Kurt Becker
 Kurt Becker    (editor) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 31 March 1920 Hamburg, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 10 May 1987 (Age 67) Hamburg, Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | German | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of | Atlantik-Brücke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German editor-in-chief and government spokesman. Attended Bilderberg/1967 and Bilderberg/1975. Member of Atlantik-Brücke.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Kurt Becker was a German editor and government spokesman. He was a member of the Atlantik-Brücke. He attended the 1967 Bilderberg meeting and 1975 Bilderberg meeting as editor for Die Zeit. In 1980, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt brought him to Bonn as government spokesman, despite him not being a SPD party member.
Background
Kurt Becker attended school until middle school and then began an apprenticeship as an export merchant, but because of the Second World War he no longer could work in this profession. He took part in the war, ending it as first lieutenant. In 1945 he returned to Hamburg after a hospital stay in Zwickau and initially thought of supplementing his earlier education with language studies.
Career
An offer from the then British occupation government's newspaper Die Welt led him by chance to journalism. He started there in 1946 as an interpreter and soon moved to the domestic news department. In 1953, the newspaper passed from British hands to the publishing house Axel Springer. Until 1965, Becker was still shaping Welt's domestic political reporting and was "a role model for an entire journalistic generation," according to W. Wiedemeyer.[1]
In 1966, Becker joined the editorial staff of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit, also working in Hamburg. From 1971 to 1975, as editor-in-chief, he determined the line of the Kölner Stadtanzeiger. In the autumn of 1975 he returned to Zeit and became deputy editor-in-chief and head of the political department there.
On December 15, 1980, Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt brought him to Bonn as government spokesman and head of the Press and Information Office of the Federal Government, despite not being a party member[2] His statements repeatedly provoked resentment in the ruling party SPD, so that he was finally found unsustainable and replaced by his predecessor Klaus Bölling on April 28, 1982.[3]
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1967 | 31 March 1967 | 2 April 1967 | United Kingdom St John's College (Cambridge) UK | Possibly the only Bilderberg meeting held in a university college rather than a hotel (St. John's College, Cambridge) |
| Bilderberg/1975 | 25 April 1975 | 27 April 1975 | Turkey Golden Dolphin Hotel Cesme | The 24th Bilderberg Meeting, 98 guests |
