Robert Schmelzer

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Robert Schmelzer (born March 7, 1914 in Herne ; † March 3, 1996 in Kirchhundem ) was a German journalist and editor of the daily newspaper Westfalenpost .

origin

Robert Schmelzer's parents both come from Maumke , now Lennestadt . The father was employed as a train driver in the Ruhr area . However, the parents intended to move back to the Sauerland , and the father therefore applied for his transfer to Altenhundem, now Lennestadt. Since this transfer did not take place immediately, Robert Schmelzer was quartered in advance in the Sauerland, namely in 1919 with his maternal grandmother in Maumke. Robert Schmelzer attended elementary school there. In 1924 he switched to the Rector's School in Altenhundem, and in the same year the family moved there to one of the newly built railway houses. In 1928/29 Robert Schmelzer had to stop attending school due to illness. He then attended high school in Attendorn as a boarding school student . He finished school in 1934 with the Abitur.

Professional background

After graduating from high school, Robert Schmelzer took up a traineeship at a small Catholic newspaper in Alzey . Studies in Munich, Cologne and Berlin with the newspaper scholar Emil Dovifat followed . He then helped him get a position in the Foreign Office because an editor position at Catholic newspapers was not available . On May 1, 1937, he joined the NSDAP .

In 1940 he switched to the Brussels newspaper , the German-language occupation newspaper in occupied Belgium, which served as a mouthpiece for the military administration under Alexander von Falkenhausen . The editor-in-chief of the newspaper was Heinrich Tötter , who came from Altenhundem and whose newspaper studies seminar in Cologne Robert Schmelzer had attended as a student. Schmelzer built up the Berlin office of the Brussels newspaper and worked his way up to the position of deputy chief editor until the paper was discontinued on September 2, 1944.

In 1949 Robert Schmelzer became editor-in-chief of Ruhr-Nachrichten in Dortmund. From 1961 on, this formed an editorial community with the Westfalenpost , so that Schmelzer was also its editor-in-chief from that time on. In 1967 he went to the Frankfurter Neue Presse as editor-in-chief and worked there until 1979.

In 1969, in his role as editor-in-chief of the Frankfurter Neue Presse, Robert Schmelzer arranged high-profile appointments between KGB employees and German politicians, in particular the then State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery Egon Bahr and the then CDU Chairman Rainer Barzel .

From 1980 to 1987 Robert Schmelzer was editor of the Westfalenpost. During this time he published his diary under the abbreviation "OC" , short columns that appear daily and that met with broad reader interest.

Honors

Robert Schmelzer received the Federal Cross of Merit First Class in 1975 and the Great Federal Cross of Merit in 1979. He was also awarded the Catholic Journalism Prize.

criticism

In his later years Robert Schmelzer came under fire for his work at the Brussels newspaper. In autobiographical publications he presented this publication and his activities as being directed against the Nazi regime. He himself got into difficulties because he wrote in an editorial : " Hitler is the most defeated general of all time." his reporting was rather uncritical and he used the anti-Semitic vocabulary of those in power. Schmelzer was resented for not correctly portraying his role as a journalist during the Nazi era in his memoirs.

Works

  • My review - dance with Mrs. Minister , Josef Grobbel Verlag, Fredeburg, 1984, ISBN 3922659276

literature

  • Andreas Gabriel: Political Culture and the Nazi Past. The conflict over the journalist Robert Schmelzer - a sociological investigation. Written term paper to obtain the Magister Artium. Finnentrop 1994
  • Theo Hundt: Robert Schmelzer 70 years old. In: Voices from the Olpe district. 136th episode, No. 3, 1984, pp. 145f.
  • Robert Schmelzer: My homeland. In: Voices from the Olpe district. 150th episode, No. 1, 1988, p. 3ff.
  • Biographical manual of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 4: p . Published by the Foreign Office, Historical Service, edited by: Bernd Isphording, Gerhard Keiper, Martin Kröger. Schöningh, Paderborn et al. 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-71843-3 , p. 99

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Schmelzer: My homes. In: Voices from the Olpe district. 150th episode, No. 1, 1988, p. 3ff
  2. ↑ a b Biographical Handbook of the German Foreign Service 1871–1945. Volume 4, p. 99
  3. ^ Andreas Gabriel: Political culture and the Nazi past. The conflict over the journalist Robert Schmelzer - a sociological investigation. Written term paper to obtain the Magister Artium. Finnentrop 1994
  4. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 16/1964, Robert Schmelzer
  5. ↑ Friedrich-W. Cordt: Heimatchronik from January 1st to March 31st 1996. In: Heimatstimmen from the Olpe district. 183rd episode, No. 2 1996, p. 182
  6. ↑ FOCUS No. 6 (1995), Bahr's secret pact with the KGB
  7. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 7/1995 Alliance with the devil
  8. ↑ DER SPIEGEL 8/1995 Thought of the unthinkable
  9. ↑ Robert Schmelzer: Have a dance with Mrs. Minister. My review. P. 94
personal data
SURNAME Schmelzer, Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and editor
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Herne
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 1996
Place of death Kirchhundem