IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 1556 WL 1376
Held at: Wiener Library
Title: Reichenbach, Bernhard (1888-1975)
Date(s): 1953-1974
Level of description: Collection level (fonds)
Extent: 4 boxes
Name of creator(s): Reichenbach | Bernhard | 1888-1975 | journalist
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Bernhard Reichenbach, 1888-1975, was the son of a Jewish businessman and a protestant teacher; childhood and schooling in Hamburg; later became an actor in Bochum and Hamburg, 1912-1914; studied literature, art history and sociology in Berlin; active in the youth movement and a member of the Freie Studentenschaft, Berlin. As a medical orderly in World War One he won the Ehren Kreuz II Klass. In 1917 he was a founding member of the Unabhängige Sozialistischepartei Deutschlands; co-founder of the Kommunistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, and, as a representative of the latter party, he attended the Executive Committee of the Communist International in Moscow, and the third World Congress of the Communist International. He left the KAPD on his return to Berlin and joined the SPD in the beginning of 1925. He continued his activities as a journalist for a number of left-wing periodicals whilst working as a company secretary for a weaving business in Krefeld. After the Nazis came to power he could no longer continue working as a journalist, and after pressure from the police he emigrated to Great Britain.
In 1935 he joined the Labour Party. He was interned on the Isle of Man, 1940-1941, and after his release worked in the field of political instruction of German POWs. From 1944-1948 he edited the British government periodical for German POWs in Great Britain, Die Wochenpost.
He was a member of Club 1943. He became the London correspondent of the Süddeutscher Rundfunk and Westfälische Rundschau. He also worked on Contemporary Review and Socialist Commentary and Welt der Arbeit. He was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 1958.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Papers of Bernhard Reichenbach, 1953-1974, document the post-war journalistic and broadcasting activities of Reichenbach, former actor, political party official, journalist and refugee from Nazi Germany.
The papers consist largely of annotated drafts of broadcast transcripts, produced for the German radio station, Süddeutscher Rundfunk. They cover a wide range of subjects providing, for the German audience, an insight into the economic, social and political life of Britain, 1963-1974. Also included are book reviews and correspondence.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: German and English
System of arrangement:
Chronological
Conditions governing access:
Open
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Description exists to this archive on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Tania England
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Archivist's note: Entry compiled by Howard Falksohn.
Date(s) of descriptions: March 2008