Walter Wimmer (journalist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Walter Wimmer (born January 7, 1926 in Lüdinghausen ; † October 21, 2015 in Essen ) was a German journalist , editor and publisher of Borbecker Nachrichten and Werdener Nachrichten .

Live and act

Born in 1926 as the son of the founder and editor of the weekly newspaper Borbecker Nachrichten, Wilhelm Wimmer , he attended the Kraienbruch elementary school in Essen-Dellwig and then the grammar school in Essen-Borbeck .

In 1943, Wimmer had to leave school due to the war. After he had spent the time up to 1944 as part of a children's country deportation in Denmark , he was drafted as a soldier in World War II. He later became a British prisoner of war in the Netherlands and was taken to a camp in Norton, UK. Norton Camp was an English study camp for German prisoners of war in the county of Nottinghamshire near Mansfield from July 1945 to June 1948.

Here Wimmer had the opportunity to complete an Abitur course, which was later recognized in Germany. He also completed a three-semester pedagogy course there. In Great Britain, Wimmer also got to know the local newspaper industry with the local weekly reporting that was interesting for him, which brought him closer to the profession of journalist. He was very interested in the local paper Mansfield Chronicle , which he read from a family he was allowed to visit regularly on weekends while he was a prisoner of war. In 1948 he returned from captivity and encouraged his father to publish a weekly local paper. The first issue of Borbecker Nachrichten appeared in April 1949.

Back in Germany, Wimmer first obtained an interpreting diploma for the English language. He then studied general linguistics, English, German and philosophy at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg .

After the father Wilhelm Wimmer, who had worked as an editor until 1932, died in 1953, the brothers Walter and Franz-Josef Wimmer took over the paper. They complemented each other with Walter as an editor and Franz-Josef as a businessman. 1959 was followed by the takeover of Werdener Nachrichten, which appeared in the Werden district of Essen. In 1985 Franz-Josef Wimmer sold his share to the WAZ media group (since 2013 Funke media group ) and thus left the joint company. Later, under the direction of Walter Wimmer, the Borbecker Nachrichten became at times the local weekly newspaper with the highest circulation in Germany. A noteworthy publication by Wimmer in his Borbecker Nachrichten were Ernst Schmidt's research results on the subject of persecution and resistance from 1933 to 1945 . For the release of Ernst Schmidt, who was imprisoned for endangering the state , Wimmer and other Borbeck citizens had pleaded for clemency.

Around 1998 the WAZ media group set up a free weekly local paper for the Essen districts, for Borbeck with the Borbecker Kurier, which Walter Wimmer saw as competition for his Borbecker Nachrichten.

In 2000, at the age of 74, Wimmer also sold his stake in Borbecker and Werdener Nachrichten to the WAZ media group, thereby retiring as publisher. He passed on his knowledge and ideas about journalism with serious local reporting to young colleagues.

The history of what is now the Borbeck district of Essen was an object of research by Walter Wimmer, who published the Chronicle Grown in Eleven Centuries in six volumes between 1980 and 1993 .

Walter Wimmer was buried in the Siepenfriedhof in Essen- Huttrop .

Honors

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wimmer, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist and editor
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Ludinghausen
DATE OF DEATH October 21, 2015
Place of death eat