Karl Holzamer

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Karl Holzamer. Signature 1958
Karl Holzamer (2nd from right) in Kiel
Grave of Karl Holzamer in the main cemetery in Mainz

Karl Johannes Holzamer (born October 13, 1906 in Frankfurt am Main ; † April 22, 2007 in Mainz ) was a German philosopher , educator and director of the Second German Television .

Life

Youth and first years of work

Karl Holzamer was born in Frankfurt am Main and attended Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gymnasium from the age of six . In 1919 he came to the Bund New Germany , in which large parts of the young Catholic intelligentsia gathered. He graduated from high school in 1926 and then studied philosophy, education, psychology , Romance studies and German studies in Munich , Paris , Frankfurt and Bonn as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation . In 1929 he received his doctorate in Munich. He then applied to the Pedagogical Academy in Bonn, which had been founded shortly before, and passed the first exam for elementary school teachers there in 1931 , thinking: "If you want to train elementary school teachers, then of course you have to get to know the elementary school yourself."

In 1931 Holzamer was initially co-editor of Voices of Youth in Düsseldorf , shortly afterwards assistant at the Psychological Institute of the University of Bonn and in November finally assistant in the pedagogical department of West German Broadcasting. Politically, he was active in the "Reich Youth Committee of the Center Party ". At the same time, I was applying to become a professor.

Third Reich

After the seizure of power Holzamer had to give up his political engagement. At the radio, his boss and the director were dismissed, so that at first he headed the school radio himself, but then, due to lack of party affiliation, he was given agriculture (as a complete layman), the languages ​​and the confessional morning celebrations. The latter continued to exist at the institution, which has since been renamed Reichssender Köln, despite an order from 1937. At the beginning of the Second World War , Holzamer was drafted. He joined the Air Force as a gunner and was a war correspondent for the radio. He was a member of the " Propaganda Company " of the Air Force (most recently: OLt.). In the end he was taken prisoner in France , where he worked as a translator .

professorship

Karl Holzamer had submitted his application as a professor to the Prussian Ministry of Culture under the direction of Adolf Grimme ; it ran until 1937, when he was informed, despite vacancies, that he was not intended to be employed in the university service. After the war, this proved to be an excellent testimony, whereupon in 1946 he became a regular associate professor for philosophy, psychology and education at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and in 1952 full professor without habilitation . In 1948 he was given the chair for scholastic philosophy and education. As a representative of the University of Mainz, Holzamer joined the Broadcasting Council when Südwestfunk was founded . Since he was the only one of the 49 members with practical experience, he took over the chairmanship from 1949 to 1960. When he was elected ZDF director in 1962, he was given leave of absence from the university.

ZDF

Karl Holzamer was planned by Federal Chancellor Adenauer to be the director of Deutschland-Fernsehen-GmbH in 1960 (the election of the director did not come about because of the pending lawsuit from four federal states at the Federal Constitutional Court). In 1960 Holzamer turned down the post of program director at the private free television company . As a CDU candidate - although there was also great approval in the SPD - for the director's post of the subsequent ZDF he was then more lucky: He was elected by the television council on March 12, 1962 and later confirmed twice. Together with Gerhard Löwenthal , he was one of the co-founders and media representatives of the Federation of Freedom of Science . He did not retire until March 14, 1977. As early as 1974 he was appointed as professor emeritus . His successor as director was Karl-Günther von Hase .

Wim Thoelke said of his time at ZDF: “Karl Holzamer was a man of invigorating optimism and at the same time both highly intelligent and critical in a positive way. Without him, ZDF would never have gotten on its feet. ”For the avowed Catholic Holzamer, conveying morality and belief was particularly important in the program, so he was considered an“ apostle of an intact world ”.

Together with his friend and colleague Wolfgang Brobeil , Holzamer brought the problem child campaign along with him and campaigned for its continuation after the end of forget-me-not .

Private

Karl Holzamer married his fiancée Helene, one year younger than him, in 1932, with whom he had four children. She died in June 1992. Karl Holzamer was Laurent Daniels' grandfather . He died in April 2007 at the age of 101. His grave is in the main cemetery in Mainz . Karl Holzamer was related to the writer Wilhelm Holzamer (1870–1907).

He was an honorary member of the KStV Kurpfalz Mainz in the Cartel Association of Catholic German Student Associations and a member of the Order of Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem .

Awards and honors

Works

  • Basic questions of modern humanism, Kupferberg, Mainz 1947. (Mainz University Speeches; H. 4)
  • Introduction to philosophy. Foundation of the theory of knowledge as the foundation of the other disciplines, Kupferberg, Mainz 1947.
  • Introduction to Pedagogy, Kirchheim, Mainz 1949.
  • Outline of a practical philosophy: freedom, tolerance, morality, resentment, Knecht, Frankfurt am Main 1951.
  • Kind and radio, Klett-Verlag, Stuttgart 1954. (Threatened youth - threatened youth; 34)
  • Introducing young people to social responsibility. A lecture, Frankfurt am Main 1959. (Writings of the German Parity Welfare Association; 19)
  • Authoritarianism and Nationalism. A German problem? Report on a conference, European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1963. (Political Psychology; 2)
  • The responsibility of people for themselves and those of their own kind. Speeches and essays, Bertelsmann-Verlag Gütersloh 1966.
  • Art and clothing in the field of journalism, attempt to build bridges, Sebaldus, Nuremberg 1969.
  • Projects, problems and perspectives of distance learning in the media network, Athenaeum, Frankfurt am Main 1970. (Teaching and learning in the media network; 1) ISBN 3-494-00635-0 .
  • The risk. Born to see, ordered to look, by Hase u. Koehler, Mainz 1979 ISBN 3-7758-0980-5 .
  • Different from what I thought. Memoirs of the first ZDF director, Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau et al. 1983. (Herder library; 1066) ISBN 3-451-08066-4
  • Introduction to the world of thinking, Pattloch-Verlag 1990, ISBN 3-629-00548-9 .
  • Life journey between philosophy and television, Verlag Philipp von Zabern 2003, ISBN 3-8053-3097-9 .

literature

  • Integritas. Spiritual change and human reality. Dedicated to Karl Holzamer. Edited by Dieter Stolte and Richard Wisser . Rainer Wunderlich Verlag Hermann Leins , Tübingen 1966.
  • Speeches on the farewell of Professor Dr. Karl Holzamer and for the introduction of the artistic director Karl-Günther von Hase. ZDF, Mainz 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Biography on presseportal.zdf.de
  2. ↑ HOLZAMER: Childlike striving. Der Spiegel , March 7, 1977, accessed April 13, 2016 .
  3. ^ Friedrich Wilhelm Hymmen : A man for whom the radio was still a cultural instrument - On the death of Wolfgang Brobeil . In: Kirche und Rundfunk , No. 8, January 31, 1981, Evangelischer Pressedienst (epd)
  4. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.6 MB)
personal data
SURNAME Holzamer, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Holzamer, Johannes Karl (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher, educator and director of ZDF (1962 to 1977)
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 2007
Place of death Mainz