Rudolf Walter Leonhardt

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Rudolf Walter Leonhardt (born February 9, 1921 in Altenburg ; † March 30, 2003 in Hamburg ) was a German journalist and author of numerous books on topics from politics and culture.

Life

Leonhardt was the son of a teacher couple. His mother was from Lorraine . From 1930 to 1938 he attended the Staatsrealgymnasium in Borna near Leipzig. At the age of 17 he joined the military, became a fighter pilot and received the German Cross in Gold .

He studied humanities in Bonn , Cambridge and London . After graduating , he did his doctorate ( Form Problems of the Novel ) and was a lecturer in modern German literature at Cambridge from 1948 to 1950. Until 1953 he worked for the BBC and as a writer for British newspapers. He then became an employee of the time , initially as a foreign correspondent in London, and from 1955 as an editor in the political editorial department in Hamburg .

For 17 years, from May 1957 to 1973, Leonhardt was the successor to Paul Hühnerfeld, the arts editor of the time . When Theo Sommer became editor-in-chief in 1973, Leonhardt gave up the feature section and took on one of the two deputy posts alongside Sommer. He held this post until he retired in 1986.

The press release from the time of his death stated:

“In his work and in his great articles, Rudolf Walter Leonhardt made a significant contribution to the liberalization of the social climate in the Federal Republic of the 1960s. Again and again he advocated modern, tolerant legislation, especially against minorities. "

In the context of the debate on the attitude of the Greens on child abuse Theo Sommer expressed in 2013 critical of the "libertinism-heavy, even as outrageous perceived chapters" of Leonhardt's book Who throws the first stone ?, in which this the taboo of pedophilia or pederasty had criticized, and also other articles in the period; Sommer called it the " idiosyncrasy of a single, but leading and therefore prominent editor" and expressed:

"If I had been the editor-in-chief at the time and had read his text [...] - I would like to hope that I would have talked Leo out of the print with the argument and, if necessary, forbidden, I shouldn't risk his excessively exaggerated view being misunderstood as the opinion of ZEIT . "

In connection with the reporting on the Weinstein scandal in 2017, Zeit journalist Iris Radisch made public that Leonhardt's sexual assaults and lewdness were known throughout the house; Due to the social climate, however, legal proceedings could hardly be carried out successfully.

Works (selection)

literature

  • Roger Paulin: Anticipating, but in keeping with the TIME. Rudolf Walter Leonhardt's "Fall of Man in German Studies" (1959). A re-reading [1] , in: Sabine Koloch (Hrsg.): 1968 in German literary studies / topic group “Post-War German Studies in Criticism” (literaturkritik.de archive / special editions) (2018).
  • Jürgen Babendreier: German post-war German studies without a zero point. A fall from man is reviewed [2] , in: ibid. (2019).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Redaktionsbüro Harenberg: Knaurs Prominentenlexikon 1980. The personal data of celebrities from politics, economy, culture and society . With over 400 photos. Droemer Knaur, Munich / Zurich 1979, ISBN 3-426-07604-7 , Leonhardt, Rudolf Walter, p. 270 f .
  2. ↑ Merlind Theile: Pedophilia: The great nonsense . In: The time. No. 41, October 2, 2013.
  3. ^ Rudolf Walter Leonhardt: Mischief with innocence and fornication (II): Short giggles, no blushing . In: The time . No. 17 , April 25, 1969.
  4. ↑ a b Theo Sommer: Irrungen und Verrungen der Zeit . In: The time . No. 41 , October 3, 2013.
  5. ↑ Iris Radisch: On dark leather sofas , in: Die Zeit , October 26, 2017, p. 15
personal data
SURNAME Leonhardt, Rudolf Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 9, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Altenburg
DATE OF DEATH March 30, 2003
Place of death Hamburg