Günter Gaus

After finishing school with his Abitur, he studied history and German at the University of Munich. He didn't finish his studies because he was already working as a journalist. In 1958 Gaus began working as a political editor at "Spiegel". In 1961 he moved to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung", where he attracted attention mainly through his portraits until 1965. At this time he also began working regularly at Second German Television (ZDF). On April 10, 1963, the first broadcast of the interview series "On the Person - Portraits in Question and Answer" was broadcast. His first guest was the then Federal Minister of Economics Ludwig Erhard. He later continued the series, sometimes under different titles, on different channels. During the broadcast, only his interview partners were visible, Gaus always from behind, which earned him the nickname "most famous back of the head". Two years later, in 1965, Günter Gaus was appointed program director and deputy director of Südwestfunk. In the same year he published his first book entitled "Bonn without a government? Chancellor regiment and opposition", in which, among other things, he examined Ludwig Erhard's style of government. He was awarded the Adolf Grimme Prize in 1964 and 1965 for his achievements. In 1966, the recordings of conversations with Herbert Wehner were published under the title "State-preserving opposition or has the SPD capitulated?" appeared. Gaus also became head and presenter of the first TV news magazine "Report". He worked as editor-in-chief of "SPIEGEL" from 1969 to the end of March 1973. During this time, Gaus was considered an important supporter of the détente policy initiated by Willy Brandt and Egon Bahr. Federal Chancellor Willy Brandt appointed Gaus State Secretary in 1973. The official appointment as Permanent Representative of the Federal Republic in the GDR took place after the Basic Treaty came into force on June 21, 1973. The question of establishing the permanent representations of the Federal Government and the GDR in East Berlin and Bonn was initially due to irreconcilable differences of opinion and a general hardening of the negotiating climate on ice for some time. The corresponding protocol was finally signed in Bonn in mid-March 1974 by Günter Gaus and GDR Foreign Minister Kurt Nier. Gaus' services as the federal government's "chief negotiator" include a total of 17 agreements that were negotiated with the GDR, including the transport contracts for the construction of a new motorway connection between Hamburg and Berlin and the flat rate of road usage fees for domestic German travel from 1979. Due to differences with Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, Gaus was replaced as permanent representative of the Federal Republic by the then government spokesman Klaus Bölling in the post in East Berlin. He then took over the office of Science Senator in the newly formed Berlin Senate led by Governing Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel in January 1981. After the early elections to the House of Representatives and the success of the CDU, which formed a new Senate with the FDP under Richard von Weizsäcker, Gaus' term of office ended in June 1981. Gaus now devoted more time to his work as a journalist and publicist. In his books he preferred to analyze the societies of the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. In October 1981, Brandt appointed him domestic and foreign policy advisor to the International Commission of the SPD executive board. In 1983 his book "Where Germany Lies - A Location Determination" was published. Gaus dealt with the living conditions he observed in the GDR "niche society". The work was named "Political Book of the Year" in 1987. In 1984, "Germany and NATO - Three Speeches" was published with his reflections and thoughts on security policy, followed in 1986 by "The World of the West Germans. Critical Considerations", a psychogram of West German society. Günter Gaus was awarded the honorary Adolf Grimme Prize in 1988. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, he suggested a "Germany conference of the four victorious powers". He saw the goal as a Central European confederation for the peaceful development of German-German relations. In 1990, Gaus published the story "Wendemut", in which he expressed his pessimism for the first time about the establishment of internal unity in Germany. In the same year he became co-editor of the left-wing weekly newspaper "Freitag". In 1991 he was awarded the German Critics' Prize and he also became a member of the newly founded broadcasting advisory board of the new federal states. Günter Gaus caused a stir again in 1998 with the publication of "Kein einig Vaterland. Texts from 1991 to 1998". In 2001, Gaus left the SPD after almost 30 years of membership. As a reason for that He cited the Schröder government's "unrestricted solidarity" with the USA after the terrorist attacks of September 11th. Günter Gaus died on May 14, 2004 at the age of 74 from serious cancer. He left behind his wife Erika, whom he married in 1955, and their daughter Bettina (1956).