Stephan G. Thomas

Stephan G. Thomas (born August 29, 1910 in Berlin ; † June 4, 1987 in Bonn-Bad Godesberg ) was a German journalist.

Live and act

Thomas was born as the son of the worker Thomas Grzeskowiak in Berlin. After graduating from elementary school, he completed a three-year apprenticeship as a machine fitter from 1925. From 1930 he attended the workers' high school graduate course at the Karl Marx School in the Berlin district of Neukölln and in 1933 caught up with the high school diploma. He then studied law and political science as well as Slavic studies at the German University of Politics in Berlin, the Universities of Berlin and Warsaw and the London School of Economics . In 1939 he graduated from the German School of Politics. He was drafted into the war and was taken prisoner by the British in 1942, from which he returned in 1945. From 1945 to 1947 he worked in the police service in Hanover.

Thomas had sought to get close to the Social Democrats early on. He had been unionized since 1925 and a member of the SPD since 1930. From 1945 he belonged to Kurt Schumacher's inner circle of employees and from 1947 to 1966 he was head of the SPD's east office . He was replaced by Herbert Wehner . In 1966 he went to the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung as director of the international department .

From 1968 to 1975 he was editor-in-chief and program director of the current program department of Deutschlandfunk . After his retirement, he took on positions in various international organizations, including as executive chairman of the German-English Society and as vice-president of the German Atlantic Society .

Honors

• 1975: Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
• 1986: Great Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany

Web links

• Curriculum vitae in the archive of social democracy of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, as seen on November 23, 2012