Klaus von Bismarck

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Klaus von Bismarck (1961)
Signature of Klaus von Bismarck

Klaus Hans Herbert von Bismarck (* 6. March 1912 at Gut Jarchlin , district Pomerania , Pomerania , † 22. May 1997 in Hamburg ) was a German journalist and director of the WDR and chairman of ARD .

family

Klaus von Bismarck was the son of the landowner Gottfried von Bismarck (1881–1928), master of the Jarchlin and Kniephof estates (both Kr. Naugard in Western Pomerania), and his wife Gertrud, née Koehn (1890–1971).

Bismarck married on July 15, 1939 at Gut Pätzig ( Königsberg district in the Neumark ) Ruth-Alice von Wedemeyer (born March 3, 1920 at Gut Pätzig; † December 28, 2013 in Hamburg ), the daughter of the royal Prussian trainee and lieutenant colonel d . Res. Hans von Wedemeyer (1888–1942), landlord on Pätzig (Kr. Königsberg in the Neumark) and Klein-Reetz ( Rummelsburg district , Pomerania ), and his wife Ruth, née von Kleist-Retzow (1897–1985), one Daughter of Ruth von Kleist-Retzow born Countess von Zedlitz-Truetzschler . The couple had seven sons and one daughter.

Bismarck was the legal heir to the two family estates Jarchlin and Kniephof in Pomerania and the great-great-nephew of the first German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck .

Life

In his early youth, Bismarck was a member of the Bündische Jugend und Stahlhelm , the DNVP's paramilitary fighting organization . After the early death of his father, he wanted to learn the trade of a farmer after graduating from high school in order to take over the management of the estate as the eldest son. No sooner had he done his military service than a few months later the Second World War began , in which he fought directly at the front as a reserve officer to the end as commander of a regiment with the rank of lieutenant colonel of the reserve in the 32nd Infantry Division .

After the end of the war he became youth director of the Herford district ( North Rhine-Westphalia ). He had the confidence of the British military administration as he was considered unencumbered. The youth farm Vlotho was of particular importance for his work .

Bismarck later got involved in the Protestant church , organized church days and promoted dialogue between workers and employers. From 1950 to 1995 he was a member of the Presidium of the German Evangelical Church Congress , from 1977 to 1979 its president. In 1961 he was one of the signatories of the Tübingen Memorandum .

Pillow stone for Klaus von Bismarck, Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg

In 1960, as a politically neutral, Protestant candidate, he was elected director of the WDR, which had now been founded. During his tenure from 1961 to 1976 Bismarck tried to stay out of the disputes between the parties for influence on the station and to concentrate on the quality of the program.

On April 15, 1977, he took up the post of President of the Goethe Institute at its headquarters in Munich and remained so until 1989. Under his leadership, the Institute increased its involvement in Eastern Europe and opened branches in Warsaw and Krakow ( Poland ).

Klaus von Bismarck wrote the memoirs “Departure from Pomerania”.

The grave of Klaus von Bismarck is located in Hamburg on the Ohlsdorf cemetery within sight of the Sanne mausoleum (about grid square AA 18 between Waldstraße and Stiller Weg ).

Awards

Honors

literature

  • Genealogical manual of the nobility , noble houses A volume XVI, page 34, volume 76 of the complete series, CA Starke Verlag, Limburg (Lahn) 1981, ISSN  0435-2408 .
  • Josef Schmid: We lived on an island of self-deception. Klaus von Bismarck's way from service in the Wehrmacht to the opening of the "Wehrmachtsausstellung" 1995 in Hamburg. In: Jennifer Wasmuth (Ed.): Between foreign and enemy images. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Racism and Xenophobia ', Foreign Proximity - Contributions to the Interdisciplinary Discussion, Volume 16, page 33f., Münster-Hamburg-London 2000.
  • Josef Schmid: Artistic Director Klaus von Bismarck and the campaign against "Rotfunk" WDR. In: "Archive for Social History", Volume 41, Page 349f., 2001.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearers 1939-1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 223.
  2. a b Redaktionsbüro Harenberg: Knaurs Prominentenlexikon 1980. The personal data of celebrities from politics, economy, culture and society . With over 400 photos. Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-426-07604-7 , Bismarck, von, Klaus, S. 44 .