Karl-Hermann Flach (October 17, 1929 – August 25, 1973) was a German

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

of the '' Frankfurter Rundschau'' and a politician of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP). Flach was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

. He became a member of the liberal LDP (in the Soviet zone of Germany) and worked in 1948/1949 for the LDP newspaper ''Norddeutsche Zeitung'' in

Schwerin Schwerin (; Mecklenburgian Low German: ''Swerin''; Latin: ''Suerina'', ''Suerinum'') is the capital and second-largest city of the northeastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as of the region of Mecklenburg, after Rostock. It ...

. In October 1949 he fled to

West-Berlin West Berlin (german: Berlin (West) or , ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War. Although West Berlin was de jure not part of West Germany, lacked any sovereignty, and was under mi ...

and became a member of the FDP. In 1949-1953 he studied political science. In 1956 he started to work for the federal headquarters of the party and had important campaign jobs in 1957 and 1961. But in 1962 he left the party organisation for the ''Frankfurter Rundschau'', a leading newspaper then considered liberal. From 1971 on he worked again for the FDP, this time as secretary-general of chairman

Walter Scheel Walter Scheel (; 8 July 1919 – 24 August 2016) was a German statesman. A member of the Free Democratic Party of Germany (FDP), he first served in government as the Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 1961 to 1966 and l ...

. Being elected to the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

in 1972 he became vice chairman of the Bundestag party. Flach died prematurely in

Frankfurt 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 it ...

, aged 43, in 1973 after having suffered a stroke a month before. Flach belonged to the left wing of his party and is considered an important contributor to

social liberalism Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

. He was one of the authors of the left liberal Freiburger Thesen, a programmatic paper the party accepted at its congress in October 1971. They stand for the turn to the left the party started in 1968 to become more independent from the conservatives and have a coalition with the social democrats (1969-1982). He has been honoured with several prizes for his work as a journalist. Later came a foundation and a prize named after him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Flach, Karl-Hermann 1929 births 1973 deaths Members of the Bundestag for Hesse German journalists German male journalists 20th-century German journalists Politicians from Königsberg German social liberals German male writers Members of the Bundestag for the Free Democratic Party (Germany) Writers from Königsberg

See also

References