The moral and political role of German journalists before, during, and after the Nazi dictatorship

Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer takes an in-depth look at German journalism from the late Weimar period through the postwar decades. Illuminating the roles played by journalists in the media metropolis of Hamburg, Volker Berghahn focuses on the lives and work of three remarkable individuals: Marion Countess D�nhoff, distinguished editor of Die Zeit; Paul Sethe, the grand old man of West German journalism; and Hans Zehrer, editor in chief of Die Welt.

All born before 1914, D�nhoff, Sethe, and Zehrer witnessed the Weimar Republic's end and opposed Hitler. When the latter seized power in 1933, they were, like their fellow Germans, confronted with the difficult choice of entering exile, becoming part of the active resistance, or joining the Nazi Party. Instead, they followed a fourth path--inner emigration--psychologically distancing themselves from the regime, their writing falling into a gray zone between grudging collaboration and active resistance. During the war, D�nhoff and Sethe had links to the 1944 conspiracy to kill Hitler, while Zehrer remained out of sight on a North Sea island. In the decades after 1945, all three became major figures in the West German media. Berghahn considers how these journalists and those who chose inner emigration interpreted Germany's horrific past and how they helped to morally and politically shape the reconstruction of the country.

With fresh archival materials, Journalists between Hitler and Adenauer sheds essential light on the influential position of the German media in the mid-twentieth century and raises questions about modern journalism that remain topical today.

Volker Berghahn, Seth Low Professor of History, specializes in modern German history and European-American relations. He received his M.A. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (1961) and his Ph.D. from the University of London (1964). 

He taught in England and Germany before coming to BrownUniversity in 1988 and to Columbia ten years later. 

His publications include: America and the Intellectual Cold Wars in Europe (2001); Quest for Economic Empire (ed., 1996); Imperial Germany(1995); The Americanization of West German Industry, 1945-1973 (1986); Modern Germany (1982); Der Tirpitz-Plan (1971); Europe in the Era of Two World Wars (2006); and most recently Industriegesellschaft und Kulturtransfer, Goettingen (2010).

• Awards
• 
  Fellow, Royal Historical Society, England
  Order of Merit, First Class, Federal Republic of Germany
  Honorary Professor, University of Warwick
  Fellow, Wissenschaftszentrum, Berlin
  Helmut-Schmidt Prize of ZEIT Foundation

Source: Columbia University Department of History