Walter Schmidt (journalist)

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Walter Schmidt (2015)

Walter Schmidt (born February 2, 1965 in Saarbrücken ; † October 6, 2016 in Saarbrücken) was a German freelance journalist and author . He mainly published popular science articles and books.

Life

Walter Schmidt attended Otto Hahn Gymnasium in Saarbrücken and graduated from high school there in 1984 . Then he did his community service on a Saarbrücken adventure playground. From 1985 to 1986 he worked on the pseudo-documentary fictional film Carl Otto Darmstatt - Revelations about a genius from Saarland and wrote the majority of the screenplay for it . The film, sponsored by Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR), received a gold medal at the BDFA competition in Berlin in 1986 and in the same year took part in the Max Ophüls Prize film festival in Saarbrücken out of competition.

Schmidt studied 1986-1992 Geography focusing Physical Geography and a minor in political science at the University of Saarland in Saarbrücken and graduated with a Diploma - geographer from. At the same time he worked as a freelancer for the Saarbrücker Zeitung from 1987 and also completed internships at the SR's junior studio (“Stadtradio Saarbrücken”). From 1989 to 1990, Schmidt spent two semesters abroad in geography and natural resources management at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver, Canada . In the summer of 1990 he worked as a "naturalist" ( nature and environmental education ) in Custer State Park (CSP) in South Dakota during a practical semester in the USA .

After completing his studies, Schmidt completed a journalistic apprenticeship from 1993 to 1994 at the Henri-Nannen-Schule in Hamburg with Wolf Schneider , while doing internships at various newspapers and magazines. From 1994 to 1995 he worked for a year as an environmental editor for the Ergo news magazine project run by Heinrich Bauer Verlag in Hamburg. From 1996 to 1999 he worked as a press spokesman in the federal office of the environmental association BUND in Bonn .

Since the end of 1999 Schmidt worked as a freelance journalist and author; he lived and worked in Bonn until the end of 2015 and then moved back to his hometown Saarbrücken. Schmidt has also led various writing seminars on “catchy and understandable German”. In 2003 and 2004, he completed a certified training course both as a cultural landscape guide and as a volunteer forest guide for the Eifel National Park at the Bund Heimat und Umwelt in Deutschland (BHU) and the Nature and Environmental Protection Academy NRW (NUA) . Since then, he has been a volunteer forest guide in the Eifel National Park for several years.

Schmidt published numerous articles in various daily newspapers at home and abroad as well as in several magazines. As a science journalist , he mainly dealt with the subjects of “Psychology”, “Geosciences”, “Environment” and “Health”. He was a member of the German Association of Journalists (DJV).

Schmidt also wrote some works of fiction and published several popular science books .

Walter Schmidt was the father of a daughter born in 1998. He died of a heart attack while riding a bicycle at the age of 51.

Literary work

As an author, Schmidt dealt as an author in addition to some fiction works, above all with popular scientific non-fiction books, with a range of topics ranging from spatial psychology and psychosomatics to the wisdom of proverbs to questions of upbringing .

In 1998 his short story Die kaltenfuß der Frauen (The Cold Feet of Women) was published by Wunderlich Verlag, which belongs to Rowohlt .

In his non-fiction book Why Men Don't Want to Pee Side by Side (2013), Walter Schmidt examines this and other riddles of spatial psychology .

In addition, Schmidt published several non-fiction books since the beginning of the 2010s. In spring 2011, Gütersloh's publishing house published his first non-fiction book, Thicker Neck and Cold Feet , for which he tracked down numerous expressions about inner conflicts , about feelings and their physical symptoms and checked them for their truthfulness. In his critical examination of such idioms, Schmidt allows several experts to have their say and at the same time imparts general knowledge about the body and its functions as well as new insights into psychosomatics. In 2012 the book was awarded the Health Foundation's Journalism Prize; In 2013 a paperback was published by Goldmann Verlag .

Two more non-fiction books followed in 2012 and 2013, both of which were published by Rowohlt. In his work The early bird is unhealthy from 2012, Schmidt everyday proverbs to the test and examined on the basis of scientific knowledge and ethical considerations which wisdom are still sinnhaltig today. In his book, published in 2013, entitled Why Men Don't Want to Pee Side by Side , Schmidt presents answers to questions of spatial psychology. In doing so, he “reveals the hidden logic behind our everyday behavior ” - and analyzes, among other things, the riddle shown in the book title why men do not want to pee next to each other : “In short: Because public urinals lined up closely together are less than half a half Meter distance […] [offer to the next user], which injures the man's genital area ”.

In 2014, Eichborn Verlag published his fourth non-fiction book under the title Solange du seine Fuß ... , in which he dealt with the background to educational phrases . Schmidt examines numerous typical "parenting phrases ", mostly passed on over generations, and uses stories and expert opinions to question the "meaning and use" of the individual phrases . Schmidt, himself the father of a daughter, also processed his own experiences with “typical parental sayings” both from his own childhood and from his role as a father.

Awards and honors

Publications

Fiction

  • The cold feet of women. A love story (=  Wunderlich-Taschenbuch , No. 26074). Rowohlt / Wunderlich, Reinbek near Hamburg 1998, ISBN 3-499-26074-3 .

Non-fiction

Web links

Commons : Walter Schmidt  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

Note: Individual references given at the end of paragraphs refer to the entire paragraph before.

  1. ↑ a b (Sol): Cyclist dies after falling in Saarbrücken. In: www.sol.de. Saarbrücker Zeitung , October 7, 2016, accessed on October 19, 2016 .
  2. ↑ a b Katja Kurtz: Mourning Walter Schmidt . In: weekly magazine FORUM . October 14, 2016, ZDB ID 2581576-3 ( online at magazin-forum.de [accessed October 19, 2016]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e According to own information on the homepage of Walter Schmidt → About the person ( Memento of the original from February 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved February 5, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schmidt-walter.de
  4. ↑ a b See short biography of Walter Schmidt at the Gütersloher publishing house (www.randomhouse.de); Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ According to his own information on Walter Schmidt's homepage → My customers ( memento of the original from February 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved February 5, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schmidt-walter.de
  6. ↑ a b Cf. information on the homepage of Walter Schmidt → Bücher ( Memento of the original from February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ; Retrieved February 5, 2015. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.schmidt-walter.de
  7. ↑ Nils Minkmar : The urn . In: Der Spiegel . No. 45/2016 , November 5, 2016, p. 115 .
  8. ↑ Stefanie Reinberger: Thick skin, broken hearts . Review on: Spektrum.de (www.spektrum.de) from September 28, 2011; accessed on February 14, 2015.
  9. ↑ a b "Thick Neck and Cold Feet" - Journalism Prize for Walter Schmidt . On: Website of the Health Foundation (www.stiftung-gesundheit.de); Retrieved February 5, 2015.
  10. ↑ Ralf Krauter : The morning hour is unhealthy . Review in the radio magazine - Wissenschaft im Brennpunkt des Deutschlandfunk , article from June 17, 2012; accessed on February 14, 2015.
  11. ↑ Stefanie Reinberger: From the pitfalls of space . Review on: Spektrum.de (www.spektrum.de) from August 19, 2013; accessed on February 14, 2015.
  12. ↑ Erich Kocina: "As long as you have your feet ...": What is behind empty phrases . In: Die Presse , Austria, from March 23, 2014 (print edition) or March 22, 2014 (online edition on DiePresse.com ); accessed on February 14, 2014.
  13. ↑ See author Walter Schmidt →  Interview . Interview with Walter Schmidt from March 11, 2014 on the Eichborn Verlag website (www.luebbe.de/eichborn); accessed on February 14, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German freelance journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1965
PLACE OF BIRTH Saarbrücken
DATE OF DEATH October 6, 2016
Place of death Saarbrücken