Paul Schmitt (journalist)

Paul Schmitt (* 1900 , † 1953 ), pseudonym Paolo Agostino Sebastiani, was a German-Swiss journalist and businessman.

Life

After attending school, Schmitt studied economics and political science at the University of Munich . In the 1920s he was a partner at Schneider und Münzig Bank. He later became director of the Knorr und Hirth publishing house in Munich, for which he was managing director and publisher of the Münchener Neuesten Nachrichten , one of the most important German-language daily newspapers of its time, and the Süddeutsche monthly magazine . In the spring of 1933, in the wake of the National Socialist seizure of power, Schmitt was replaced by Leo Friedrich Hausleiter , a follower of Heinrich Himmler .

In March 1934, Schmitt fled Germany after warnings that his life was in danger. According to some sources, the shooting of Wilhelm Eduard Schmid , the music critic of the Munich Latest News , who was actually executed by the SS in Dachau on June 30, 1934 , was actually Schmitt. According to these sources, Schmid was arrested by the police on the basis of an instruction slip "Schmidt, Munich Latest News", brought to Dachau and shot there. Other sources claim, however, that Schmid was confused with the doctor Ludwig Schmitt, the SA-Gruppenführer Wilhelm Schmid , the SA-Sturmbannführer Willi Schmidt or the SA-Sturmbannführer Johannes Schmidt.

From 1934 to 1938 Schmitt studied patristic theology in the Vatican and in Rome. He then worked as a Rome correspondent for various Swiss and Austrian newspapers. In 1938 Schmitt was accepted as a refugee in Switzerland, where he was naturalized shortly before his death in 1953.

Fonts

• Four philosophical stories , Bern 1950. (under the pseudonym Paolo Agostino Sebastiani)