Kurt Pritzkoleit

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Kurt Rudolf Otto Pritzkoleit (born September 19, 1904 in Purgalken , Neidenburg district , East Prussia; † April 16, 1965 in Münster , Westphalia) was a German journalist and writer.

Life

Pritzkoleit was the son of the teacher Otto Pritzkoleit and his wife Gertrud, geb. Flowers. Shortly after Pritzkoleit was born, the family moved to Wuppertal and Düsseldorf . From 1914 to 1923, Pritzkoleit attended the municipal secondary school on Rethelstrasse (renamed Ludendorffschule from the school year 1920/21) in Düsseldorf. His Abitur certificate noted: He left the institute “to become a journalist.” He then studied mathematics, philosophy, history, economics and law, first in Marburg and Göttingen and from May 1925 to November 1926 in Berlin , where he worked as a freelancer Was a journalist. After studying and a longer stay in Holland , Pritzkoleit u. a. for the "Deutsche Volkswirt", the " Berliner Tageblatt ", the " Frankfurter Zeitung " and the " Deutsche Rundschau ", but also for the National Socialist weekly newspaper " Das Reich " after he had been a prisoner in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp near Berlin for a short time in 1937 . After returning from the concentration camp, he married Elfriede, geb. Horny. The marriage produced two children, Friedrich (born 1938) and Bettina (born 1942).

Pritzkoleit continued to work as a journalist, was drafted into the Wehrmacht in the fall of 1940 and temporarily released in 1941. Although not a party member, he was commissioned by the administrative board of the Nazi press to write "Hakenkreuzbanner" for the Mannheim newspaper. He headed the political department until he was drafted again in 1943. During his time in Mannheim he began his first book, “Men and Business”, a reader on the history of the USA . Although he was drafted into the flak in 1943, he was able to complete the book and publish it with Suhrkamp in 1943. In 1945, Pritzkoleit was first captured by the Americans in Augsburg , but was then taken by the French to Pau in the Pyrenees and Bayonne, where he wrote lectures and articles, often in French. In 1947 he returned from captivity. He lived with his wife and children in Wittlaer near Düsseldorf, where he initially headed the economic department of the " Rheinische Post " and then took over the chief editor of the "Neuss-Grevenbroicher-Zeitung".

Pritzkoleit ended his journalistic career in 1950 and since then has worked as a freelance writer, first in Düsseldorf and from 1954 in Münster . He is considered the most important chronicler of the "German economic miracle" and one of the most successful economic writers of the post-war period. His sensational book "Men, Powers, Monopolies" allows a look behind the scenes of the German economy. It opens the round of a large number of revelatory stories about the powerful in the state and economy, which Pritzkoleit supplemented almost annually with a new work in strict succession. Its protagonists are called Krupp, Thyssen and Quandt, Horten and Schlieker, Neckermann and Oetker, to name just a few. Pritzkoleit gives an answer to the question about the economic miracle, is the first to publish a list of the National Socialist military economic leaders, reveals the structures of corporations and big banks, of the cigarette industry, large-scale chemistry and brewing, and not only makes friends with it. His critical books are received with great response and are successfully sold. Pritzkoleit was able to assert himself on the bestseller list of the “Spiegel” during his lifetime and is still used today as a source for subsequent business journalists.

He died in Münster at the age of 60.

Works

  • Men and Business, a reader on the history of the USA , Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 1943
  • Men powers monopolies. Behind the doors of the West German economy , Karl Rauch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1953
  • Bosses banks stock exchanges. Lords of Money and Economics , Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1954
  • The new masters. The powerful in state and economy , Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1955
  • Who owns Germany? A chronicle of property and power , Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1957
  • The miracle commanded. Germany's way into the 20th century , Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1957
  • On a wave of gold. The triumph of the economy , Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1960
  • God sustains the mighty. Retrospective and 360 ° view of German prosperity , Karl Rauch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1961
  • Berlin - a fight for life. Karl Rauch Verlag, Düsseldorf 1963
  • The tamed chaos. The German economic landscapes. Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich 1965
  • The Pritzkoleit archive , newspaper clippings collection, continued by the Ruhr University Bochum, now located at the Rheinisch-Westfälischen -Wirtschaftsarchiv in Cologne

Literature and Sources

  • Jörg W. Rademacher, Christian Steinhagen: Scholarly Münster and all around . Verlag Jena 1800, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-931911-32-2 .
  • Kurt Pritzkoleit, journalist and writer . In: Munzinger archive . International Biographical Archive of August 30, 1965.
  • Kurt Pritzkoleit (newspaper clippings collection). In: Foundation Rheinisch-Westfälisches Wirtschaftsarchiv, Cologne company. University of Bochum. Signature: Abt. 298, term: k. A., circumference: approx. 30 running meters.
  • Rüdiger Jungbluth: The Quandts . Your quiet rise to the most powerful economic dynasty in Germany . 2nd edition Bastei-Lübbe-Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 2004, ISBN 3-404-61550-6 .
  • Karl Baßler : The Marshall Plan - swindle and the future of Europe. Correction on the 50th anniversary . In: Germany in history and present , vol. 45 (1997), issue 4, pp. 1-10.
  • Walter Gödden (Ed.): Lexicon of Westphalian authors 1750-1950 . Literature commission for Westphalia.
  • Heinz-Günter Kemmer: Freed from inheritance . In: Die Zeit , issue 43, 1988.
  • The Hörzu success story ! (1946-1965) . In: Lu Seegers: Listen! Eduard Rhein and the radio program magazines (1931-1965) . Verlag für Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam 2001, ISBN 3-935035-26-8 , pp. 151-232 (publications of the German Broadcasting Archive; 34).
  • Association of former Rethel students and Goetheschüler eV, Rethel Abitur classes (Ludendorff School, Jacobi Gymnasium) until 1985.

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Maximilian Scheer calls this paper: the party newspaper which of all Nazi papers most frequently commented on the journalistic emigration
  2. ↑ Review by René del Fabro in H-Soz-u-Kult .
personal data
SURNAME Pritzkoleit, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pritzkoleit, Kurt Rudolf Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 19, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Purgalken , Neidenburg district
DATE OF DEATH April 16, 1965
Place of death Muenster