Erich Brost
Erich Brost (29 October 1903 – 8 October 1995) was a German journalist and publisher.[1]
Biography[]
Brost was born in Elbing, West Prussia to a Schichau-Werke shipyard worker and a tailor.[2] In 1915 his family moved to Danzig (modern Gdańsk, Poland), where he became a bookseller and engaged in politics and the labour movement.
Aged 19 Brost wrote his first column for the Social democratic , for which he worked until 1936, when the "Volksstimme" got suspended and the Social Democratic Party of the Free City of Danzig was forbidden. In 1935 he became a member of the Volkstag, the Free City of Danzig's parliament, representing the SPD.[3] Brost went into exile to Poland, Sweden, Finland and Great Britain, where he worked for the BBC.[2] After World War II and the expulsion of the German populace Brost moved to the Ruhr area in 1945 to build up the German News Service, a predecessor of the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). Brost was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany and represented the party at the Allied Control Council.[4] He received an Allied licence to publish a newspaper in the British Zone of occupied Germany. The first copy of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (WAZ) was published on 3 April 1948 and Brost influenced the WAZ for the next decades.[1]
Brost founded the Erich-Brost-Stiftung in 1991, the „Erich Brost University Lecturership“ at the University of Oxford's „Institute of European and Comparative Law“ is dedicated to him.
Erich-Brost-Danzig-Award[]
Brost donated the „Erich-Brost-Danzig-Preis“ of 20,000 Euro, which is awarded to people or institutions for their merits in Polish-German reconciliation.[5] It was awarded to
- 1996: Kashubian-Pomeranian Association
- 1997: Stefan Chwin, author
- 1998: Prof. Szczepan Baum and Prof. Ryszard Semka, Architects
- 1999: "Forschungsstelle Osteuropa" at the University of Bremen
- 2001: Cultural Association „Borussia“, Olsztyn
- 2003: the twin towns of Bremen and Gdańsk
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b "Biography". Archived from the original on 2011-07-25. Retrieved 2010-01-25.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Speech[permanent dead link] by Johannes Rau at The Artus Court (in German)
- ^ Erich Brost Stiftung (in German)
- ^ Biography Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
- ^ Erich-Brost-Stiftung: Our Activities in Poland (Friedrich Ebert Foundation (in German))
External links[]
- 1903 births
- 1995 deaths
- People from West Prussia
- People from Elbląg
- Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
- Free City of Danzig politicians
- German male journalists
- German journalists
- German newspaper journalists
- 20th-century German journalists
- German male writers
- Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung people