Rudolf Kircher

Rudolf Kircher (born June 5, 1885 in Karlsruhe , † September 27, 1954 in Stuttgart ) was a German journalist and writer. Kircher worked for the Frankfurter Zeitung for more than thirty years , a. a. as a correspondent in London and as chief correspondent in Berlin. Kircher was - with external adaptation - known for his cold sarcasm, who expressed criticism of the conditions in the so-called Third Reich between the lines, which he camouflaged with virtuoso art of formulation (Norbert Frei: breathtaking foil fight ).

Life and activity

Early years

Kircher was the son of a state attorney general in Baden. After attending school, Kircher studied law. He completed his studies in 1909 with a doctorate in Heidelberg . He then worked for three years in the state service of the Grand Ducal Baden.

In 1912 Kircher joined the Frankfurter Zeitung . From 1920 to 1930 he was the correspondent of this newspaper in England . In addition to his correspondent activities, he wrote several monographs on England.

In 1930 Kircher was appointed chief correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung in Berlin. He held this position, in which he replaced the left-liberal Bernhard Guttmann , until 1938. Due to his rather conservative attitudes, he had some friction with the other members of the editorial team there in the first years of his work as Berlin editor-in-chief. For the newspaper itself, however, this personnel decision turned out to be advantageous, as Kircher was highly regarded in business circles on which the newspaper was heavily dependent during the years of the economic crisis due to the advertisements placed on them. In addition, the main editorial office of the Frankfurter Zeitung wanted to take into account the general political shift to the right in the country in the early 1930s with the election of Kircher.

time of the nationalsocialism

After the National Socialists came to power and the associated conformity of the Frankfurter Zeitung in 1933, Kircher adapted himself outwardly and wrote articles that, on the surface, were in line with the regime.

In the sense of literary camouflage, i. H. of coded writing on two levels, his texts often contained barbs in which he conveyed criticism of the prevailing system to his readers in a camouflaged manner - if they understood how to read the articles "correctly". He labeled the Nazi party rally in Nuremberg as a “folk festival” or implicitly swiped the anti-Semitic propaganda newspaper Der Stürmer by commenting tellingly that this newspaper was using a language “that we do not want to reproduce”. He highlighted the political cleansing of the Nazi regime carried out in the course of the so-called Röhm Putsch in the summer of 1934, during which around ninety people - including a large part of the leadership of the National Socialist Party Army, the SA - were killed at the behest of the rulers Article with the harmless headline “Hitler's Action” as a process that equates to the liberation of the people “from the rule of inferiors”, which is “worth a lot of effort”. While the formulation - which alluded to the title of a book by Edgar Jung , who had also been one of the murdered - prima facie the SA leaders who were shot and who the Nazi leadership claimed to have attempted a coup against the "legitimate government" prepared (which it had anticipated by a “defensive strike”, ie the purge) to bring the state power into their hands, characterized as “inferior”, whose attempt to take control of the country was heroically prevented by the government was, the formulation could also be understood as an appeal to the people - or a courageous part of them - to act in a certain way in the future: That is, as the statement that a "rule of inferior" still exists (ie that the Nazi regime was one), and that the still to be accomplished liberation of the people from them was a worthwhile cause (a "price"), which would be worth it, a big R to take the risk (to invest “a high stake”).

Kircher sees Frei becoming increasingly cautious through his acquaintance with the also murdered former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher and taking refuge in sarcasm.

In accordance with the new provisions of the Editing Act, Kircher became the so-called chief editor of the collegial editorial team from January 1, 1934; until May 1938, when there were increasing conflicts with the management of the newspaper in Frankfurt. Another motivation for going to Rome as a correspondent was a homosexual affair in Nuremberg in 1937 during the Nazi party rally, through which he could be blackmailed.

His comments, some of which were based on Goebbels' propaganda line, gave him a leeway, which he z. B. in May 1943 together with the publishing director Wendelin Hecht at the Frankfurt Gauleiter tried to make the most of it: the dismissed editors who were married to Jewish women should at least be left alone in the future. When the Gauleiter replied evasively, Kirchner started up: Do you think I'll keep doing your shit for you if you can't even get that done? .

After 1945, Margret Boveri defended Kircher against the arrogance of her colleagues, who could only bask in their unencumberedness through the willingness of others to 'dirty hands' - for example a man like Rudolf Kircher. Franz Taucher reported that after the dismissal of Jewish editors, Kircher had answered the request to discuss the so-called Jewish question with a functionary on the radio, saying that if he had to come, he would come, but with a revolver in hand to help himself shoot the microphone.

After the Frankfurter Zeitung was banned, Kircher worked for a magazine for Sweden called Tele, which was still being planned. Kircher himself wrote in 1944 that he was no longer clean .

post war period

After founding the newspaper Der Standpunkt in Meran , Kircher worked from 1949 to 1954 for the Deutsche Zeitung , which appeared in Stuttgart, but not for the newly founded Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung .

Quotes

Kurt Tucholsky writes in his review of the Kircher books ›Fair Play‹ and ›Engländer‹:

On top are two brightly dressed books. By Rudolf Kircher: ›Fair Play‹ and ›Engländer‹ (both published by the Frankfurter Societätsdruckerei in Frankfurt am Main). It is very strange: England has not yet been discovered for the German press. Whether the pointless overestimation of Paris is due to the fact that the authoritative generation of authoritative editors at school only had English as a facultative subject, or whatever else, there is hardly any England. In Paris, Spinelly only needs to have her thigh jewelry stolen, and Prenzlau, Konigsberg and Darmstadt have the most inaccurate information. There is just a flash of Parisian information. London? C'est là-bas… as they say here in Paris. In fine newspapers one speaks of this only in the political part. But there is supposed to be a kind of life going on there too, I heard ... Here at Kircher, the excellent correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung, you can get to know it ...

Works

• Revolutionary foreign policy , Frankfurt a. M., Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt a. M. 1919.
• Englishman , Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt a. M. 1926.
• Fair play. Sport, games and spirit in England , Frankfurter Societätsdruckerei Abt. Buchverlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1927.
• How the English do it , Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Abt. Buchverl., Frankfurt a. M. 1929.
• German conversion , Frankfurter Societäts-Druckerei, Frankfurt a. M. 1931.
• In the land of contradictions , Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1933.
• Trips into the Reich , Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1934.
• Politics in three capitals , Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1935.
• Romanità , Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt a. M. 1942.

literature

• Ulrich P. Schäfer: Rudolf Kircher as London correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung, 1920–1923 , 1994.

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Kircher in the catalog of the German National Library

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Norbert Frei, Johannes Schmitz: Journalism in the Third Reich , becksche series, Verlag CH Beck, 1989, unchanged fourth edition 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-61725-6
2. ^ Günter Gillessen: At a losing position. The Frankfurter Zeitung in the Third Reich , Berlin, 1987, ISBN 978-3-88680-223-4 , p. 534, quoted from Frei / Schmitz: Journalism in the Third Reich
3. ↑ Kurt Tucholsky : On the bedside table - Kircher, Molnár, Rohan, Gumbel, Ebert