and honors

Weyl was considered a generous and indecent person. However, access to his person was not easy to find. He took on many honorary positions, including in the main committee of the "Association of Southwest German Newspaper Publishers", in the Presidium of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers and in the German Book Trade Association . He was also involved in the German UNESCO Commission and in university- related committees.

The University of Konstanz made Weyl an honorary senator in 1976. In 1978 he received the medal of merit of the state of Baden-Württemberg and the silver badge of honor from the Börsenverein. Years earlier he was proposed for the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, which he did not want to accept.

family

Weyl married Antonie Margarete Marie Anneliese ( Annaliese ) Nissen on February 20, 1926 in Munich (born August 27, 1902 in Berlin ; † June 20, 1970 ibid). She was a pianist and manager and a daughter of the naval officer Gustav Nissen (born April 4, 1861 in Schönberg ; † June 26, 1934 there) and his wife and pianist Hedwig, née Doebel (born April 1, 1872 in Gotha ; † 20. September 1943 in Kiel). The doctor and publisher Brigitte Weyl (born July 12, 1926 in Munich) emerged from the marriage. The marriage was divorced on November 13, 1930.

In his second marriage, Weyl married the businesswoman and painter Barbara Christel Thilo on December 20, 1935 in Berlin (* December 24, 1907 in Berlin; † May 31, 1991 in Baden-Baden ). She was a daughter of the shepherd's director Hans Ludwig Thilo (born November 30, 1869 in Anklam ; † December 1, 1953 in Berlin) and his wife Cornelia, née Frentzel (born January 31, 1880 in Bremen ; † June 23, 1959 in Konstanz ) who was a singer.

literature

  • Manfred Bosch : Weyl, Johannes. In: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 479–483.

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 480.
  2. Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 480–481.
  3. a b c d e Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 481.
  4. Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 481–482.
  5. a b c d Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 482.
  6. Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 483.
  7. Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, pp. 482–483.
  8. A publisher by vocation. In: Südkurier of July 12, 2016.
  9. a b Manfred Bosch: Weyl, Johannes . in: Biographical Lexicon for Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck . Volume 13. Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 2011, p. 479.