Kurt Hirsch (publicist)

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Kurt Hirsch (born August 2, 1913 in Vienna ; † December 31, 1999 in Munich ) was an Austrian publicist and right-wing extremism researcher.

Life

Hirsch grew up in Vienna and was active as a student in the social democratic youth movement.

Vienna in the interwar period was marked by the consequences of the war (see also History of Austria ); including an inflation that led to a currency reform (March 1, 1925).

Hirsch radicalized his experiences in Austrofascism under Engelbert Dollfuß and Kurt Schuschnigg . In 1934 he joined the Communist Youth Association of Austria (KJVÖ), of which he was a member until 1937. In 1938, after the annexation of Austria , he was arrested as a "political Jew". Hirsch was initially imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp and then transferred to Buchenwald , where he remained until he was liberated by the Americans in 1945 after he had escaped being transported to Auschwitz. In the concentration camp he became a member of the KPÖ and got into internal conflicts. Emil Carlebach reported to the SED in 1954 about "the Trotskyist Kurt Hirsch" , "who managed to sneak into the Austrian party organization in Buchenwald and was not exposed in the camp." The background was, among other things, a fight against "Jewish party enemies" such as Hirsch successfully prevented the removal of the Austrian fellow prisoner Jakob Ihr, which was requested by Carlebach.

After his liberation in 1945, Hirsch returned to Vienna and worked for the Soviet news agency TASS . (see also occupied post-war Austria # occupation sectors in Vienna )

In 1948, he said he fled the Soviet occupation forces and applied for political asylum in Switzerland. In 1949 he moved to the Federal Republic via Frankfurt / Main , where he posed as a refugee to the American authorities, to Munich. In Germany, Hirsch established close contacts with the SPD and became its member.

Act

Hirsch began in the 1950s to collect information from right-wing to right-wing extremist political spectrum and to build up an archive. He specialized in the preparation of dossiers on various organizations and personalities and published on the complex of topics. From 1963 he published the information service yesterday and today , initially in very small editions, which he initially financed himself. From 1965 to 1969, Hirsch ran a publishing house of the same name.

In the course of the strengthening of the NPD , Hirsch founded the Democratic Action (DA) in Munich in 1968 , which dedicated itself to the fight against right-wing extremism. In the 1970s only the Press Committee Democratic Action (PDA) survived , which was renamed the Press Service Democratic Initiative (PDI) in 1976 at the instigation of the Employers' Press Service (PDA) . Hirsch was editor-in-chief here. The information service Blick nach rechts was published by the PDI in December 1980 and was taken over by the Social Democratic Press Service in 1984 . Hirsch was one of the editors until 1987.

Hirsch published several books, including on the Republicans , Franz Schönhuber , the Harzburg Front and right-wing movements in the Federal Republic of Germany as well as black books (including Franz Josef Strauss ). His publications and information were not only used by the media, but also received in extremism research.

"Agent of influence"

In February 1994 it became public knowledge that the Karlsruhe Federal Prosecutor's Office had initiated an investigation against Kurt Hirsch in 1993. He was suspected of having spied on Willy Brandt's office and his office manager Klaus-Henning Rosen on behalf of the Ministry for State Security (MfS) of the GDR between 1976 and 1987 . According to the files, Hirsch was listed under the code name “Helm” as an “agent of influence” ( unofficial employee with work file (IMA) ) from HVA Department X (disinformation). According to the files, various book projects on right-wing political currents, parties and their actors, in which Hirsch appeared as author or editor, are said to have been supported by the disinformation department with "argumentation aids" and substantial amounts of money. Amounts between DM 300,000 and DM 500,000 were given. A first suspicion had led to the SPD ending its cooperation with Kurt Hirsch as early as 1987. The preliminary investigation against Hirsch was closed in 1996.

Hirsch was no longer active and died in Munich in 1999.

Publications

  • SS yesterday, today and ... ; Publishing house creative youth 1957
  • The bloodline. A contribution to the history of anti-communism in Germany ; Röderberg-Verlag 1960
  • From the "mercy death" of the Third Reich to restorative euthanasia in the Federal Republic ; Pahl-Rugenstein 1960
  • Harzburg Front 1960 ; Pahl-Rugenstein 1960
  • Are the Nazis coming again? ; Desch Verlag 1967
  • Signals from the right. 100 Years of Programs of Right-Wing Radical Parties and Organizations, 1867-1967 ; Goldmann-Verlag 1967
  • CSU Circle of Friends - Partisans of Democracy ?: a documentation ; Democratic Action 1970
  • with Hella Schlumberger : The technique of political character assassination ; Raith-Verlag 1974
  • Series of publications of the "press service" of the Democratic Action ; Dr. Krug-Verlag 1975
  • The homeless right: d. Conservatives & Franz Josef Strauss; Goldmann-Verlag 1979
  • with Hans Sarkowicz: Schönhuber: the politician and his circles ; Eichborn 1989
  • with Wolfgang Metz: The Republicans - the false patriots ; SPD regional association Bavaria 1989
  • Right of the Union: persons, organizations, parties since 1945 ; Knesebeck and Schuler 1989
  • Right, REPs, right: current handbook on the right-wing extremist scene ; Elefanten-Press 1990
  • Republicans from A to Z: Working materials from IG Metall ; Metalworkers Union 1990
  • From left to right: right-wing extremist activities in the new federal states . Goldmann-Verlag 1991

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eckhard Jesse , Democracy in Germany: Diagnoses and Analyzes , p. 396
  2. ^ Stefan Appelius : Pacifism in West Germany: the German Peace Society 1945-1968 , G. Mainz 1999, p. 468
  3. ^ Peter Ködderitzsch, Leo A. Müller : Right-wing extremism in the GDR , Lamuv Verlag 1990, p. 141
  4. ^ Walter Oswalt: The return of the leaders: modernized right-wing radicalism in Western Europe , Europa Verlag 1991, p. 366
  5. ↑ Facsimile of the Nürnberger Nachrichten of August 10, 1977, article Die Rechts im Visier by Max-Hermann Bloch, In: Ingeborg Drewitz : Location allocation: left-liberal, communist front organization , PDI-Konkret 1977, p. 25
  6. ↑ Bernhard Kuschey: The exception of survival: Ernst and Hilde Federn; a biographical study and an analysis of the internal structures of the concentration camp , Volume 2, Psychosozial-Verlag 2003, p. 737
  7. ↑ Wolfgang Kraushaar : Linke Geisterfahrer .: Food for thought for an anti-totalitarian left , New Criticism Schauer 2001, p. 50
  8. ↑ Helmut Roewer: In the sights of the secret services: Germany and Russia in the Cold War , Lübbe Sachbuch 2008, p. 254
  9. ↑ Jefferson Adams: Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence , Scarecrow Press 2009, p. 192
  10. ↑ Ulrich Peters: Whoever loses hope has lost everything: Communist resistance in Buchenwald , PapyRossa 2003, p. 241
  11. ↑ http://protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de/artikel/402
  12. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung, February 4, 1994, journalist allegedly spied in the Brandt office for the MfS , page 6
  13. ↑ a b Hubertus Knabe: The discreet charm of the GDR , Propylaeen 2001, pp. 297, 298
  14. ^ Jefferson Adams, Historical Dictionary of German Intelligence , Scarecrow Press 2009, p. 192
personal data
SURNAME Hirsch, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian publicist
DATE OF BIRTH August 2, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 31, 1999
Place of death Munich