John Seymour Chaloner

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John Seymour Chaloner (born November 5, 1924 , † February 9, 2007 in London Borough of Wandsworth ) was a British journalist , publisher , writer and illustrator. In Germany he is best known as one of the “midwives” of the news magazine Der Spiegel . He has also been referred to as the “father of freedom of the press in northwest Germany”.

Live and act

Chaloner came from a family of journalists. His father was the editor-in-chief of a daily newspaper; his mother edited Parents , Ideal Home, and Woman's Magazine . Chaloner himself began working on Boy's Own Paper magazine as early as 1939 . During the Second World War he volunteered for the army and in 1945 was one of the youngest majors in the British Army in the Westminster Dragoons tank unit .

At the end of the war, Chaloner was posted to the Public Relations and Information Services Control (PRISC), a unit that was to rebuild press, theater, radio and cinema in Germany on behalf of the Foreign Office . While overseeing the press in Hanover , he teamed up with two other British officers, the Czech émigré Harry Bohrer and the German émigré Henry Ormond , to create a weekly political magazine modeled on Time magazine. The magazine appeared in 1946 under the title This week with Bohrer as acting editor-in-chief. When the Foreign Office ordered the magazine to be discontinued due to critical articles, Chaloner and Bohrer handed the magazine over to one of their editors and protégés, Rudolf Augstein , who re-published it as publisher and editor-in-chief under the title Der Spiegel .

Chaloner then worked first in the public relations of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . Back in Great Britain he founded his own publishing house, Seymour Press, which mainly sold publications from abroad. He published his first novel in 1956, and between 1958 and 1975 wrote and illustrated six children's books. Chaloner also bought a farm in Sussex , where he raised dairy cows and started a vineyard. When he actually wanted to retire, he was hired as an editor for various business magazines such as Director .

In 1990 Chaloner received the Federal Cross of Merit 1st Class for his services to German-British relations.

Works

  • Bottom line , London 1984.
  • The eager beaver. A novel. London 1963.
  • Three for the road. London 1956.
  • To the manner born . London 1978.
    • to German: With fox, pheasant and horses. The amusing experiences of a city dweller who set out to discover the country nobility. Hamburg 1982.
  • To Europe with love . London 1984.
  • as Jon Chalon: The House next door. London 1967.
    • The Story of the Green Bus, etc. London 1958.

literature

  • Jochen Bölsche: John Seymour Chaloner (1924 - 2007). In: Der Spiegel 8 (2007), February 17, 2007.
  • Leo Brawand: Der Spiegel - a child of the occupation. How freedom of the press came to Germany. European Publishing House, Hamburg 2006.
  • John Chaloner. Distributor of foreign journals who, with Der Spiegel, reinstated press freedom in Germany. In: The Times, February 16, 2007.
  • Peter Merseburger: Rudolf Augstein. Biography. Munich 2007.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A piece of contemporary history. Leo Brawand describes the beginnings of the "mirror"
personal data
SURNAME Chaloner, John Seymour
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chaloner, John; Chalón, Jon (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British journalist, publisher and writer, responsible as press officer for the founding of Der Spiegel magazine
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1924
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 2007
Place of death London Borough of Wandsworth