Karl Gerold

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Karl Gerold (born August 29, 1906 in Giengen an der Brenz , † February 28, 1973 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German journalist and from 1947 co-editor of the Frankfurter Rundschau . From 1954 he was its sole publisher , editor-in-chief and majority shareholder.

Life

Family grave in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Gerold's mother was a worker in the United Filzfabriken AG in Giengen an der Brenz. His grandfather Konrad Gerold, who around 1900 co-founded the Giengener SPD local association, had a strong influence on the young Karl . After attending secondary school, Gerold trained as a mechanic in the company where his mother worked until the age limit. During this time he joined the youth organization of the SPD, became a member of the German Metal Workers' Association and helped found the local subdivision of Friends of Nature . After completing his training, he found a job in what was then the Mauser arms factory in Oberndorf am Neckarand after further jobs in Mannheim , Ludwigshafen am Rhein and Berlin got a job in a colored weaving mill in Wehr near the border with Switzerland .

Karl Gerold joined the Socialist Youth Workers in 1922 . At the same time, he developed his journalistic skills as a freelancer for various newspapers. In 1933 he got into “ protective custody ” due to his active role in the socialist youth workers under National Socialist rule , but was soon able to flee to Switzerland (summer 1933). Here he met with the group around Karl Retzlaw , a German communist in exile, became a co-founder of the Association of German Federal Socialists and supported the resistance against the Nazi tyranny (among other things, he supported British espionage from Switzerland ). In Switzerland Gerold published several books, wrote for newspapers and took part in the Spanish Civil War as their correspondent . During his exile in Switzerland in 1943 he was charged with “breaking neutrality”, was sent to a labor camp and was eventually given a suspended prison sentence. Immediately after the war he worked as a correspondent for Swiss newspapers in Wiesbaden .

After the founding year of the Frankfurter Rundschau, Karl Gerold joined its publishers in April 1946, who had received the first license to publish a newspaper from the American occupation forces on August 1, 1945 . In 1952 he resigned from the SPD in the interests of his journalistic independence. When Arno Rudert died in 1954 , who was the last of the original seven editors to remain in the Frankfurter Rundschau, Karl Gerold became the sole editor and at the same time took on the role of editor-in-chief. The Frankfurter Rundschau subsequently developed into a respected supra-regional newspaper with national significance, which resolutely represented left-wing positions in the rather conservative political climate of the post-war period.

When in 1969 the Minister of the Interior of French-speaking Spain , Manuel Fraga Iribarne , was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit , Gerold returned the Great Federal Cross of Merit awarded to him in 1967. He made a statement on February 13, 1969. This gesture caused quite a stir and a debate in the German Bundestag . In 1970 Gerold was awarded the Wilhelm Leuschner Medal .

Karl Gerold is regarded as one of the extraordinary journalistic and editing personalities of the post-war period. In addition to his journalistic activities, he also repeatedly emerged as a poet writer.

Karl Gerold Foundation

The depot at Karl-Gerold-Platz in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen , temporarily (2009-2013) also the seat of the Frankfurter Rundschau editorial office.

After Karl Gerold's death in 1973, the Karl Gerold Foundation was established two years later in July 1975, following his declared will . She owned two thirds of the Frankfurter Rundschau printing and publishing house. In 1984 the remaining third became their property. With the sale of the newspaper to M. DuMont Schauberg in the spring of 2006, the Gerold Foundation only had a ten percent minority share in the Frankfurter Rundschau.

Web links

Commons : Karl Gerold  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Appelius , only independent people can be successful . In: www.appelius.de , last accessed on October 21, 2014.
  2. ↑ Patrik von zur Mühlen , Spain was their hope. The German Left in the Spanish Civil War 1936 to 1939 , Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1983, p. 269, ISBN 3-87831-375-6 .
  3. ↑ Weighed - and found too light . In: fr-online .
  4. ↑ Jochen Steinmayr , Der arme, rich Konrad , Die Zeit on March 9, 1973, accessed on October 21, 2014.
  5. ^ Foreign prospects for Frankfurter Rundschau . In: faz.net .
personal data
SURNAME Gerold, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gerold-Langen, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and editor of the Frankfurter Rundschau
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Giengen on the Brenz
DATE OF DEATH February 28, 1973
Place of death Frankfurt am Main