Henryk Marcin Broder (born 20 August 1946, self-designation Henryk Modest Broder) is a Polish-born German journalist, author, and TV personality. Broder is known for

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

s, columns, and comments in written and audiovisual media. Starting as author for liberal and left medias konkret,

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

and St. Pauli Report, he became more mainstream and wrote for the 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 ...

'', as well as its online version and the daily Berlin newspaper ''

Der Tagesspiegel ''Der Tagesspiegel'' (meaning ''The Daily Mirror'') is a German daily newspaper. It has regional correspondent offices in Washington D.C. and Potsdam. It is the only major newspaper in the capital to have increased its circulation, now 148,000, s ...

''. Since 2010, he has been writing for publications of conservative Springer SE ''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter All ...

'', ''

Welt am Sonntag Welt, welts or variants may refer to: Media * ''Die Welt'' (''The World''), a German national newspaper ** '' Welt am Sonntag'' (''World on Sunday''), the Sunday edition of ''Die Welt'' * ''Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German n ...

'' and appears in Welt TV. He is co-editor of ' (The Jewish calendar), a compilation of quotes and texts relating to

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...

culture, published annually. Besides his numerous publications, he appears as a frequent guest on German TV talk shows. In 2010 and 2011, he produced and starred, alongside Egyptian-German writer and political scientist Hamed Abdel-Samad, in the satirical TV series '' – Die Deutschland-Safari'' (a wordplay on "entweder/oder", German for "either/or", "Either Broder – The Germany Safari") on ARD. Broder is especially interested in

Vergangenheitsbewältigung ''Vergangenheitsbewältigung'' (, "struggle of overcoming the past" or "work of coping with the past") is a German compound noun describing processes that since the later 20th century have become key in the study of post-1945 German literature, s ...

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...

, Israel, and the

Israeli–Palestinian conflict The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other eff ...

. He sees a close relationship between German

criticism of Israel Criticism of the Israeli government, often referred to simply as criticism of Israel, is a subject of journalistic and scholarly commentary and research within the scope of international relations theory, expressed in terms of political science. ...

's policies and

Antisemitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Ant ...

, a view criticized by, among others, the French-German columnist

Alfred Grosser Alfred Grosser (born 1 February 1925 in Frankfurt am Main) is a German-French writer, sociologist, and political scientist. He is known for his contributions towards the Franco-German cooperation after World War II and for criticizing Israel. Ea ...

Life

Born in

Katowice Katowice ( , , ; szl, Katowicy; german: Kattowitz, yi, קאַטעוויץ, Kattevitz) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area. It is the 11th most popu ...

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, Poland, Broder moved to

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 million ...

with his family in 1958. Both of his parents were survivors of Nazi death camps. In Cologne, he studied economics, law and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

but failed to graduate. Together with fellow student and nascent writer , whom he had known since high school times, he founded and edited two short-lived radically liberal quarterlies ("PoPoPo" and "Bubu/Eiapopeyea"). In the late 1960s he took over the ' together with the journalist Michel Roger Lang, a then highly successful tabloid newspaper in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, along with

Günter Wallraff Günter Wallraff (born 1 October 1942) is a German writer and undercover journalist. Research methods Wallraff came to prominence thanks to his striking journalistic research methods and several major books on lower class working conditions an ...

Stefan Aust Stefan Aust (; born 1 July 1946) is a German journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine ''Der Spiegel'' from 1994 to February 2008 and has been the publisher of the conservative leading ''Die Welt'' newspaper since 2014 ...

and the photographer , in order to agitate the working class of the city with a combination of leftist articles, nude photography and lonely hearts ads. In the 1970s, he wrote for the

satirical Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or ...

magazine ''

Pardon A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the j ...

''. From 1979 to 1981 he published, together with fellow journalist , the periodical "Freie Jüdische Stimme" ("Free Jewish Voice"). In 1981, he left Germany to work in Israel for a while, but continued to write for high-level

periodical A periodical literature (also called a periodical publication or simply a periodical) is a published work that appears in a new edition on a regular schedule. The most familiar example is a newspaper, but a magazine or a journal are also examples ...

s as ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History Th ...

'', '' Profil'', '' Die Weltwoche'', and ''

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. Hi ...

''. In the 1980s he also hosted the television talk-show ''Leute'', along with Elke Heidenreich, which ran on Sender Freies Berlin; one of their guests was African-American poet

Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove (born August 28, 1952) is an American poet and essayist. From 1993 to 1995, she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. She is the first African American to have been appointed since the posit ...

, who had just won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize and is married to Fred Viebahn, Broder's old friend from Cologne. Broder wrote a series of books which dealt with the relationship between Germans and Jews, respectively the growing German Jewish community. Together with Eike Geisel, Broder published essays, books and a documentary about the Jüdischer Kulturbund (Jewish Cultural Union), a previously unknown chapter of Jewish German cultural life during the Third Reich. He wrote books about foreign policy with special regard to Israel, Islam and the growing German Jewish community. Ever since

Operation Entebbe Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week ea ...

, Broder grew more and more critical of the German approach towards Israel, and what Broder sees as

appeasement Appeasement in an international context is a diplomatic policy of making political, material, or territorial concessions to an aggressive power in order to avoid conflict. The term is most often applied to the foreign policy of the UK governme ...

towards Islamic threats. In Broder's opinion,

Anti-Zionism Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palesti ...

is in essence anti-Semitic. Broder's trademark is his polemical, blunt, and quick-witted style. He publishes hate mail and heated exchanges between him and critics on his website. The result of some of Broder's polemics were a series of lawsuits, some won and some lost by him. Many of Broder's writings for outlets such as spiegel.de and welt.de are archived at the '' Achse des Guten'' blog, which he, together with two other prominent German journalists, operates as a collaborative platform for the unfettered expression of about two dozen of his colleagues. Broder is married to a publisher, and they have a grown-up daughter. He lives in Berlin.

Reception

Broders attitude is controversial. Stefan Niggemeier wrote in the context of right-wing populist statements: "Henryk M. Broder is also a victim of

Thilo Sarrazin Thilo Sarrazin (born 12 February 1945) is a German politician and former member of the SPD, writer, senator of finance for the State of Berlin from January 2002 until April 2009, former member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank ...

. For years he has been striving to become the republic's chief provocateur... ."

Awards

* 1986 Preis des 5. International Publizistikwettbewerbs Klagenfurt * 2005 Schubart-Literaturpreis * 2007 for Broder's online journalism, especially the way he treated the

Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy The ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, da, Muhammedkrisen) began after the Danish newspaper '' Jyllands-Posten'' published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted Muham ...

* 2007 Ludwig-Börne-Preis

Works

* ''Wer hat Angst vor Pornographie? Ein Porno-Report'', Melzer, Darmstadt 1970 * As co-author: ''Die Schere im Kopf. Über Zensur und Selbstzensur'', Köln 1976 * ''Danke schön. Bis hierher und nicht weiter. Mit Beiträgen von Detlef Hartmann, Ulrich Klug, Uwe Maeffert, Ulrich Vultejus'', Konkret Literatur-Verlag, Hamburg 1980 * ''Der Ewige Antisemit. Über Sinn und Funktion eines beständigen Gefühls'', 1986 * ''Fremd im eigenen Land. Juden in der Bundesrepublik'', 1987 * ''Ich liebe Karstadt und andere Lobreden'', 1987 * with Geisel, Eike: ''Premiere und Pogrom. Der Jüdische Kulturbund 1933–1941. Texte und Bilder'', Siedler, Berlin 1992 * ''Erbarmen mit den Deutschen'', 1993 * ''Schöne Bescherung! Unterwegs im Neuen Deutschland'', 1994 * ''Volk und Wahn'', Goldmann, München 1996 * ''Die Juden von Mea Shearim'', 1997 * ''Die Irren von Zion'', Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 1998 * ''Jedem das Seine'', Ölbaum Verlag 1999 * ''www.deutsche-leidkultur.de'', Ölbaum Verlag 1999 * ''Kein Krieg, nirgends: Die Deutschen und der Terror'', Berlin Verlag, Berlin 2002 * ''A Jew in the New Germany'',

University of Illinois Press The University of Illinois Press (UIP) is an American university press and is part of the University of Illinois system. Founded in 1918, the press publishes some 120 new books each year, plus 33 scholarly journals, and several electronic project ...

, Champaign, 2003 * ''Hurra, wir kapitulieren – Von der Lust am Einknicken'', wjs Verlag, 2006 * ''Kritik der reinen Toleranz'', wjs Verlag, Berlin 2008 * ''Vergesst Auschwitz! Der deutsche Erinnerungswahn und die Endlösung der Israel-Frage'', Albrecht Knaus Verlag, Munich 2012

Audio

* ''Ach So! Gad Granach und Henryk Broder on Tour'', CD, Ölbaum-Verlag, Augsburg 2000,

References

External links

Henryk Broder's official homepage

Henryk Broder's page
at ''Die Achse des Guten''
Henryk Broder unofficial Facebook fan page

Review: The last days of Europe, a lecture in Maastricht by Henryk Broder
28 February 2007

at the 2007 Ludwig-Börne-Preis {{DEFAULTSORT:Broder, Henryk 1946 births Living people People from Katowice 20th-century Polish Jews German essayists German male journalists German journalists 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists German non-fiction writers Writers on antisemitism German male writers German critics of Islam Polish emigrants to Germany German male essayists German Zionists Die Welt people