''ZDF-Magazin'' was a

West German West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

television

news magazine A news magazine is a typed, printed, and published magazine, radio or television program, usually published weekly, consisting of articles about current events. News magazines generally discuss stories, in greater depth than do newspapers or new ...

, which ran on

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

from 1969 to 1988. It was presented by

Gerhard Löwenthal Gerhard Löwenthal (8 December 1922 in Berlin – 6 December 2002 in Wiesbaden) was a prominent German journalist, human rights activist and author. He presented the '' ZDF-Magazin'', a news magazine of ZDF which highlighted human rights abuses in ...

. It focused on communist-ruled Eastern Europe and was particularly known for reporting on human rights abuses there. The magazine was known for its conservative and anti-socialist views which led to several controversial reactions from viewers and politicians. Löwenthal criticized communists,

East Germany 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 ...

, leftist student movement (″red psychoterrorists″), social democrats'

Ostpolitik ''Neue Ostpolitik'' (German for "new eastern policy"), or ''Ostpolitik'' for short, was the normalization of relations between the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG, or West Germany) and Eastern Europe, particularly the German Democratic Republ ...

("communist agents"), the so-called

peace movement A peace movement is a social movement which seeks to achieve ideals, such as the ending of a particular war (or wars) or minimizing inter-human violence in a particular place or situation. They are often linked to the goal of achieving world peac ...

("Moscow's partisans") and West German writers such as

Heinrich Böll Heinrich Theodor Böll (; 21 December 1917 – 16 July 1985) was a German writer. Considered one of Germany's foremost post-World War II writers, Böll is a recipient of the Georg Büchner Prize (1967) and the Nobel Prize for Literature (1972). ...

("sympathizers of leftist fascism").

Literature

* Kathrin Gerlof: ''Gegenspieler: Gerhard Löwenthal,

Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (28 April 1918 – 20 September 2001) was an East German journalist, communist propagandist and host of the television show '' Der schwarze Kanal'' (german: link=no, The Black Channel) from 21 March 1960 to 30 Octobe ...

''. Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1999, *

/Helmut Kamphausen/Claus Peter Clausen: ''Hilferufe von drüben. Eine Dokumentation wider das Vergessen.'' 3. Auflage, Hänssler-Verlag, Holzgerlingen 2002, * ''Auf den Spuren von Hilferufe von Drüben'', in: Bürgerkomitee Sachsen-Anhalt (Hrsg.): ''Ost-West-, West-Ost-Geschichten'', Magdeburg 1997

References

{{Authority control 1969 German television series debuts 1988 German television series endings 1960s German television series 1970s German television series German television news shows ZDF original programming German-language television shows