Otto Pünter
Otto Pünter (born April 4, 1900 in Bern ; † October 13, 1988 there ) was a Swiss journalist .
Life
After graduating from high school, Pünter completed a commercial apprenticeship in Neuchâtel . After that he also worked abroad as a businessman and bank clerk.
In 1927 he became an employee of the Res Publica press agency and began building the social democratic press service Insa . In the 1930s until the end of the Second World War he organized his own anti-fascist intelligence service, which worked as the Pakbo group with the information and resistance network of Sándor Radó . Pünter also forwarded important war information to the British intelligence service, including the production sites of the V1 and V2 rockets , which led to the bombing of these facilities.
From 1937 onwards, his press service also provided militarily relevant information from Italy to the Republican government in Spain. After Radó's three powerful shortwave transmitters ( Rote Drei ) were forcibly switched off at the end of 1943, Pünter forwarded important information via Di Pao Chen Chu , press attaché at the Chinese legation in Bern, via China to the Soviet Union.
After the Second World War, Pünter was President of the Association of Journalists from the Federal Palace and from 1956 to 1965 Head of Press and Information for the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SRG).
In 1975 Pünter was awarded the Hans Bredow Medal in West Berlin for his services .
People of the "Red Chapel"
Fonts (selection)
- 1967: The Anschluss did not take place
- 1978: How It Was: Memories of a Journalist 1919–1977
literature
- Bernd Ruland : The eyes of Moscow. Swiss publishing house: Zurich 1973
- Peter Kamber: Secret Agent. BasisDruck: Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86163-097-5 . ( Internet attachment , PDF file; 4.2 MB)
- Sándor Radó: Dora reports ... Military publishing house of the GDR: Berlin 1974
Web links
- Literature by and about Otto Pünter in the catalog of the German National Library
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: Orselina
- Estate at the Archives for Contemporary History (PDF)
- Switzerland in World War II - Secret Services and Resistance ( Memento from August 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
- Hermann Wichers : Pünter, Otto. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Pünter, Otto |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Pakbo |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss agent and journalist |
DATE OF BIRTH | April 4, 1900 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Bern |
DATE OF DEATH | October 13, 1988 |
Place of death | Bern |