Karl Jakobi (journalist)

Karl Emil Jakobi (born August 31, 1904 in Strasbourg ; † April 3, 1974 in Berlin ) was a German communist , interbrigadist and journalist . He was editor-in-chief of the SED newspapers Schweriner Landes-Zeitung and Volksstimme in the GDR .

Life

Jakobi, the son of a butcher , worked as an unskilled worker after attending primary school. He joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in 1926 and became a functionary of the KPD sub-district leadership in Karlsruhe . In 1930/31 he was a student at the International Lenin School in Moscow . He then continued his work as a KPD functionary in the field of agitation and propaganda and was editor of the "Arbeiter-Zeitung" in Mannheim until March 1933 . After Hitler came to power , he was imprisoned in the Kislau concentration camp from April to October 1933 . After his release, he resumed illegal resistance work and was political leader of the KPD district leadership in Hesse in Frankfurt am Main . Jakobi took part in the KJVD Reich Conference in Moscow at the end of 1934 . He later emigrated to Switzerland and France . During the Spanish Civil War , he fought in the International Brigades from 1937 and suffered a serious wound. In 1939 he was interned in France and extradited to Germany in 1940 . On August 21, 1941 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the People's Court for “preparing for high treason ” . He was sent to the Brandenburg prison and in December 1943 to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . He was liberated by the Allies on the death march in April 1945 .

From June 1945 he worked as an editor for the Mecklenburg “Volkszeitung” in Schwerin . In April 1946 he became a member of the SED and chief reporter of the "Schweriner Landes-Zeitung" (successor to Wilhelm Müller ). From 1949 to 1951 he was editor-in-chief of this newspaper. From 1951 he was an employee of " New Germany " and from 1951 to April 1953 professor at the Institute for Journalism at the University of Leipzig . From May 1953 to June 1958 he was editor-in-chief of “Volksstimme” in Magdeburg (successor to Arno Gropp ). He was then from 1958 to 1961 correspondent for the General German Intelligence Service (ADN) in Belgrade , then from 1961 to 1968 editor of the magazine “Documentation of Time” at the German Institute for Contemporary History . In 1968 he retired for health reasons.

Jakobi died in Berlin at the age of 69.

Awards

• May 6, 1955 Patriotic Order of Merit in silver
• Hans Beimler Medal
• Medal for fighters against fascism 1933 to 1945

literature

• Andreas Herbst :  Jakobi, Karl . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web link

• Karl Emil Jakobi in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig (accessed on May 29, 2016)