Theo Sommer | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Sommer in 1967 | |
| Born | (1930-06-10)10 June 1930 |
| Died | 22 August 2022(2022-08-22) (aged 92) Hamburg, Germany |
| Organizations | Die Zeit |
| Awards | |
| Website | www |
Theo Sommer (10 June 1930 – 22 August 2022) was a German newspaper editor and intellectual. He began working forDie Zeit in 1958, rising to an editor-in-chief and publisher. His editorials forDie Zeit shaped the paper'ssocial-liberal attitude. He advocated the policy ofdétente with the Eastern bloc states (Entspannungspolitik). From 1992, Sommer was publisher ofDie Zeit, together withMarion Dönhoff andHelmut Schmidt. He was considered one of Germany's authorities on international relations and strategic issues.
Born inKonstanz,Republic of Baden, on 10 June 1930,[1][2][3] Sommer grew up inSchwäbisch Gmünd and was educated at theNational Political Institutes of Education[4][5] in Sonthofen.[1] He was drafted into theVolkssturm in 1945. After World War II, he found out about the lies and atrocities of the Nazi regime, primarily by following theNuremberg trials and readingEugen Kogon's bookDer SS-Staat [de].[4] Sommer obtained hisAbitur from Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1949 and then lived in Sweden for nine months. He studied English, history and political science at theUniversity of Tübingen,Manchester College in Indiana and theUniversity of Chicago. He earned a PhD in Tübingen with his thesis "Germany and Japan between the Powers, 1935–1940",[1] supervised byHans Rothfels.[6] He began his career as a journalist with theRems-Zeitung [de], a local paper in Schwäbisch Gmünd.[2]
Sommer joined the weeklyDie Zeit as a political correspondent in 1958, and was responsible for foreign politics and security politics.[7] He became deputy editor-in chief in 1968, and editor-in-chief in 1973. He took a break from the paper in 1969 and 1970 to work for theFederal Ministry of Defence, for the "White Paper" (Weißbuch) of theBundeswehr, joining the planning staff of then-ministerHelmut Schmidt. His editorials forDie Zeit in the 1970s shaped the paper's social-liberal attitude, and supported the policy ofdétente with the Eastern bloc states (Entspannungspolitik). For decades, Sommer encouraged tolerance and Western support for East Germany.[8] From 1992, Sommer was publisher ofDie Zeit, together withMarion Dönhoff and Helmut Schmidt.[2][9] He retired from the position in 2000, but kept writing for the paper as an editor-at-large.[10][11]
Sommer was a member of theTrilateral Commission, of theInternational Institute for Strategic Studies, and of the German advisory committee of theGerman Marshall Fund.[9] He was a member of the advisory board of theBertelsmann Stiftung from 1990 to 1996.[6] Since 2004, Sommer was an editor-at-large for Times Media, which publishes the newspapersThe Atlantic Times [de] andThe German Times [de].[12] He was a member of the Steering Committee of theBilderberg Group.[11]
In 2014, he was found guilty of tax evasion, and sentenced to 19 months of prison on probation.[3][10] In 2016, American historianAlexander J. Motyl criticised Sommer for "closing his eyes to themass murders of the Soviet regime", "disregard" for theBaltic states and Poland, and a "classically colonial" attitude toward Ukraine.[13]
Sommer died in Hamburg on 22 August 2022, at the age of 92.[2][14] He did not recover from a fall at his home, which had left him in pain.[7]
Sommer was regarded as one of Germany's experts on international relations and strategic issues.[9] According toDie Zeit, "he decisively shaped" the paper into a "cosmopolitan, liberal publication, [which] welcomes debate" with "his temperament, his energy, his shrewd judgment and his cheerfulness" ("mit seinem Temperament, seiner Tatkraft, seinem klugen Urteil und seiner Fröhlichkeit als weltoffenes, liberales, debattenfreudiges Blatt maßgeblich geprägt hat").[2]
