The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Fritz von Weizsäcker case - that's what biographer Hans

2019-11-20T19:38:04.059Z


The deadly attack on Fritz von Weizsäcker was apparently directed against the whole family. The biographer Hans-Joachim Noack has known her for a long time - and explains the role of the son of the former Federal President.



SPIEGEL: Mr. Noack, you know the von Weizsäcker family personally. How much does the violent death of Fritz von Weizsacker affect you?

Noack: For years I have been dealing with this family, in the morning after getting up and in the evening before going to bed. This is a shock for me, precisely because Fritz von Weizsäcker was one of the many outstanding personalities in this family.

SPIEGEL: To what extent?

Noack: He had something incredibly positive and encouraging, was communicative, open-minded and fun-loving. I will remember very vivid pictures of him.

Price query time:
20.11.2019, 16:33 clock
No guarantee

DISPLAY

Hans-Joachim Noack
The Weizsäckers. A german family

Publishing company:

Settler publishing house

Pages:

432

Price:

EUR 28,00

Buy from Amazon Buy from Thalia

Product information is purely editorial and independent. The so-called affiliate links above, we usually receive a commission from the dealer when buying. More information here.

SPIEGEL: Obviously, this is not just the case for you; death has caused grief and dismay nationwide. Why is compassion so great?

Noack: That may be because the Weizsäcker have shaped the German post-war society in a very special way. They have become the avant-garde in the field of spirit and power since the 1950s. Richard von Weizsäcker, for example, the former Federal President, stood for a very vital pursuit of political influence.

SPIEGEL: His brother Carl-Friedrich had a not only brilliant past.

Noack: Yes, because he was involved in the Nazi era fortunately failed construction of a German nuclear bomb. After the war, however, he succeeded in becoming a guru of the peace movement. This kind of refining process shows that Richard and Carl Friedrich in particular were luminaries in this post-war republic, which was still searching for their identity.

Norbert Försterling / DPA

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (l.) And Richard von Weizsäcker (in February 1989 in Stuttgart)

SPIEGEL: Are the Weizsäckers the German version of the Kennedy?

Noack: This analogy is obvious, and there are at least striking parallels. And it fits that Richard von Weizsäcker about John F. Kennedy is raving about. That was for him the ideal type of a civil servant.

SPIEGEL: What does this ideal type look like?

Noack: Richard von Weizsäcker used to explain it to me: It was about intervening in the history of the wheels by taking on the cause of the people. Besides, like his brother Carl Friedrich, he simply made bella figura .

SPIEGEL: What do you mean?

Noack: It revealed what the majority of the population had envisioned as a president in a democratic state. He was a spiritualized statesman, an integral leader. This is quite surprising considering the family history.

SPIEGEL: Because the father was involved in National Socialism, as SS general and Secretary of State under Foreign Minister Ribbentrop?

Noack: The term "entanglement" somewhat obscures its political proximity to a system that was still trapped in the Greater Germany Ideas of 1914.

More about the Weizsäcker family

Ernst von WeizsäckerDiplomat of the devil

SPIEGEL: How did the family handle it?

Noack: The sons defended their father until the end of their days, but at the same time overcame him through their own processes of purification.

SPIEGEL: And the grandson Fritz?

Noack: ... was amazingly easy going about it. He said: I am neither the chief prosecutor of my family nor their defender. I just want everything to be solved step by step. This shows why this family was able to assume the highest office in various systems - in the German Empire as well as in the Weimar Republic, under National Socialism and in the Federal Republic.

SPIEGEL: Why? Out of opportunism?

Noack: I rather believe that this shows learning ability. Richard von Weizsäcker was already noticed as an outsider within the CDU in the 1960s, as one who brushes against the grain. He was very independent, not to say idiosyncratic. That impressed me.

Peter Popp / DPA

Richard von Weizsäcker with wife Marianne (1968 in her apartment in Bonn)

SPIEGEL: How well did you know him?

Noack: I got to know him in 1969, when I was a reporter for the "Frankfurter Rundschau", and the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Helmut Kohl introduced his new "high-carat". A few years ago, shortly before his death, I met Weizsäcker for the last time. He was always very unpretentious in his dealings - but he was well aware of his dignity. Such types are increasingly missing.

SPIEGEL: Was Fritz von Weizsacker also such a type?

Noack: He was sort of a new type. While the Weizsackers of the previous generations were associated with Kant and Plato, with theology and clergy, he was more captivated by the earthly.

SPIEGEL: What do you mean by that?

Noack: He was interested in the future, he was a fervent supporter of artificial intelligence. For me, he appeared as one of the most modern in this extended family - which does not mean that he did not care about tradition and family: For example, he only came to medicine because of his brother Andreas.

SPIEGEL: How that?

Noack: Andreas von Weizsäcker became ill at a very early age and suffered from it for decades before he died in 2008. His brother Fritz apparently also turned to medicine because he was convinced that he could acquire so much know-how that he could save Andreas. This story illustrates how great Weizsacker's basic trust in one's own qualities is.

SPIEGEL: ... and that you are prepared to put your own life into the service of your relatives?

Noack: Yes, the family ties are really tight. Fritz von Weizsäcker once said: "We are first of all we, we resist all attacks from the outside".

SCHLOSSPARK KLINIK / HANDOUT HANDOUT / EPA-EFE / REX

Fritz von Weizsäcker

SPIEGEL: Is this the family recipe for success?

Noack: At least that's what you get when you look at Ernst von Weizsacker's 66 children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. They have put them in top positions in different professions, all of them are full-time graduates. Until yesterday afternoon, I would have said: This family is flourishing and thriving like no other.

SPIEGEL: What is left of Fritz von Weizsäcker?

Noack: I do not want to risk a prognosis. His death, however, will tear a huge gap in the domestic family association.

Source: spiegel

All life articles on 2019-11-20

You may like

Trends 24h

Life/Entertain 2024-03-28T17:17:20.523Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.