Karl d'Ester

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Karl d'Ester (born December 11, 1881 in Vallendar near Koblenz , † May 31, 1960 in Aurach , southern Bavaria ) was a German newspaper scholar . The founding of the Institute for Newspaper Research in Dortmund was based on his idea .

Life

Karl d'Ester's mother came from a family of Rhine boatmen, his father was an industrialist who owned a large property in Vallendar. His great uncle was the March revolutionary Carl d'Ester .

After completing school at the Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium (today Görres-Gymnasium ) in Koblenz, d'Ester studied philosophy , classical philology , German studies , theology and geography in Munich, Vienna and Münster from 1902 to 1906 , and received his doctorate in Münster in 1907 on the subject of newspapers in Westphalia from the beginning until 1813 . Since 1902 he was a member of the Catholic student association KDStV Aenania Munich . In Münster he was active at VKDSt Saxonia and was the founding senior of AV Alsatia . From 1909 to 1919 he was a teacher at the Hörde Realgymnasium and built up the newspaper collection at the Dortmund city library . In 1919 the Habilitation at the University of Münster followed with the historian Aloys Meister on The Rhenish Press under French Rule 1779-1814 .

Doctorate supervised by Karl d'Ester in 1934: The analysis shows no Nazi diction

In 1924 d'Ester became professor at the newly founded Institute for Newspaper Studies at the University of Munich . Together with newspaper scientist Walther Heide , he launched the journal Zeitungswissenschaft . He lived in the Munich district of Obermenzing .

In 1928 he headed the scientific history committee of the international press exhibition Pressa in Cologne , whose members included Hans Amandus Münster .

In his function as a communication scientist, Karl d'Ester undertook several trips abroad, which took him to China, Japan and the Soviet Union in 1929, to the USA in 1934 and to Africa in 1936. His relationship with the National Socialists has not been fully clarified and is today cautiously referred to as "distant" by communication scientists. On the one hand, he supported exhibitions like Der Ewige Jude (1938) in Munich with anti-Semitic jokes from newspapers, on the other hand, he campaigned for colleagues who, like the journalist Walter Panofsky , got into political difficulties because of their Jewish grandparents. When asked about the anti-Jewish exhibition later, Karl d'Ester spoke of having denied less than “3000th part” of it.

Nevertheless, after the collapse of the regime, he was suspected of having cooperated more than just aloof with the National Socialists, and in 1945 the administration of the American zone of occupation released him from his teaching post. Karl d'Ester then started a campaign with the aim of relieving him, which, however, did not impress the military administration. In November 1946 she confirmed the dismissal because he did not meet the “required positive political, liberal and moral qualities”. It was not until July 1947 that the Americans gave the Bavarian Ministry of Culture the freedom to reinstate d'Ester, which happened in September 1947. Karl d'Ester remained director until 1954, most recently acting director of the Institute for Newspaper Studies . Large parts of his newspaper collection were destroyed by bombing during the war. He sold the leftovers to the library of his institute for DM 30,000 and to the Institute for Newspaper Research for DM 50,000 .

Karl d'Ester published mainly - and in large numbers - essays and newspaper articles and was therefore one of the most important German newspaper scholars in the 1930s. He was considered a pioneer of this discipline by many, especially abroad. He wrote two autobiographies in the 1950s , which, however, did not shed any light on a possible proximity to the National Socialists.

A chronic illness freed d'Ester from participating in both world wars. He lived with his housekeeper and her niece, who worked at his institute, and adopted them in 1948.

On May 31, 1960, d'Ester died in southern Bavaria. He was buried in the family grave in Vallendar. The primary school there is named after him.

Fonts (selection)

  • The newspaper industry in Westphalia from the first beginnings to 1813 in its historical development and cultural significance . Schöningh, Münster 1907 (Münstersche Contributions to the Modern History of Literature, Volume 1/2).
  • The Rhineland. A home book . Brandstetter, Leipzig 1916.
  • Rhine legends. Dedicated to the German people, to the German youth, Stuttgart / Leipzig 1925.
  • Newspaper industry . Shepherd, Breslau 1928.
  • The press and its people in the mirror of poetry. A harvest spanning 3 centuries . Triltsch, Würzburg 1941.
  • The French press in their own judgment 1540-1940 . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1942.
  • Journalists. Little stories from the press and their people . Frundsberg-Verlag, Berlin 1944.
  • The paper power. A brief press release, written by contemporaries . Pohl, Munich 1950.
  • Black on white. A life for youth, science and the press . Pohl, Munich 1951.
  • The dream of a lifetime. A German Institute for International Press Research and a World Press Museum. A contribution to the history of international newspaper studies . Publisher Donau-Kurier, Ingolstadt 1957.
  • Selection of journalistic publications . Brockmeyer, Bochum 1984, ISBN 3-88339-365-7 .

Festschrift

  • Contributions to newspaper science. Festival ceremony for Karl d'Ester on the 70th birthday of his friends and students . Aschendorff, Münster 1952.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Rudolf Stöber: Emil Dovifat , Karl d'Ester and Walter Hagemann . In: The spiral of silence. On dealing with National Socialist newspaper science . LIT Verlag Vienna 2004, ISBN 978-3-8258-7278-6 , p.
  2. ↑ Stöber, p. 132
  3. ↑ Stöber, p. 127
  4. ↑ Hans Bohrmann, Arnulf Kutsch : Karl d'Ester (1881-1960). Notes on the occasion of his 100th birthday . In: Publizistik , Vol. 26 (1981), pp. 575-603
personal data
SURNAME Ester, Karl d '
ALTERNATIVE NAMES D'Ester, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German newspaper scholar
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Vallendar near Koblenz
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1960
Place of death Aurach , southern Bavaria