Klaus Huhn

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Klaus Huhn at a book reading in 2011

Klaus Huhn (born February 24, 1928 in Berlin ; † January 20, 2017 there ) was a German journalist and sports official . He worked as the sports director of New Germany and chairman of the sports journalists' association in the Association of Journalists of the GDR .

Until recently he worked as a journalist for the biographies of former SED leaders and GDR-nostalgic publications.

He published several books about the GDR cycling legend Täve Schur and was a ghostwriter for his autobiography. A review in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung characterized this as "impertinent propaganda".

Origin and education

Huhn came from a communist family. His father was the future Federal Reserve President Willy Huhn .

Huhn attended grammar school up to the 10th grade in Berlin and Saalfeld and then became an air force helper . In 1946 he joined the Deutsche Volkszeitung , the central organ of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the Soviet zone of occupation , after his mother had been working for the editorial office after his half-brother, who later became a member of the SED Politburo Werner Eberlein, was still imprisoned in the Soviet Union asked. She was referred to Wilhelm Pieck , who obtained the release of Eberlein from Stalin . Huhn was hired as a local editor and volunteer. In the same year he joined the KPD .

In 1954 he took up a correspondence course in journalism at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig , and in 1983 he received his doctorate in pedagogy at the German University for Physical Culture .

Sports journalist and official

In 1946 he became a local reporter for Neuen Deutschland (ND) and then moved to the sports department. In 1946 he joined the Association of the German Press (VDP), the forerunner of the Association of Journalists of the GDR (VDJ), and in 1948 the German Sports Committee . In 1952 he became sports director of the ND and in 1953 a member of the ND editorial collective. He wrote there under the pseudonym Klaus Ullrich . Huhn belonged to the founding generation of the SED central organ New Germany and worked there until 1990. He was considered “the most loyal sports journalist in the GDR” and a rhetorically gifted concrete head . He had influence through his contacts in the highest political positions.

In 1954 he took over the organization of the International Peace Tour and remained one of the directors of the world's largest amateur stage race for 38 years. Huhn was president of the GDR Cycling Association from 1967 to 1969 . He was a founding member of the German Gymnastics and Sports Federation and was a member of its federal executive committee until 1989.

From 1978 to 1988 he was chairman of the sports journalists' association in the VDJ, from 1982 to 1989 he was a member of the VDJ board. Huhn reported on 17 Olympic Games and was awarded the Journalist Prize in 1988 by the International Olympic Committee . From 1976 to 1993 he was on the board of the European Union of Sports Journalists (UEPS), most recently as Vice President and Secretary General. In 1980 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold in the GDR and in 1986 with the bar of honor for this medal.

After the turn

After leaving New Germany , he founded the Spotless publishing house , which he managed until 2006. He was one of its main authors. The Spotless publishing house mainly deals with GDR-nostalgic publications. Today he belongs to the Eulenspiegel publishing group . Huhn's books were also published by Edition Ost . Huhn became a member of the DKP . He published the journal Articles on Sports History (at least 29 volumes). He also dealt with the comparison between the sporting conditions in the west and in the east.

Political role

As the sports editor of Neues Deutschland , Huhn had power that went beyond his professional activities. He was "a leading sports journalist from the old party elite" who had "very good personal relationships with the inner circle of functionaries of the party and mass organizations". [...] Huhn himself formulated the SED's sport-political positions. As co-initiator of the Small Agitation Commission at the Olympic Games in Munich, he was responsible for the "daily securing of a uniform argumentation" as well as for the "tips for current comments" of the writing journalists and thus himself an actor in the system of guidance and control of the sports press.

Huhn was characterized by the FAZ as the "chief ideologist of sports reporting" in the GDR. About his sport-historical activity it says elsewhere in 1998: “Of course science is open to all worldviews, as long as the rules of the game of methodology and theory are observed. The problematic is the journalistic work eh. SED cadres who still represent propaganda theses that do not do justice to the phenomenon [GDR sport], such as Dr. KU Chicken [...] in the articles on sports history [...]. "

In addition to Heinz Wuschech , Günter Erbach and Horst Röder, Huhn criticized the judicial settlement of state doping in the GDR after the fall of the Wall .

Unofficial employee of the State Security

The Focus reported for the first time in 1995 that Klaus Huhn had signed a declaration of commitment on January 6, 1960, which he said he could not remember. According to Der Spiegel , he was listed as an unofficial employee (IM) of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) with the code name "Heinz Mohr". Furthermore, the Focus reported that Huhn had denounced colleagues (“is not reliable”) and athletes (“there is still a suspicion of fleeing the republic ”). On his 60th birthday he received gifts for “his good contact with the MfS and his operationally valuable information”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Klaus Huhn died , in Junge Welt , January 21, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Michael Reinsch: Hero of the footwork - Blessed saddle times: Gustav-Adolf Schur cycles in his autobiography about sticks and sticks. FAZ.net , March 20, 2001, review.
  3. ↑ a b Kristen Benning: The history of the SED central organ New Germany from 1946 to 1949. The arms suppliers "in the fight against the reaction and its confusion maneuvers". LIT Verlag, Münster 1997.
  4. ↑ Jutta Braun, Hans Joachim Treichler (Hrsg.): Sports city Berlin in the Cold War: Prestige fights and system competition. S. 216, 236, Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-399-5 .
  5. ↑ New Germany. August 22, 1980, p. 4.
  6. ↑ Berliner Zeitung . April 30, 1986, p. 4.
  7. ↑ Thomas Kunze : former head of state. D .: The last years of Erich Honecker. Ch.links Verlag, 2001, p. 176.
  8. ↑ Gunter Holzweißig: Any monkey could intervene - journalism in the GDR. In: Listen and Look . 2/2011, p. 79.
  9. ↑ Klaus Ulrich Huhn: Gustav-Adolf Schur - the star and the collective. In: Arnd Krüger , Swantje Scharenberg : Times for Heroes - Times for Celebrities in Sports. (= Series of publications by the Lower Saxony Institute for Sports History . Volume 22). LIT, Münster 2014, ISBN 978-3-643-12498-2 .
  10. ↑ Klaus Reinartz: The sports press and its steering. In: Hans-Joachim Teichler, Klaus Reinartz (Hrsg.): The competitive sports system of the GDR in the 80s and in the process of the change. (= Series of publications by the Federal Institute for Sport Science). Cologne 1999, p. 383f.
  11. ↑ Giselher Spitzer, Hans J. Teichler, Klaus Reinartz: Key documents for GDR sports . Meyer and Meyer, Aachen 1998, ISBN 3-89124-513-0 , p. 12, footnote no.2.
  12. ↑ Mike Dennis, Jonathan Grix: Sport Under Communism: Behind the East German 'Miracle' . Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, ISBN 978-0-230-22784-2 ( google.de [accessed October 25, 2018]).
  13. ↑ Klaus Brinkbäumer , Udo Ludwig , Georg Mascolo , Thomas Purschke: The source is reliable . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 1999, pp. 92-94 ( Online - Nov. 15, 1999 ).
  14. ↑ Jürgen Schreiber: The shadows are getting longer again. In: Der Tagesspiegel. April 14, 2006.
  15. ↑ Uwe Müller: Exotic Alliances in Stasi matters. In: Welt-Online. December 16, 2005.
  16. ^ Journalist Klaus Huhn was a Stasi informant. In: Focus magazine. No. 45 (1995), November 6, 1995.
  17. ↑ Klaus Huhn: I also helped the Pope out of a tight spot. Episodes of an eventful life. Review.
personal data
SURNAME Chicken, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ullrich, Klaus (pseudonym); Holm, Knut (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and publisher
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 20th January 2017
Place of death Berlin