WIENER LIBRARY

 

Document Series

 

 

 

 

 

1376                                                    BERNHARD REICHENBACH:                                                                                         CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS,

                                                            1953-1974

                                                           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Donor:                                                Tania England

 

Accession Number(s):                 NB 140

 

Date:                                                   May 2001

 

Extent:                                                4 boxes 

 

Condition:                                          

 

Access                                                open

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1376

BERNHARD REICHENBACH: CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS, 1953-1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

 

 

 

 

 

These papers document the post-war journalistic and broadcasting activities of Bernhard 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.

 

 

 

 

 

Bernhard Reichenbach[1], 1888-1975, was the son of a Jewish businessman and a protestant teacher. His childhood and schooling was in Hamburg. Later he became an actor in Bochum and Hamburg, 1912-1914. He studied literature, art history and sociology in Berlin. He was active in the youth movement and a member of the Freie Studentenschaft, Berlin. As a medical orderly in WWI 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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1376

BERNHARD REICHENBACH: CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS, 1953-1974

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

Note that in addition to these papers, a copy personal memoir by Karl Kuntze, a former colleague of Bernhard Reichenbach during their days with the Rotenkämpfer, has been catalogued as part of the main library catalogue:  Sie nannten es Verrat: Als Hitlergegner und Zwangssoldat in amerikanischen Kriegsgefangenenlagern, Tagebuch, 1943-1946

 

 

 

 

 

The material for radio broadcast is arranged by programme: Wirtschaftsfunk and an unidentified programme dealing with social and political issues. All of the draft broadcast transcripts are in German. The correspondence is in English and German.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DESCRIPTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1376/1

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

7 Oct 1963-

29 Dec 1964

 

 

 

1376/2

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

3 Jan 1965-

27 Dec 1965

 

 

 

1376/3

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

10 Jan 1966-

16 Dec 1966

 

 

 

1376/4

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

23 Dec 1966-

30 Aug 1968

 

 

 

1376/5

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

6 Sep 1968-

5 Jun 1970

 

 

 

1376/6

Wirtschaftsfunk: draft broadcast transcripts

1 Dec 1972-

29 Mar 1974

 

 

 

1376/7

Draft broadcast transcripts

2 Jan 1963-

20 Dec 1963

 

 

 

1376/8

Draft broadcast transcripts

27 Dec 1963-

9 Oct 1964

 

 

 

1376/9

Draft broadcast transcripts

3 Jan 1968-

30 Sep 1968

 

 

 

1376/10

Draft broadcast transcripts

2 Oct 1968-

29 Sep 1969

 

 

 

1376/11

Draft broadcast transcripts

1 Oct 1969-

31 Aug 1970

 

 

 

1376/12

Draft broadcast transcripts- note: 13.8.1974 interview with BR, 18 pages

 

3 Jan 1973-

28 Nov 1974

 

 

 

1376/13

Misc Draft broadcast transcripts

31 May 1953-

2 Mar 1974; nd

 

 

 

1376/14

Misc broadcasts

1957-1959

 

 

 

1376/15

Corresp

27 Apr 1950-

26 Apr 1968

 

 

 

1376/16

Misc corresp and cuttings

1950s-1970s

 

 

 

1376/17

Corresp and papers

8 Jan 1954-

5 May 1967; nd

 

 

 

1376/18

Correspondence including letters re BR’s obituary

1954-1974; nd

 

 

 

1376/19

Book reviews

nd

 

 

 

1376

BERNHARD REICHENBACH: CORRESPONDENCE AND PAPERS, 1953-1974

 

 

 

 

1376/20

Transcript interview with Tania England, daughter of Bernhard Reichenbach, re childhood and life in pre-war Germany

1997

 

 

 

1376/21

Copy letter from Lenin to Bernhard Reichenbach

(1921)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

INDEX TERMS

 

 

 

 

 

Bernhard Reichenbach

 

 

 

 

 

Radio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


[1] The following biographical information is taken from the Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933, Band  I, 1980; and a letter from Tania England, his daughter, the depositor.