John Seymour Chaloner is dead

John Seymour Chaloner, the 21 year old British army officer who was instrumental in founding ‚Der Spiegel’ in the years directly after WWII has died at home in his sleep aged 82.

I’ve just read this article and surely there are the makings of some kind of film here. Imagine the young officer, charging around Hannover in von Ribbentrop’s old roadster trying to get his idea for a German newspaper off the ground until he meets the 22 year old former Wehrmacht Lieutenant Rudolph Augstein. Two former enemies of similar age (they even shared the same birthday), with similar ambitions. This eventually led to the publishing of a controversial and highly political weekly called ‘Diese Woche’ which was the direct forerunner of ‘Der Speigel’ itself.

It seems that while Augstein’s media career took off, Chaloner’s didn’t, although he did write children’s books and novels.
Anyway, good article here: John Seymour Chaloner (1924-2007), and surely someone out there can see the potential for a mini series or something. There are even a couple of jewish émigrés to tweak Mr Spielberg’s interest maybe!

Interesting article. Nice to see an edifying topic in TT. Just a pity that it did not have as big an impact as it deserved. Well done anyway.

Yes it is interesting. I read about him years ago and was always intrigued by der Spiegel's foundings.