Karl Henry von Wiegand

Karl Henry von Wiegand
Born (1874-09-11)11 September 1874
Hesse, Germany
Died 7 June 1961(1961-06-07) (aged 86)
Switzerland
Occupation Journalist
Spouse(s) Inez von Wiegand

Karl Henry von Wiegand (born 1874[1] in Hesse in Germany; died 1961) was a German born American journalist and war correspondent.

Career from 1911

Von Wiegand worked from 1911 until 1917 for the United Press and from 1917 for Hearst Newspapers.

Wiegand was the first United States reporter allowed to interview the German crown prince Wilhelm.[2] That interview was also the first foreign interview given by a German noble since the outbreak of World War I.[2]

William said this in English:

Undoubtedly this is the most stupid, senseless and unnecessary war of modern times. It is a war not wanted by Germany, I can assure you, but it was forced on us, and the fact that we were so effectually prepared to defend ourselves is now being used as an argument to convince the world that we desired conflict.
— Crown Prince Wilhelm, Wiegand[2][3]

Karl von Wiegand was the father of journalist (also for Hearst's Newspapers) and abstract painter Charmion von Wiegand.[4]

Interwar career

Journalists being photographed before a launch of the Graf Zeppelin, left to right: Karl von Wiegand, Lady Drummond-Hay, Rolf Brand, and Robert Hartmann

He was one of the Hearst Press reporters on at least two of the Graf Zeppelin flights, usually accompanying fellow Hearst reporter Lady Hay Drummond-Hay.[5][6] Wiegand was the first American journalist to interview Hitler, having first met him in 1921 while he was only a minor malcontent in post-World War I Munich. He was one of the first journalists to take Hitler seriously, however, and his story was published on November 12, 1922, a year before the Beer Hall Putsch. As such, Wiegand provided the first introduction Americans had to Hitler. He referred to him as the "German Mussolini", and expressed genuine concern about his popularity, writing "The shadow of the Fascisti is arising in Germany. Whether what is yet only a shadow will clothe itself in the flesh, blood and spirit of the German Mussolini, depends on a number of things." He also emphasized his "man of the people" qualities, his charisma, and his electrifying speaking ability. He pegged him as a potentially great leader, saying "Hitler has the earmarks of a leader. Whether it be merely a band or a great movement, only the future will tell."[7][8]

World War II and after

A month after Germany invaded France in World War II, Karl secured an interview with Hitler and published his report "Europe for the Europeans: Adolf Hitler on the international situation during the war in France; An interview granted to Karl v. Wiegand, Führer's Headquarters, June 11, 1940".[9]

Later, Lady Drummond-Hay and Karl von Wiegand were interned in a Japanese camp in Manila, Philippines.[10] When they were set free in 1945,[11] she was very ill. They returned to the United States, but during their stay in New York Lady Grace Drummond-Hay died of coronary thrombosis in the Lexington Hotel.[10] After her cremation Karl brought her ashes back to the United Kingdom.

He died of pneumonia in Zurich at the age of 86.[12]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The History Channel, Karl Henry von Wiegand, retrieved 5 April 2009
  2. 1 2 3 Elter page 74
  3. ↑ Wiegand page 3
  4. ↑ "Charmion von Wiegand (1896–1983) chronology". Michael Rosenfeld Gallery, LLC. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
  5. ↑ Time magazine: Los Angeles to Lakehurst, 9 September 1929
  6. ↑ Daniel Grossman, Lady Grace Hay-Drummond-Hay / Airships: A Zeppelin History Site, retrieved 5 April 2009
  7. ↑ Nagorski, Andrew (2012). Hitlerland: American Eyewitnesses to the Nazi Rise to Power. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 1-4391-9100-X. p. 22.
  8. ↑
  9. ↑ Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
  10. 1 2 Time, Time magazine, 25 February 1946
  11. ↑ http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf6m3nb1kv&chunk.id=bioghist-1.7.4&query=manila&brand=oac
  12. ↑ Time magazine (16 June 1961), Larger Than Life, retrieved 5 April 2009. Obituary.

References

External links

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