Werner Höfer

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Werner Höfer at the Frankfurt Book Fair (1977)

Werner Höfer (born March 21, 1913 in Kaisersesch , † November 26, 1997 in Cologne ) was a German journalist , television presenter and television director at Westdeutscher Rundfunk .

Life

Until 1945

Werner Höfer, son of a road builder, studied philosophy, history, theater and newspaper studies in Cologne and was hired in 1938 as a feature editor for the New Day in Cologne. He had already become a member of the NSDAP in March 1933 . ( Membership number 2.129.383). Höfer later moved to Berlin to the magazine Koralle and from here finally to the BZ am Mittag , where he had worked as a theater critic since 1941.

Höfer was released from military service in 1939. In 1941 he was press officer of the Organization Todt and then in the Ministry of Armaments of Albert Speer . From then on he wrote newspaper articles as a freelancer. When the BZ was discontinued at noon , Höfer also wrote for Das 12 Uhr Blatt . He was also an employee of the Nazi propaganda newspaper Das Reich .

After 1945

Werner Höfer (second from left)

After his release from American captivity (1946), Höfer occasionally wrote theater reviews for the Rheinischer Merkur , but turned his attention to radio and television early on ( Südwestfunk Baden-Baden in the Koblenz branch, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk and Westdeutscher Rundfunk in the Funkhaus Köln ). He is considered the founding father of the WDR regional program and moderated programs such as the Echo des Tages and Hier und heute, which is still broadcast today . In 1964 Höfer took over the management of the newly created third television program of the WDR, in 1972 he became WDR television director. The following year, Höfer applied in vain for the office of WDR director, in 1977 he ended his work for WDR at his own request. In the meantime, he also acted as editor-in-chief of Neue Illustrierte and diplomatic correspondent for Stern magazine .

Werner Höfer achieved greatest fame through the international morning pint he moderated , a Sunday journalists' get-together at which international media representatives discussed current political issues. It was a talking heads format based on US television, but here it was given an unmistakable cosmopolitan touch. The first edition was broadcast on January 6, 1952 on NWDR radio, and from August 1953 on ARD television broadcast the program. Regardless of the critical voices that Höfer assumed was long-winded and sometimes head teacher-like moderation style, the show was a permanent fixture on German television for a quarter of a century. A special feature was that Höfer never allowed himself to be represented and always arranged his vacation in such a way that he could play his host role in the morning pint on Sundays all year round . Norbert Schneider summarized the effect of Höfer in 1979: “For the first 25 years of German television, Werner Höfer made it, like the word about Sunday , like the political Monday magazines of ARD until 1977, like the early Saturday evening sports show with television par excellence to become."

Creeping affair

On September 3, 1943, the pianist Karlrobert Kreiten was sentenced to death by the People's Court for undermining military strength and executed four days later. Kreiten had expressed doubts that Germany could win the war. On September 20, Werner Höfer commented on the matter, which was viewed as defeatism and the decomposition of morality, in the 12 o'clock newspaper :

“How ruthlessly an artist is dealt with, however, who creates doubts instead of faith, slander instead of confidence and despair instead of attitude, emerged from a report from the last few days, which reported the severe punishment of a forgotten artist. Today nobody should understand if an artist who was missing would be forgiven more than the last stumbled comrade . Rather, the people demand that precisely the artist, with his refined sensitivity and his far-reaching authority, do his duty as honestly and bravely as each of his unknown comrades from other areas of work. Because celebrities are obliged to do so! "

In 1987 Der Spiegel reported on Höfer's contribution from 1943, triggering a heated public debate. Although the head of the Commission for Agitation and Propaganda at the Central Committee of the SED , Albert Norden , had brought the matter to the public as early as 1962 , this had no consequences, since in the Federal Republic there was still little interest in the fate of the victims of National Socialism the GDR authorities, who often used false information for propaganda purposes, were mistrusted. In 1962, as in 1987, Höfer said that the text had been edited and that individual passages had been changed; in addition, the article does not refer to Kreiten, since his name is not mentioned. If the public was satisfied with this in 1962, the reaction was more critical from 1987 onwards. In 1988, a classmate Kreitens published a book to which the Kreitens family contributed details that were previously unknown. In addition, historians examined Höfer's articles from the Nazi era in the book and found further incriminating details. But it was proven that he was actually the author of the article, which was interpreted as an "execution hymn" by the Spiegel . Thereupon Höfer tried to apologize by saying that in the worst time in German history he was not a resistance fighter, but neither was he a desk man. Nevertheless, he had to give up the morning pint. The broadcast was taken out of the program by WDR because Höfer owned the copyrights to the broadcast format. Since then, the WDR has broadcast the press club .

As a retired television director, Werner Höfer lived alternately in Cologne-Rodenkirchen and Kampen on Sylt. He also worked as a moderator, for example for public discussion events in various German cities, including on behalf of the Sparkassenstiftung “City-Treff” in Cologne. Under the title Buhler Encounters , Höfer (who, according to his own admission , had only wanted to give up the international morning pint when “I fall over at the morning pint table with a glass in hand”) finally again from 1992, alternating with other presenters, presented a monthly television program that was broadcast in a hotel in the Black Forest.

Private

His daughter Candida Höfer (* 1944) is a photographer.

Radio plays

As speaker:

As an author together with Gustav Zerres:

  • 1953: Summiteer with an umbrella - A report of the fight and victory for Mount Everest - Director: Wilhelm Semmelroth

Awards

literature

  • Norbert Frei, Johannes Schmitz: Journalism in the Third Reich . 3. Edition. C. H. Beck, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-406-45516-6 , p. 143 ff.
  • Uwe Kammann: Spätschoppen. The Werner Höfer case . In: Lutz Hachmeister, Friedemann Siering (ed.): The gentlemen journalists. The elite of the German press after 1945 . C. H. Beck, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-406-47597-3 , pp. 213-237.
  • Friedrich Lambart (ed.): Death of a pianist: Karlrobert Kreiten and the case of Werner Höfer . Hentrich, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-926175-48-6 .
  • Norbert Schneider: "On my left, I welcome ..." rituals of the television discussion . In: Helmut Kreuzer and Karl Prümm (eds.): TV broadcasts and their forms. Typology, history and criticism of the program in the Federal Republic of Germany . Reclam, Stuttgart 1979, pp. 438-448.
  • Matthias Weiß: journalists. Words than deeds . In: Norbert Frei (Ed.): Careers in the twilight. Hitler's elites after 1945 . Campus, Frankfurt am Main u. a. 2001, ISBN 3-593-36790-4 , pp. 241-302.
  • Nina Verheyen: Willingness to discuss. A cultural history of the “better argument” in West Germany , Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2010.
  • Alfons Friderichs (author): Höfer, Werner, in personalities of the Cochem-Zell district. Kliomedia, Trier 2004, ISBN 3-89890-084-3 , p. 157.

Web links

Commons : Werner Höfer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The Werner Höfer Show . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1959 ( online ).
  2. ^ A b Ernst Klee : The cultural lexicon for the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-10-039326-5 , p. 253.
  3. ↑ a b Harald Wieser : Death of a pianist . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1987, pp. 156-170; here p. 161 ( online ).
  4. ↑ To the television premiere in detail Harald Keller: The history of the talk show in Germany. S. Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 2009, p. 113ff.
  5. ↑ Norbert Schneider, p. 444
  6. ^ Peter Wapnewski : Karlrobert Kreiten - I and we. In: FAZ , November 28, 1987, printed in: Friedrich Lambart (Ed.): Death of a Pianist: Karlrobert Kreiten and the Werner Höfer case . Hentrich, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-926175-48-6 , pp. 168f.
  7. ^ Friedrich Lambart (ed.): Death of a pianist: Karlrobert Kreiten and the Werner Höfer case . Hentrich, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-926175-48-6 , p. 134.
  8. ^ Friedrich Lambart (ed.): Death of a pianist: Karlrobert Kreiten and the Werner Höfer case . Hentrich, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-926175-48-6 .
  9. ↑ so Peter Wapnewski Karlrobert Kreiten - Me and us . In: Friedrich Lambart (ed.): Death of a pianist: Karlrobert Kreiten and the Werner Höfer case . Hentrich, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-926175-48-6 , p. 169.
personal data
SURNAME Höfer, Werner
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 21, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Kaisersesch near Cochem
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 1997
Place of death Cologne