Michael Frank

Michael Frank (born January 12, 1947 in Mittenwald , Upper Bavaria ) is a German journalist and was a long-time Austria and Central Europe correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung .

Life

After his childhood in the city of birth in the extreme south of Upper Bavaria, he later went to Munich and attended the German School of Journalism there . His professional career took him to the Süddeutsche Zeitung in Munich, where he worked as a reporter with a focus on development policy. In 1986 the newspaper sent him to Vienna as a Central Europe correspondent . There, Austrian domestic politics very quickly became the subject of his reporting. When he arrived, the Waldheim affair was at its height, into which he " stumbled inexperienced " according to his own account and which was an incredible challenge journalistically. His articles and comments, which were written for the readership in Germany, were also intensively read and discussed in Austria. Attempts by various politicians from both camps ( SPÖ , ÖVP ) to influence his reporting, he vigorously opposed. He always rejected the "dealings" between politics and journalism widespread in Vienna , which made his work sometimes more difficult, but increased his credibility as an independent external observer. Further topics of these first years in Vienna were the glycol wine scandal , the opera ball demos , the rise of Jörg Haider and the changes that were beginning in the Eastern Bloc countries .

From 1992, as a correspondent from Prague , he reported on the turbulent events in Central and Southeastern Europe, including the dissolution of Czechoslovakia , the rise of Vladimír Mečiar in Bratislava and Václav Klaus in the Czech Republic. In addition, he endeavored through his work to improve German-Czech relations on a cultural and political level, for which he later received the Joseph Roth Prize and the Golden Pen .

In 1998 he went back to Vienna as a correspondent. In the following year, Austrian domestic politics again moved into the focus of the international public. Frank reported on the National Council elections in 1999 and the subsequent Black-Blue Turn , where for the first time since 1970 the SPÖ was not part of a government and instead the right-wing populist FPÖ came to power. His critical reports in the Süddeutsche during the time of the EU sanctions against Austria brought him numerous hostilities in Vienna. The Kronen Zeitung even described him as a “correspondent against Austria” and in 2001 named one of his articles on its cover as “The worst story about Austria”. In addition to this rejection, he was also held in high esteem in Austria, he was invited several times as a guest at TV discussions on ORF ( Europastudio , Club 2 ) and, in addition to his work for the Süddeutsche, also wrote articles and guest comments for Austrian newspapers.

In the years that followed, topics from the former communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe came to the fore in his journalistic activities, in particular the 2004 enlargement of the EU and the transitional regulations for the labor market included in the accession treaties at the initiative of the Austrian federal government under Wolfgang Schüssel . The most important topic of his last years was Viktor Orbán's rise in Hungary and his election victory in 2010, which suddenly brought the situation in Hungary to the attention of the European press. Here, too, Frank showed himself to be an unpleasant critic, as he had already done a few years earlier with regard to the participation of the FPÖ in government, which now brought him some expressions of displeasure from Budapest. Months before the international scandal, he warned about the new Hungarian media law , which was only being planned at the time .

After 25 years as a foreign correspondent, Michael Frank announced in January 2012 that he would retire. However, he declared that he would continue to devote himself to writing, for example in the form of guest comments or as an author of books, such as in his collection of short stories Alles Wien , published in 2003 , a book about his impressions as a German in Vienna.

Michael Frank lives with his partner in Munich- Schwabing .

Works

• Alles Wien , Vienna: Picus, 2003, ISBN 3-85452-472-2
• Nepomukes who haunt the bridges , Vienna: Picus, 1999, ISBN 3-85452-707-1
• Czech Republic, Slovakia , photo book with texts by Michael Frank, Munich: Bucher, 1996, ISBN 3-7658-1061-4
• Schmalensee. Novel . Vienna: Picus, 2020

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kleine Zeitung : The Ball of Little Lies , March 2, 2011, accessed on April 22, 2020
2. ↑ Der Standard: Farewell with Honorary Title , January 12, 2012
3. ↑ "That'll keep my spit away". Michael Frank, Austria correspondent for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, speaks about the institutional infamy of our politicians, Falter 32/2011 from August 10, 2011 ( Memento from May 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
4. ^ A Bavarian in Vienna , original text from Falter 38/03 from September 17, 2003 ( Memento from November 15, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Hungarian Voice: Michael Frank's article on Hungary: “Worth reading” or “Crumple and throw away”? , May 1, 2010
6. ↑ Neuwal: “Süddeutsche” correspondent Michael Frank: “In a democracy, the media control power, in Hungary it's the other way around” A pro-commentary , January 29, 2011