Viktor Kraemer junior

Viktor Kraemer junior around 1915 with his wife Agnes and their children Hans and Irene

Viktor Heinrich Ernst Kraemer junior (born May 26, 1881 - † February 17, 1937 ) was a publisher in Heilbronn . In 1902 he joined his father Viktor Kraemer's publishing house , took over the sole management of the publishing house after the death of his parents and published the Neckar-Zeitung , the Heilbronner General-Anzeiger and the Heilbronner Abend-Zeitung . After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Kraemer was urged to sell his publishing house, and his newspapers were discontinued in 1934.

Life

He was one of the sons of the Heilbronn publisher Viktor Kraemer senior (1840–1911). After completing school and a year-long internship in his father's print shop, he completed his military service with the 191 Uhlan Regiment in Ulm. Afterwards he was a trainee in a printing company in Leipzig, where he also studied for a semester at the law faculty. In 1902 his father suffered a stroke, after which he returned to Heilbronn and joined the publishing house management of Schell'sche Buchdruckerei, Viktor Kraemer, Heilbronn . The most important paper of the publishing house, the liberal Neckar-Zeitung , developed from 1902 under the editor-in-chief Ernst Jäckh into a daily newspaper that was respected nationwide. In 1904 Kraemer went on a five-month study trip to the USA, where he visited around 100 newspaper companies. In 1909 he married the hotelier's daughter Agnes Wasmus (1885–1972) from Braunschweig. The couple built a representative villa for themselves at Gutenbergstrasse 55 in Heilbronn.

After her father's death in 1911, his widow Lina was also a member of the management team until her accidental death in 1914. At that time, Theodor Heuss was appointed editor-in-chief of the Neckar newspaper in 1912 . Kraemer took part in the First World War as a soldier. Due to a testamentary regulation, there was a highest bidder sale of his father's company in 1917, whereby Viktor Kraemer junior acquired the publishing house for about two million marks while on leave from the front. On January 1, 1918, Erich Schairer von Kraemer was hired as editor-in-chief of the Neckar newspaper . Because Schairer represented “leftist ideas” there , there was a “row” between him and the publisher. According to Uwe Jacobi , Kraemer had previously committed “press censorship” because on November 15, 1919, he had a Schairer glossary scratched out of the printing plate from the front page. It was a contribution that criticized a representative of the stab in the back legend . Schairer left the Neckar newspaper on December 1, 1919 and founded the Heilbronner Sunday newspaper in 1920 . In the meantime, Kraemer acquired the previous Heilbronner Zeitung in 1919 , which he published as Heilbronner Abend-Zeitung from 1920 . In 1920 Kraemer appointed Hans Franke to head the features section of the Neckar newspaper .

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Kraemer was pushed out of business by the NS district leader Richard Drauz . At first he still hoped to at least be able to continue running the Neckar newspaper . After violent attacks against Kraemer and editor Franke occurred in late 1933, Kraemer sold his publishing house in February 1934 to Heilbronner Tagblatt GmbH , which published a newspaper of the same name, close to the NSDAP . He received 350,000 Reichsmarks as the purchase price for the company, which had been estimated to be worth 1.5 million Reichsmarks a few years earlier. Kraemers General-Anzeiger and the Abend-Zeitung were already discontinued in the spring of 1934, the Neckar-Zeitung appeared with a swastika in the title until the end of 1934, and as the Heilbronner Morgenpost until 1937.

References and comments

1. ↑ Date of birth and death as well as first names from the Heilbronn city archive, contemporary history collection, HEUSS database, call number ZS-11675
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Uwe Jacobi: Heilbronner Pressegeschichte . In: Gerhard Schwinghammer (ed.): Heilbronn and Hans Franke. Publicist, poet and critic 1893–1964 . Verlag Heilbronner Voice, Heilbronn 1989, ISBN 3-921923-06-9 ( Heilbronner Voice / book series . 3)

literature

• Uwe Jacobi : 250 years of Heilbronn press. History of the media in the Unterland and Hohenlohe 1744–1994 . Verlag Heilbronner Voice, Heilbronn am Neckar 1993, ISBN 3-921923-11-5 ( Heilbronner Voice. Book series . 5)