Hermann Budzislawski

Hermann Budzislawski (11 February 1901 – 28 April 1978) was a German journalist with a particular focus on economics and politics, who used the pseudonyms Hermann Eschwege and Donald Bell. As a young man in the 1930s, he came to prominence as editor in chief of the political weekly magazine Die Weltbühne during the publication's period in exile. After 1945, he returned from a period of several years in New York City to resume his journalistic work and to become a radio commentator with Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, based in Leipzig, where he also now pursued a successful career as a professor of media sciences at the university.

Life

Early years Hermann Budzislawski was born in Berlin in 1901. His father was a master-butcher. As a child he attended the Boys' School of the before progressing to senior school where he passed his School final exams (Abitur) in 1919.

Budzislawski undertook his university-level education between 1919 and 1923 at Berlin, Würzburg und Tübingen, emerging with a doctorate in 1923 for a dissertation entitled "Eugenics: A contribution on the economics of human genes" (" Eugenik. Ein Beitrag zur Oekonomie der menschlichen Erbanlagen"), He worked closely with Dorothy Thompson, between 1941 and 1945 described in sources variously as her assistant, her secretary and her ghostwriter. Between 1943 and September 1948 he also wrote as a columnist and commentator for the liberal/leftwing New York-based "Overseas News Agency", using the pseudonym "Donald Bell", When he left New York and returned to Germany Budzislawski did so, at least in part as a reaction to the activities of Joseph McCarthy and the senator's fellow travelers, fearing that he was about to be identified as a Communist and face attack for alleged Un-American Activities. From across the internal frontier that separated the two Germanys, the news magazine Der Spiegel, which for more than forty years kept robustly mistrustful watch over political developments in East Germany, in 1972 described Budzislawski as "Leipzig's journalist-pope" (der "Leipziger Journalistik-Papst"). spent several years working on Budzislawski's papers while preparing to submit a dissertation for a doctorate. Eckert himself died suddenly in 1994 and the dissertation was never completed, but his notes have provided a valuable resource for subsequent researchers on Hermann Budzislawski's sometimes difficult career between 1948 and his death in 1978.

Awards and honours 1955 Fritz Heckert Medal 1957 Patriotic Order of Merit in Silver 1959 Banner of Labor 1970 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold 1974 Patriotic Order of Merit Gold clasp 1976 Star of People's Friendship