Gerhard Löwenthal was a prominent German journalist, human rights activist and author. He presented the ZDF-Magazin

ZDF-Magazin

ZDF-Magazin was a West German television news magazine, which ran on ZDF from 1969 to 1988. It was presented by Gerhard Löwenthal. It focused on communist-ruled Eastern Europe and was particularly known for reporting on human rights abuses there...

, a news magazine of ZDF

ZDF

Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen , ZDF, is a public-service German television broadcaster based in Mainz . It is run as an independent non-profit institution, which was founded by the German federal states . The ZDF is financed by television licence fees called GEZ and advertising revenues...

 which highlighted human rights abuses in communist-ruled Eastern Europe, from 1969 to 1987. Löwenthal was known as a staunch anticommunist.

He was Jewish, and was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Sachsenhausen concentration camp

Sachsenhausen or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used primarily for political prisoners from 1936 to the end of the Third Reich in May, 1945. After World War II, when Oranienburg was in the Soviet Occupation Zone, the structure was used as an NKVD...

 during Nazi rule. After the war he chose to remain in his native country and went on to study medicine. He also worked as a reporter for RIAS

Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor

RIAS was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War II in 1946 to provide the German population in and around Berlin with news and political reporting and was initially only broadcast on...

, before he became one of the first students at the Free University of Berlin

Free University of Berlin

Freie Universität Berlin is one of the leading and most prestigious research universities in Germany and continental Europe. It distinguishes itself through its modern and international character. It is the largest of the four universities in Berlin. Research at the university is focused on the...

.

His father-in-law was CDU politician Ernst Lemmer.

The Gerhard Löwenthal Prize, annually awarded by his widow Ingeborg Löwenthal, the conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit

Junge Freiheit

The Junge Freiheit is a German weekly newspaper for politics and culture, that describes itself as liberal-conservative...

 and the Foundation for Conservative Education and Research, is named in his honour.

He is buried at the Jewish cemetery at Heerstraße in Berlin.

Publications

• Ich bin geblieben. Erinnerungen, Junge Freiheit Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-929886-25-1
• Reden wir morgen in Sprechblasen?: Auf dem Weg zu einer neuen Medienlandschaft. HwK Koblenz, Koblenz 1985, ISBN 3-924871-04-3
• Hilferufe von drüben: Eine Dokumentation wider das Vergessen. Hänssler, Holzgerlingen 2002, ISBN 3-7751-3807-2 (mit Helmut Kamphausen, Claus P. Clausen)
• Wir werden durch Atome leben. Blanvalet, Berlin 1956 (mit Josef Hausen)
• Die ungarische Revolution: Ein Weissbuch. Die Geschichte des Oktober-Aufstandes nach Dokumenten, Meldungen, Augenzeugenberichten und das Echo der Weltöffentlichkeit. Colloquium Verlag, Berlin 1957 (mit Melvin J. Lasky, Karl Jaspers)

Literature

• Kathrin Gerlof: Gegenspieler: Gerhard Löwenthal, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler
  Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler
  Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler was an East German journalist, propagandist, and host of the television show Der schwarze Kanal from March 21, 1960 to October 30, 1989....
  
  . Fischer Taschenbuch, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3596141834
• Stefan Winckler: Ein kritischer Journalist aus Berlin: Gerhard Löwenthal. Snayder Verlag, Paderborn 1997, ISBN 3-932319-56-7

External links

• Gerhard Löwenthal Preis