Erich Böhme (8 February 1930 – 27 November 2009) was a German journalist and television presenter.

Life and career

Böhme grew up in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. After school, he studied economics there and graduated with a

degree Degree may refer to: As a unit of measurement * Degree (angle), a unit of angle measurement ** Degree of geographical latitude ** Degree of geographical longitude * Degree symbol (°), a notation used in science, engineering, and mathematics ...

in economics from the

Goethe University Frankfurt Goethe University (german: link=no, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) is a university located in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It was founded in 1914 as a citizens' university, which means it was founded and funded by the wealt ...

.alpha-forum, Erich Böhme im Gespräch mit Klaus Kastan Sendung vom 8. Februar 2005, 20.15 Uhr
(PDF; 54 kB) In 1953 he began as an agency journalist at the ''Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste'' and then moved to the

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

-based '. In 1958 he went to the news magazine ''

Der Spiegel ''Der Spiegel'' (, lit. ''"The Mirror"'') is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of 695,100 copies, it was the largest such publication in Europe in 2011. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...

'', where he first became a business correspondent in what was then the federal capital

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

, where he became office manager in 1969. Böhme became editor-in-chief of ''Der Spiegel'' in 1973 when his friend and predecessor

Günter Gaus Günter Gaus (23 November 1929 – 14 May 2004) was a prominent German journalist-commentator who became a diplomat and (very briefly) a regional politician in Berlin. Once he had moved on – as he probably assumed, permanently – from the wor ...

switched to politics. At ''Der Spiegel'', he was also responsible for reporting on the Barschel affair. Böhme himself described the revelations of Prime minister Barschel's then media spokesman about the manipulations in

Schleswig-Holstein Schleswig-Holstein (; da, Slesvig-Holsten; nds, Sleswig-Holsteen; frr, Slaswik-Holstiinj) is the northernmost of the 16 states of Germany, comprising most of the historical duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the former Duchy of Sch ...

's 1987 state election campaign as the highlight of his career. On 30 October 1989, shortly before the opening of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

, Böhme published the commentary ''The opportunity is good.'' with the key phrase: ''I don't want to be reunited.'' Five years later he put this into perspective with the words: ''What devil may have ridden me when I wrote in the SPIEGEL five years ago 'I don't want to be reunited'?'' After several disagreements with

Rudolf Augstein Rudolf Karl Augstein (5 November 1923 – 7 November 2002) was a German journalist, editor, publicist, and politician. He was one of the most influential German journalists, founder and part-owner of ''Der Spiegel'' magazine. As a politician, he ...

, Böhme left ''Der Spiegel'' at the end of 1989 – shortly before his 60th birthday – after almost 17 years as editor-in-chief. From November 1990 he worked for four years as editor of the ''

Berliner Zeitung The ''Berliner Zeitung'' (, ''Berlin Newspaper'') is a daily newspaper based in Berlin, Germany. Founded in East Germany in 1945, it is the only East German paper to achieve national prominence since reunification. It is published by Berliner ...

'', published by

Gruner + Jahr Gruner may refer to: People * Dov Gruner (1912–1947), Jewish Zionist leader * Eduard Gruner, Swiss engineer * Elioth Gruner (1882–1939), Australian painter * Gottlieb Sigmund Gruner (1717–1778), Swiss cartographer and geologist * Klaus ...

and

Robert Maxwell Ian Robert Maxwell (born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch; 10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991) was a Czechoslovak-born British media proprietor, member of parliament (MP), suspected spy, and fraudster. Early in his life, Maxwell escaped from N ...

. Also from 1990 he hosted the political talk show Talk im Turm at

Sat.1 Sat.1 is a German free-to-air television channel that is a part of the ProSiebenSat.1 Media Group. It is considered the first privately owned television network in Germany, having been launched in January 1984 as ''PKS'' ''(Programmgesellschaf ...

for eight and a half years. Böhme moderated

n-tv n-tv is a German free-to-air television news channel owned by the Bertelsmann Media's RTL Group. n-tv broadcasts news and weather every hour and half-hour in the morning. It also broadcasts magazine shows and documentaries. History n-tv beg ...

Der Grüne Salon Der or DER may refer to: Places * Darkənd, Azerbaijan * Dearborn (Amtrak station) (station code), in Michigan, US * Der (Sumer), an ancient city located in modern-day Iraq * d'Entrecasteaux Ridge, an oceanic ridge in the south-west Pacific Oc ...

together with

Heinz Eggert Heinz Eggert (born 6 May 1946 in Rostock) is a German theologian and politician (Christian Democratic Union of Germany, CDU). He was Saxon Minister of the Interior from 1991 to 1995 and a member of the Saxon State Parliament from 1994 to 2009. ...

from the end of 1997, before returning to his initial TV format with Talk in Berlin. On 27 February 2007, Böhme moderated the programme as a representative for

Sandra Maischberger Sandra Maischberger (born 25 August 1966) is a German journalist, talk show host, and author. Early life and education Born in Munich, Maischberger spent five years of her childhood in Frascati, near Rome, Italy, and also grew up in Garching ...

, who took a baby break of several weeks. Even after his time as editor of the

, he still worked as a print journalist. He wrote columns for the ''

'', the

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

Abendzeitung The Abendzeitung (''"Evening Paper"''), sometimes abbreviated to AZ, is a liberal morning tabloid newspaper from Munich, Germany. A localized edition is published in Nuremberg. The paper is published six days a week; the masthead of the Saturday ...

'' and the ''

Sächsische Zeitung ''Sächsische Zeitung'' (; "Saxon Newspaper") is a regional German daily newspaper. The paper is published in Dresden. Its circulation is around 227.940, a fall of around 40% since 1998. Around 93% of copies sold are delivered to subscribers. De ...

''.H. Palmer
''Trauer um Erich Böhme – Der Mann mit der rotierenden Brille.''
In: ''Spiegel-Online'' vom 29. November 2009 Besides, Böhme has been member of the Advisory Board of the

Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself h ...

from 1990 to 1993. In his second marriage, Böhme was married to the former ''Der Spiegel'' cultural editor and later

literary agent A literary agent is an agent who represents writers and their written works to publishers, theatrical producers, film producers, and film studios, and assists in sale and deal negotiation. Literary agents most often represent novelists, screenwrit ...

Monica Vogelgsang (died 1990), in his third marriage to her niece, the fashion designer Daniela Vogelgsang. Since August 2004 the former

GDR East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

news anchor

Angelika Unterlauf Angelika Unterlauf (born 1946 in Gröningen) is a German television journalist. As the news anchor, anchor of the main GDR television news programme, ''Aktuelle Kamera'', she was regarded as the "face of the GDR" until German reunification. Life ...

was his fourth wife. He last lived with her in Worin in the Oderland region of

Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a states of Germany, state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an ar ...

. Böhme died on 27 November 2009 as a result of many years of cancer.Wolfram Bickerich
''Erich Böhme (Nachruf).''
In: Der Spiegel 50/2009 vom 7. Dezember 2009, S. 182 f. Family, friends and representatives of politics and media took leave of Erich Böhme at a memorial service in the

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (in German: Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche, but mostly just known as Gedächtniskirche ) is a Protestant church affiliated with the Evangelical Church in Berlin, Brandenburg and Silesian Upper Lusatia, a regi ...

on 14 December 2009. Former Foreign Minister

Joschka Fischer Joseph Martin "Joschka" Fischer (born 12 April 1948) is a German retired politician of the Alliance 90/The Greens. He served as the foreign minister and as the vice-chancellor of Germany in the cabinet of Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005. Fis ...

praised Böhme as a "living history book of the old Federal Republic". For him, journalism was a defence of democracy. His grave is in the French Cemetery in Berlin.

References

External links

Independent Online: Former editor of Spiegel dies
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bohme, Erich 1930 births 2009 deaths German male journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists German television journalists German television talk show hosts German broadcast news analysts German male writers Der Spiegel editors Deaths from cancer in Germany Journalists from Frankfurt Sat.1 people