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Theo Sommer (here at a court hearing in 2014)
Photo:
Angelika Warmuth/ dpa
The German publicist Theo Sommer is dead. The long-standing editor-in-chief and publisher of the weekly newspaper »Die Zeit« died on August 22 at the age of 92 in Hamburg, surrounded by his family.
The Hamburg weekly newspaper announced this on its website.
There it says: "The colleagues of the publishing group are in deep mourning and bow to a great journalist." shaped".
The international correspondent of Die Zeit, Matthias Naß, dedicated an obituary to Theo Sommer: "Write what is important".
Born in Konstanz in 1930, Theo Sommer switched from the »Rems-Zeitung« in Schwäbisch Gmünd to the »Zeit« in 1958, becoming a political editor responsible for foreign and security policy.
From 1973 to 1992 he was editor-in-chief and then until 2000 together with Marion Gräfin Dönhoff and Helmut Schmidt publisher of ZEIT.
He was considered one of the most renowned journalists in the country.
In 64 years he wrote more than 1,200 articles for the "Zeit" and shaped the newspaper and the entire German journalism.
In 2014, Theo Sommer was given a suspended sentence by a Hamburg court for tax evasion.
Between 2007 and 2011 he had not paid taxes amounting to 649,000 euros that would have been due on income from freelance part-time work.
At the time, the publicist described the punishment as “painful but appropriate”.
Sommer continued to write for Die Zeit until July 2022.
According to the newspaper, he fell a few weeks ago at his home in Hamburg-Volksdorf and has been in severe pain ever since.
On August 22, he died at the age of 92 as a result of the fall.
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