Rudolf Wolff

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Rudolf Wolff (born May 9, 1907 in Berlin , † December 1993 in Paris in the 13th arrondissement .) Was a German journalist and Foreign Legionnaire .

Life

Rudolf Wolff was the youngest son of Anna and Theodor Wolff . From 1927 to 1933 he studied economics , history and journalism in Berlin until he was forced to drop out before taking his exams. Alongside his studies, he worked as a journalist for the Berliner Tageblatt and, encouraged by Wilhelm Furtwängler , who was an often seen guest in his parents' house in Berlin , showed musical talent. He actually wanted to be a musician and was taught by musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic . After the Reichstag fire , he lived in hiding in Berlin. In December 1933 he emigrated to Zurich and then to Paris.

On September 2, 1939, he enlisted in the Foreign Legion and was briefly stationed in Algeria . Until May 23, 1943, he worked in Nice as a language teacher at the Berlitz language school and as a translator .

In April 1943 Rudolf married the Dutch woman Helna Tengbergen. The father, who took Helna very close to his heart, often persuaded the son to marry despite the uncertain times.

On May 23, 1943 at around 10 a.m., his father Theodor Wolff was arrested by civil servants of the Italian occupation forces in Nice and later handed over to the Secret State Police (Gestapo). The Wolff family lived in a mountain hideout for the following months. After the victorious advance of the American troops, he was employed as a translator in a migration office in Marseille in 1944 and 1945 . In the French occupation zone he got a job with the Saarbrücker Zeitung . In 1948, after the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany, he worked in Paris and became a French citizen. From 1946 to 1967 he was Paris correspondent for the Saarbrücker Zeitung and the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , and also worked for Radio France and for French newspapers. In January 1956 the magazine Das Parlament published a research report on the Reichstag fire written by Richard Wolff on behalf of the Federal Center for Homeland Service . Rudolf Wolff would have been a not insignificant witness on the subject, especially since his father contributed to the awareness of the Reichstag fire, which is why he had to fear persecution. However, this personal closeness to events led to a bias that was detrimental to science.

He had kept his father's estate materials for decades and was then in contact with Wolfram Köhler and later with Bernd Sösemann , whom he shared personal memories with.

Publications

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Willi Gorzny: Internationaler Nekrolog , 1994, books.google.de p. 764
  2. ^ Wolfram Köhler: The chief editor Theodor Wolff . 1978, p. 293
  3. ^ Wolfram Köhler: The chief editor Theodor Wolff . 1978, p. 272
  4. ↑ Hector guards the Saar . In: Die Zeit , No. 22/1954: "Rudolf Wolff, a naturalized Frenchman, sits in Paris and writes the main essays inspired by the Quai d'Orsay ."
  5. ↑ Theodor Wolff, Bernd Sösemann : Theodor Wolff Diaries 1914-1919: the First World War and the emergence of the Weimar Republic in diaries, editorials and letters from the editor-in-chief at the “Berliner Tageblatt” and co-founder of the “ German Democratic Party ” . Volume 54, Part 1, H. Boldt, 1984, 1097 pp . 67 books.google.de
  6. ↑ Christel Goldbach: Distant observation: Theodor Wolff and Judaism "... although they are not my candles, their light is warm" . P. 70
personal data
SURNAME Wolff, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and Foreign Legionnaire
DATE OF BIRTH May 9, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH December 1993
Place of death Paris