Werner Wirths

Werner Wirths (born January 9, 1891 in The Heights , Jersey City , United States , † after 1944) was a German-American journalist.

Life

The knowledge of Wirth's background and work is based mainly on statements from colleagues who were employed by the Reich and his articles. According to his friend John Brech , Wirth studied history and often traveled abroad to deepen his knowledge. He was a lieutenant in the reserve and very conservative, but an opponent of National Socialism and not a member of the NSDAP .

From 1919 Wirths was initially editor-in-chief of the magazine Das Gewissen , the publication organ of the young conservative June club . He later became editor of the Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung . After 1933, Wirths worked as the main editor of the magazine Deutsche Zukunft and joined Das Reich in 1940 , when the former was absorbed by the latter. He was appointed deputy editor-in-chief and head of foreign affairs at the new newspaper. Even if it was not possible for the Reich to evade propaganda entirely, Das Reich was designed by the National Socialists as a comparatively open publication medium for an intellectual audience. According to Brech's testimony, he, Wirths and another colleague are said to have monitored each other for a style that did not adopt the National Socialist standard vocabulary too much.

Wirths was one of the few editors who stayed with the Reich throughout the period . At the end of April 1945 he was arrested together with the second editor-in-chief Rudolf Sparing , Brech, and the clerk for British issues, Egon Bandmann, and deported to Russia. His further fate there is unclear. Allegedly he was sentenced to death along with Sparing and Bandmann, but this sentence was converted into 15 years of forced labor. It is believed that he starved to death in a labor camp in Russia.

Works

• Luxembourg . With e. Escort v. Gustav Simon, Volk und Reich Verlag, Berlin 1941. Published in several editions, most recently by Volk und Reich Verlag in 1943 with the publishing locations Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague and Vienna
• Eupen-Malmedy . With e. Escort v. Josef Grohé , Volk und Reich Verlag, Berlin 1941
• We were called: war memories . Herbig, Berlin 1938

literature

Erika Martens: For example Das Reich . Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1972, ISBN 3-8046-8459-9 , pp. 82–85 u. 256

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Claudia Kemper : The "Conscience" 1919 - 1925. Communication and networking of the young conservatives (= studies on the history of ideas of the modern age , volume 36). Oldenbourg, Munich 2011, ISBN 3-486-70496-6 , p. 203.