-Caveat Lector-
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/11/08/obituaries/08AUGS.html?pagewanted=print&position=top
November 8, 2002
Rudolf Augstein, 79, Publisher of Der Spiegel, Is Dead
By ALAN COWELL
ONDON, Nov. 7 � Rudolf Augstein, the founder and publisher of Der
Spiegel, who regarded his weekly news
magazine as the "assault artillery" of his country's fledgling
postwar democracy, died today of pneumonia, his
publishing company said. He was 79.
With few parallels in European publishing, Mr. Augstein exerted broad
influence on his country's press, politicians and
policies in a career that began modestly enough when, at the age of 23,
he took over a weekly news magazine from
British occupiers and began publishing Der Spiegel, which means The
Mirror, in January 1947. He was still its publisher
when he died, two days after his 79th birthday.
His death today inspired a cascade of tributes from politicians
including Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der, who said Mr.
Augstein had "stamped and formed German public opinion like almost no
other journalist." Arnulf Baring, a German
historian, said Mr. Augstein had "contributed to the establishment of
the media as the Fourth Estate" after press
freedom had been destroyed by Nazism.
Mr. Augstein once spent 103 days in prison to defend the Hamburg-based
Der Spiegel against charges of treason in
what became the celebrated "Spiegel affair" of the early 1960's.
Mr. Augstein's career spanned Germany's postwar history from the
division of a defeated nation to reunificiation after
the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was a time when Germany
straddled a politically divided continent, with the Soviet
Army in East Germany and hundreds of thousands of American troops based
in West Germany.
In West Germany, slowly emerging from Nazism's shadow, the superpowers
fought the shadowy espionage battles of
the cold war. And on that stage, Mr. Augstein positioned Der Spiegel as
a major player. He was regarded as a
powerful supporter of Willy Brandt's overtures to Communist East Europe
known as Ostpolitik and of the reunification
policies of Helmut Kohl.
But, like many of his generation, his roots lay in the same
between-the-wars Germany that propelled Adolf Hitler to
power.
Mr. Augstein was born in Hanover, northern Germany, in 1923, the son of
a photo equipment dealer. He joined a local
newspaper in 1941 but was drafted into the German Army as a telegraph
operator and, later, artillery observer in
World War II before he was wounded on the eastern front. He spent a
brief period as prisoner of the victorious United
States forces in 1945 before resuming his career as a journalist.
Under his editorship, the liberal Der Spiegel grew as an acerbic critic
of Konrad Adenauer's postwar government and as
champion of investigative journalism into many domestic scandals. Its
circulation went from 65,000 in 1948 to more
than five million in recent times.
But it was in late 1962 that Mr. Augstein's most celebrated clash with
the authorities made headlines with the
magazine's publication of an article that raised questions over the
military preparedness of NATO.
Der Spiegel's offices were searched, journalists were arrested and Mr.
Augstein turned himself in to the police. The
unfolding drama drew widespread criticism, within Germany and abroad,
and finally led to the downfall of Franz Josef
Strauss, the then powerful West German defense minister.
The affair was seen as a test of whether West Germany's democracy could
survive the collision between press and
politicians.
The treason allegations were dropped for lack of evidence. Mr. Strauss'
career, which could arguably have led him later
to the chancellorship � he lost a bid for the top office in 1980 � was
dogged from then on by intimations that he
acted to restrain press freedom.
Mr. Augstein meanwhile had cemented Der Spiegel's credentials as an
emblem of West German democracy and the
freedom of its press, and its stark contrast with the Soviet Union's
grip on the Communist regime in East Germany.
Apart from a brief and unimpressive foray as a legislator for the Free
Democrats in 1972, Mr. Augstein remained
publisher and chief editorial writer � a position that gave him great
influence � until his death.
The combative style of Der Spieel gained Mr. Augstein some enemies
during his long career, but politicians and
journalistic colleagues joined in tributes to him today.
"Without him and Der Spiegel, there is a lot that would never have been
said or written in Germany," said Angela
Merkel, head of the Christian Democrats. Michael Naumann, publisher of
the weekly Die Zeit, said, "Augstein achieved
power by criticizing the powerful � to the good of the republic."
In the 1990's, with Germany unified and the cold war over, the big
issues became less obvious and Mr. Augstein's
dominance in German journalism was suddenly challenged by an upstart
news weekly called Focus that began
publishing in 1993 and competed with Der Spiegel for readers and
advertisers.
Mr. Augstein was divorced four times, and is survived by his fifth
wife, Anna Maria H�rtgen, whom he married in
October 2000, and by four children from his earlier marriages.
__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
U2 on LAUNCH - Exclusive greatest hits videos
http://launch.yahoo.com/u2
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html";>Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/
<A HREF="http://archive.jab.org/ctrl@;listserv.aol.com/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
