Hans Abich was not only one of the most distinguished film producers of the post-war period. From 1973 to 1978 he was also ARD program director. A report shows: Abich also had a Nazi past.
If you don’t know the name Hans Abich, you might have heard of his work. Shortly after the end of the Second World War, Abich founded the production company “Filmaufbau Göttingen” and filmed German literary classics such as Thomas Mann’s “Buddenbrooks” or the “Confessions of the Conman Felix Krull”. Abich is considered one of the most influential and busiest film producers of the post-war years.
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Fast rise
Even when he switched to public broadcasting in 1960, he rose quickly. Abich initially worked as a consultant for Radio Bremenlater became director and finally program director and r from 1973 to 1978 ARD. He is considered a “co-inventor” of daily topics.
When Abich was asked about the Nazi regime in interviews, he was often upset. In an interview with ZDF in 1990, he said self-critically, “that in 1934 I did not recognize the so-called Röhm putsch and Hitler’s jurisdiction and did not take it amiss, but I still – imagine that – credited Hitler with the fact that he took responsibility.”
The ARD has had the past of its former program director Hans Abich worked up. (Archive image from October 1, 1988).
In the service of the Reich Ministry for propaganda
At the age of eleven, Abich contracted polio, which is why he was out of the question as a soldier. He studied law and foreign studies in Berlin. There he experienced in 1938 how organized gangs of thugs burned down Jewish shops and synagogues during the Reich pogrom night and how many Jewish people were killed. After that, he developed suspicions about the Nazis. At least that’s how Abich described it himself.
But there are grounds for doubt.
On the one hand, Abich concealed the fact that he had joined the NSDAP in 1937. A new report concludes that Abich also worked for the Reich Ministry of Propaganda. Abich had also kept silent about that. And Abich has never spoken publicly about his work for the magazines “Sieg der Idee” and “Geist der Zeit”.
Neither of these were hate publications, but the report says: “Both magazines are very much rooted in the ideology of National Socialism.”
In a text from 1940, Abich wrote, “that one day even the last student will be seized with the power of responsibility for the National Socialist university, stimulated and aligned.”
Shadows on the work of Abich
The journalism researcher Thomas Birkner prepared the report on behalf of the Historical Commission of the ARD written. The reason was an article in the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”, in which doubts about Abich’s description was expressed for the first time in October 2021.
When asked whether Abich’s work needed to be re-evaluated, Birkner replies: “One mustn’t forget that Hans Abich was very productive in building up the free media after 1945. But his work before 1945 naturally casts a shadow over this work.”
“Not sincere”
The current one arranges similarly ARD chairman Kai Gniffke summarizes the results of the report: “Of course, Hans Abich had his merits as a film producer, as an artistic director, as a program director. But we know more now. We know something about his involvement in National Socialism and that he didn’t deal with it honestly. That adds to its Image. If it doesn’t even correct the image.”
The ARD must work through the possible Nazi past of their staff, Gniffke continued. “Public broadcasting was founded as a reaction to National Socialism. That’s why there should be independent journalism. And in this respect, we have a special responsibility to take a very critical look at ourselves.”
Hans Abich died in Freiburg im Breisgau in July 2003.
