The founder of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" Gerd Bucerius was considered argumentative, but also tolerant and independent. The defining personality of the post-war period died on September 29, 1995.
by Irene Altenmüller
Gerd Bucerius was born on May 19, 1906 in Hamm, Westphalia. He attended schools in Essen, Hanover and Hamburg, then studied law from 1925 to 1932 in Berlin, Hamburg and Freiburg. He then worked as an assistant judge in Kiel and Flensburg, later he moved back to Hamburg and worked as a lawyer in his father's law firm from 1933.
An opponent of the Nazi regime out of conviction
He defended numerous Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime. His future companion Marion Countess Dönhoff describes his behavior during the Nazi era as "brave unconscious". Bucerius is married to the Jewess Gretel (Detta) Goldschmidt, who emigrated to England in 1938. From 1943 he worked as deputy managing director and legal counsel for the Diago works, which were classified as essential to the war effort and built barracks and emergency shelters. Although Bucerius deeply dislikes the regime, he remains unmolested. In the last weeks of the war he hid a friend, the half-Jewish Erik Blumenfeld, in his house. Towards the end of the Second World War, Bucerius met his second wife, Gertrud Ebel, known as Ebelin. The two marry in 1947.
Political career in post-war Germany
After the Second World War, Bucerius went into politics:in 1945 the British occupying power appointed him as Senator for Building in the Hamburg Senate, after the first federal election on August 14, 1949 the lawyer moved into the Bundestag for the CDU. Almost at the same time he began his career as a publisher:in 1946 he founded the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit" together with Richard Tüngel, Lowis H. Lorenz and Ewald Schmidt. In 1947, after divorcing his first wife, Bucerius married Gertrud Ebel, known as Ebelin.
In 1951, the publisher acquired a majority stake in the magazine "Stern". The profits from the magazine offset the millions in losses that Bucerius made with "Zeit", whose circulation in 1952 was only 44,000 copies. The weekly newspaper is his passion, he writes regularly for it himself. It was not until 1973 that "Zeit" was in the black, today it has a circulation of a good 520,000.
An uncomfortable MP
From 1949 to 1962 Bucerius sat - here at a debate in 1957 - in the German Bundestag.As a politician, the lateral thinker repeatedly offends his own party. Bucerius changes from a former supporter of Adenauer to a harsh critic of the chancellor. In 1959 he opposed Adenauer's candidacy for the presidency, and in 1961 he was the only member of his parliamentary group to openly speak out against Adenauer's fourth chancellorship. Bucerius is disappointed with Adenauer's Ostpolitik and apparent political indifference in view of the building of the Wall in August 1961. In the newspaper "Zeit" he writes:"Thus (became) a whole nation to witness how the great man, who was sincerely admired by millions, in the most difficult hour of the Federal Republic failed."
Bucerius' resignation from the CDU
The resentment in the CDU about the uncomfortable faction member escalated when in February 1962 an article in the "Stern" entitled "Is there really a fire burning in hell?" appears, which is directed against the Catholic Church and the politics of the CDU. The federal board sees the article as a "violation of Christian feelings", the CDU openly discusses whether the "Stern" publisher is still acceptable for the group. For Bucerius, who personally considers the article to be unsuccessful, an "incomprehensible case of intolerance". He draws the necessary conclusions, resigns from the Bundestag and leaves the CDU.
Gruner &Jahr becomes Germany's second largest press house
40 years of "Zeit":Editor-in-Chief Theo Sommer, Hilde von Lang, Gerd Bucerius, Marion Gräfin Dönhoff and Helmut Schmidt toast in 1986.After the end of his political career, Bucerius concentrated on his publishing activities. In 1965, together with John Jahr and Richard Gruner, he founded Gruner &Jahr GmbH &Co, which was then the second largest press group in Germany after Axel Springer Verlag. In 1973 he sold his shares to the Bertelsmann Group, of which he was a member of the Supervisory Board until 1991.
Bucerius' legacy:the "Zeit" foundation
Bucerius' journalistic favorite child, however, remains "time". In 1971, the publisher established the Ebelin and Gerd Bucerius "Zeit" foundation - originally to financially secure the continued existence of the weekly paper even after his death. From 1985 Bucerius' partner Hilde von Lang took over the journalistic management of "Zeit" together with the former Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who became the publisher in 1990. In 1986 Bucerius received honorary citizenship from the city of Hamburg.
The Bucerius couple bequeathed all of their assets to the foundation
A street near the press building was named after the honorary citizen of the Hanseatic city on the occasion of his 100th birthday.When he died on September 29, 1995, the childless publisher left his entire fortune of around 1.5 billion marks to his foundation. After the death of his wife Ebelin, the foundation inherits both assets. On May 19, 2006, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, the city of Hamburg renamed a street west of the "Zeit" publishing house to "Buceriusstraße".