Johann Georg Reißmüller

Johann Georg Reißmüller (20 February 1932 – 10 December 2018) was a German journalist, and co-publisher of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). He was a correspondent in Belgrade, then the capital of Yugoslavia, from 1967 to 1971. When the country broke up in the early 1990s, he became instrumental in Germany recognizing Croatia and Slovenia as sovereign states.

Career Born in Leitmeritz in today's Czech Republic, Reißmüller grew up in Bohemia. He took singing lessons as a child. He had to leave after the 1946 Expulsion of Germans from Czechoslovakia, and was deported to Vorpommern. His father was arrested in 1950, Reißmüller studied law at the University of Tübingen

He joined the FAZ on 1 April 1961, writing for the political editorial department.

Reißmüller supported in his articles, numbering almost 130 between 1990 and 1992, the recognition of Croatia and Slovenia, and was credited with his influence on politics when their independence was recognised on 15 January 1992. In 1995, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zagreb which was the only award he accepted.

Reißmüller retired from the FAZ on 1 March 1999. He performed songs from the early German Democratic Republic at the farewell celebration, accompanied by the journalist and musicologist . posthumously decorated with Order of Duke Branimir "for special merits in recognizing Croatian independence and promoting the truth about the Croatian War of Independence" by Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović in November 2019