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
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
.
Once he had moved on – as he probably assumed, permanently – from the worlds of print journalism and television, in 1976 Günter Gaus joined the
Social Democratic Party
The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology.
Active parties
For ...
. The party's leader (and former chancellor),
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ger ...
, was a close political ally and a friend. Gaus let it be known that he had resigned his party membership towards the end of 2001, after
Chancellor Schröder had incautiously – and "without consulting the party" – pledged "unconditional/unlimited solidarity" (''"bedingungslose/uneingeschränkte Solidarität"'') with the United States of America during the build-up to that year's
United States invasion of Afghanistan
In late 2001, the United States and its close allies invaded Afghanistan and toppled the Taliban government. The invasion's aims were to dismantle al-Qaeda, which had executed the September 11 attacks, and to deny it a safe base of operati ...
.
Life
Provenance and early years
Gaus was born and grew up in Braunschweig
Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...
where his parents, Willi and Hedwig Gaus, owned and ran a successful fruit and vegetable retail business. Alongside the conventional greengrocer merchandise there was a complementary specialist section with a focus on exotic fruits. Many years later his journalist-daughter would tell an interviewer that wartime experiences of numberless nights spent in bomb shelters
Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but many ...
and, in particular, of the destructive English air attack of 15 October 1944, would have a lasting impact in the child. Gaus was born a couple of months too early to avoid more active participation in a war. Shortly before it ended he was sent for two weeks as part of a large school-boy contingent to the Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
"to dig trenches" (intended, it would appear, to serve as "tank traps"). He was then assigned to walk the streets of his home town and the surrounding countryside in the company of other equally bemused reluctant soldiers "equipped with anti-tank weaponry and pistols". He nevertheless avoided any more personal "enemy encounters".
School years and war
May 1945 saw a return to peace and the start of a period of military occupation
Military occupation, also known as belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is the effective military control by a ruling power over a territory that is outside of that power's sovereign territory.Eyāl Benveniśtî. The international law ...
. Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebu ...
, a short distance to the east, was administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone
The Soviet Occupation Zone ( or german: Ostzone, label=none, "East Zone"; , ''Sovetskaya okkupatsionnaya zona Germanii'', "Soviet Occupation Zone of Germany") was an area of Germany in Central Europe that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a ...
(relaunched in 1949 as the German Democratic Republic / East Germany) but Braunschweig found itself under British occupation. Günter Gaus was able to complete his schooling close to his parents' home at the confusingly named "Gymnasium Gaussschule" (secondary school). In 1947 he became editor-in-chief of "Der Punkt", one of the first "schoolboy newspapers" in post-war Germany
In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period ...
. He then found time, in 1949, to pass his ''Abitur
''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen ye ...
'' thereby opening the way to university admission. Gaus had already resolved to become a journalist, and before progressing to university he undertook what amounted to an informal internship with the '' Braunschweiger Zeitung''.[
]
Student years
In 1950 he enrolled at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...
, where he studied Germanistics and History. Soon after his arrival he switched to a course in journalism.[ His own autobiography and other sources make little mention of his university career, beyond reporting that as a student he was already undertaking regular journalistic assignments, so that as soon as he had finished with his time at the university, his transfer into fulltime journalism was exceptionally seamless.
]
Journalism
His first permanent appointment to an editorial office came just two years after his admission as a student to Munich University. In 1952 he joined the Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
-based ''Badische Zeitung
The ''Badische Zeitung'' (''Baden Newspaper'') is a German newspaper based in Freiburg im Breisgau, covering the South Western part of Germany and the Black Forest region. It has a circulation of 145,825 and a readership of 409,000. The paper was ...
''. He moved on after four years to the ''Deutsche Zeitung und Wirtschaftszeitung''. During this period he came to the attention of the pioneering media magnate Rudolf Augstein who assiduously – and in the end successfully – sought to recruit him for a job as a political editor at 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 ...
in Hamburg. Still not quite 29, Günter Gaus made the move to West Germany's leading centre-right political weekly in 1958. In the words of one admirer he turned Spiegel into the "Strafbataillon des deutschen Journalismus" (''loosely, "punishment battalion of German journalism"'').[ Although this appointment lasted only for three years, his association with Der Spiegel, together with his close personal and professional friendship with the publication's proprietor, would become lifelong.] In 1961 he moved on again, this time joining ''Süddeutsche Zeitung
The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of SZ is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and social-democrat.
Hist ...
'' which, despite its Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
base, is one of the few daily newspapers with a powerful reach throughout (and beyond) Germany. Gaus worked for ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' as the newspaper's political editor between 1961 and 1965.
Marriage
During his time with ''Deutsche Zeitung und Wirtschaftszeitung'', Gaus married Erika Butzengeiger at Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...
in 1955. A couple of years younger than her husband, Erika Gaus is a daughter of the former bank manager, . She has succeeded in keeping out of the limelight that frequently surrounded her husband. The couple's daughter, Bettina Gaus, was born towards the end of 1956 and has followed her father into a career as a high-profile political journalist.
Television
On 10 April 1963, the German public television broadcaster ZDF transmitted the first episode of the series called "Zur Person – Porträts in Frage und Antwort". To paraphrase a later tribute from Rudolf Augstein, the show quickly became the medium whereby Günter Gaus launched himself on a completely new very public career, as a television interviewer, and before there were even talk shows (at least in Germany). The programmes were described in the series title as "portraits in questions and answers". Each programme was devoted to a single individual. The interviewee of the launch episode was Ludwig Erhard
Ludwig Wilhelm Erhard (; 4 February 1897 – 5 May 1977) was a German politician affiliated with the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and chancellor of West Germany from 1963 until 1966. He is known for leading the West German postwar economic ...
, the minister for economic affairs, who later became chancellor
Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...
, who was widely celebrated by his admirers as an author of West Germany's post-war "economic miracle". By the time the series came to an end, Gaus had interviewed more than 250 personalities, many from the world of politics. But also representatives of the arts and philosophy were enticed into the studios. Aside from Erhard, some of the programme's best remembered subjects were Franz Josef Strauss
Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions betwee ...
, Christian Klar, Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt (, , ; 14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) was a political philosopher, author, and Holocaust survivor. She is widely considered to be one of the most influential political theorists of the 20th century.
Arendt was born ...
, and Rudi Dutschke
Alfred Willi Rudolf "Rudi" Dutschke (; 7 March 1940 – 24 December 1979) was a German sociologist and political activist who, until severely injured by an assassin in 1968, was a leading charismatic figure within the West German Socialist Stu ...
. Many of the interviews are remembered as classics of their kind, and repeats of them still run on German television more than fifty years later. The design of the television studios was deliberately minimalist, with nothing visible except a dark background, behind two armchairs containing two people. The focus was on the interviewee. When Gaus was seen at all, it was generally only from behind, so that he acquired the oft-repeated soubriquet "Germany's best-known back of the head". He also quickly acquired a reputation as a remarkable television interviewer. His questions were sharp and analytical: not infrequently they seemed disarmingly naive. One reviewer wrote: "After almost every interview, you really have the feeling of now knowing a person better about whom you previously only knew this and that: just as if you had read a detailed biography."[
Gaus was employed as director of television and radio programming with the Südwestfunk between 1965 and 1968. He did not abandon journalism completely, however. In an article he wrote at this time for the conservative weekly Christ und Welt he offered up the judgement that ]Helmut Kohl
Helmut Josef Michael Kohl (; 3 April 1930 – 16 June 2017) was a German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 1982 to 1998 and Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 1973 to 1998. Kohl's 16-year tenure is the longes ...
, at that time a youthful but conspicuously ambitious leader of the centre-right CDU (party) in the regional parliament at Mainz
Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-west, with Ma ...
, looked like a man who might one day make it to the chancellorship. His prescience did not go unnoticed. A few years later Hannelore Kohl, who had evidently noticed the effect the article had on her husband, and who in the opinion of most commentators never relished the possibility of becoming the wife of a German chancellor, accosted Gaus with a three word accusation, "Sie sind schuld" (''"It's your fault"'').
Return to Der Spiegel
During the mid-1960s he produced a number of well-received books on the political situation in West Germany at that time; and in 1969, having successfully persuaded him back to ''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 ...
'', Rudolf Augstein installed Günter Gaus as editor-in-chief.[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_...]