Jürgen Schreiber (30 January 1947 – 21 February 2022) was a German investigative journalist and author based in Berlin. He was a regular contributor to Berlin's daily newspaper ''

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, since reunificati ...

'' on matters concerning Germany's past in World War II and in the fine arts. Schreiber's (non-official) biography in 2005 of the German painter

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

, gained much recognition when he exposed the fact that Richter's own aunt was murdered by Richter's late father-in-law, a doctor in the SS.

Life and career

Schreiber was born in

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...

Allied-occupied Germany The entirety of Germany was occupied and administered by the Allies of World War II, from the Berlin Declaration on 5 June 1945 to the establishment of West Germany on 23 May 1949. Unlike occupied Japan, Nazi Germany was stripped of its sov ...

, on 30 January 1947. For over 30 years Jürgen Schreiber worked as journalist and as a reporter. During this time he mainly worked for the West German newspapers ''

Stuttgarter Zeitung The () is a German language, German-language daily newspaper (except Sundays) edited in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, with a run of about 200,000 sold copies daily. History and profile It was first edited on 18 September 1945, just ...

'' and ''

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (''FR'') is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. The ''Rundschaus editorial stance is social liberal. It holds that "independence, social justice and fairness" underlie its journalism. In Post-wa ...

''. He has also written for the German magazines '' GEO'', ''Sports'' and '' Merian'' and ''Zeit-Magazin''. He was also on the initial staff of the weekly paper ''Die Woche''. He was temporarily with the magazine of South Germany's biggest newspaper, Munich's ''

Süddeutsche Zeitung The ''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (; ), published in Munich, Bavaria, is one of the largest and most influential daily newspapers in Germany. The tone of ''SZ'' is mainly described as centre-left, liberal, social-liberal, progressive-liberal, and ...

''. From 1999, he worked for Berlin's biggest daily ''

'' and from 2001, served as its chief reporter. In connection with the case against child murderer Magnus Gäfgen he uncovered the use of torture against the accused of murder. Twice he was honoured with the Wächterpreis of the German press (an award for whistleblower reporting). In 1992 he received, in addition to that, the very highly regarded :de:Theodor-Wolff-Preis. In 2005, Schreiber published his first book ''Ein Maler in Deutschland'' (''A Painter from Germany'') which uncovered the family drama of the most well-known German painter of the time,

. Schreiber revealed the fact that Richter, in his famous portrait, ''Aunt Marianne'' painted his aunt ( :de:Marianne Schönfelder) together with the painter as a baby in front, and that the aunt had later been killed in

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's euthanasia programme by physicians, among the practitioners of which was Richter's own later father-in-law and physician (Obersturmbannführer :de:Heinrich Eufinger). This happened without Richter's knowledge. Schreiber died on 21 February 2022, at the age of 75.

Works

*''Ein Maler aus Deutschland.

– Das Drama einer Familie''. Pendo Verlag, Munich/Zürich 2005. *''Meine Jahre mit Joschka. Nachrichten von fetten und mageren Zeiten'', Econ, Berlin 2007, *''Sie starb wie Che Guevara. Die Geschichte der Monika Ertl''. Artemis & Winkler, Düsseldorf 2009 *''Die Stasi lebt: Berichte aus einem unterwanderten Land''. Droemer/Knaur, Munich 2009 :None of Schreiber's works has yet been translated into English, though his biography of

Monika Ertl Monika Ertl (17 August 1937 – 12 May 1973) was a German Bolivians, German-Bolivian Communism, communist militant and Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla fighter and the daughter of Nazi propagandist Hans Ertl (cameraman), Hans Ertl. She is most known ...

has been published in Italian as ''La ragazza che vendicò Che Guevara. Storia di Monika Ertl'' 2011

References

External links

Flap text and excerpts from reviews in the German Web culture and book review magazine ''Perlentaucher.de''''The secret of a Painter''
of Gerhard Richter has been uncovered by Juergen Schreiber firstly in August 2004 in Berlin's ''

''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Schreiber, Juergen 1947 births 2022 deaths 20th-century German journalists 21st-century German journalists Der Tagesspiegel people Stuttgarter Zeitung people German investigative journalists German male non-fiction writers German non-fiction writers People from Heilbronn Writers from Berlin