Gerd Bucerius (19 May 1906 – 29 September 1995) was a German politician, publisher and journalist, one of the founding members of ''

Die Zeit ''Die Zeit'' (, "The Time") is a German national weekly newspaper published in Hamburg in Germany. The newspaper is generally considered to be among the German newspapers of record and is known for its long and extensive articles. History Th ...

''. He is the namesake of the

Bucerius Law School Bucerius Law School (pronounced ) is a private law school located in Hamburg, Germany. The school is the first private law school in Germany. It admits approximately 100 undergraduate students per year. Origins and structure Bucerius Law Scho ...

in Hamburg and of the Bucerius Kunst Forum, an art gallery.

Life and career

Bucerius was born in

Westphalia Westphalia (; german: Westfalen ; nds, Westfalen ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the regio ...

, and studied law in Hamburg. Upon completion of his studies, he was named a

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

in Kiel and Flensburg. With the rise to power of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...

in 1933, he was unable to continue his work as a judge. His first wife, a

Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...

, took refuge in the United Kingdom. Bucerius remained a lawyer, defending numerous Jewish clients and others who were targeted under the Nazi regime. With the Allied victory in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Bucerius became a politician and journalist. He was a founding member of the

Christian Democratic Union of Germany The Christian Democratic Union of Germany (german: link=no, Christlich Demokratische Union Deutschlands ; CDU ) is a Christian democratic and liberal conservative political party in Germany. It is the major catch-all party of the centre-right i ...

(CDUG) in 1945. The British tasked him with the reorganization of the senate in Hamburg; in 1949 he was elected as a deputy to the first post-war

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Comm ...

as a member of the CDUG. He retained his seat until 1962. In 1946, with Lovis H. Lorenz,

Richard Tüngel Richard Tüngel (1893 – 1970) was a German journalist and publisher, originally an architect and a longtime Director of Construction (Baudirektor) in Hamburg. Life Removed from this position by the Nazis in 1933, he went to Berlin, where he l ...

, and Ewald Schmidt di Simoni he created ''Die Zeit'', with which they hoped to found a great newspaper for the north of Germany. Even though the emblem of Bremen was placed on its cover by way of a logo, the newspaper's city of origin was Hamburg. Hamburg refused the use of its city arms for the publication, and so those of another nearby municipality were used instead. Bucerius's villa overlooking Lake Maggiore in Switzerland, the Ebelin Bucerius House, was designed by the modernist architect

Richard Neutra Richard Joseph Neutra ( ; April 8, 1892 – April 16, 1970) was an Austrian-American architect. Living and building for the majority of his career in Southern California, he came to be considered a prominent and important modernist architect. H ...

, and named for Bucerius's second wife, Ebelin. It was constructed between 1962 and 1966.Marta Herford: Richard Neutra in Europe
Marta Herford: Richard Neutra in Europe
, accessdate: November 16, 2016

Honors and awards

Bucerius is considered an important benefactor to Hamburg; upon the centenary of his birth, chancellor

Helmut Schmidt Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (; 23 December 1918 – 10 November 2015) was a German politician and member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), who served as the chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982. Before becoming Ch ...

called him among the most influential citizens of the city. His large fortune was handed over to the

ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius The charitable foundation ''Zeit-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius'' (house style: ZEIT-Stiftung) is registered in Hamburg. Its aim is to fund projects in research and scholarship, arts and culture, as well as education and training. It was fou ...

which Bucerius had created in 1971. The funds held by this foundation are used for the promotion of scientific, educational, cultural and artistic projects; the

and the

Bucerius Kunst Forum The Bucerius Kunst Forum is an international exhibition centre in Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2002 through the ''ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius'' foundation. It is named after Gerd Bucerius and his wife, and located directly beside the H ...

are its most important projects. In 2001, the Bucerius Institute for Research of Contemporary German History and Society at the

University of Haifa The University of Haifa ( he, אוניברסיטת חיפה Arabic: جامعة حيفا) is a university located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. Founded in 1963, the University of Haifa received full academic accreditation in 1972, becoming ...

was established by the

and its chairman, Professor Dres. h.c. Manfred Lahnstein. In 1986 Bucerius was given the Honorary Citizenship of Hamburg.

Other activities

In 1983, Bucerius became a member of the advisory board of the

Bertelsmann Stiftung The Bertelsmann Stiftung is an independent foundation under private law, based in Gütersloh, Germany. It was founded in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn as the result of social, corporate and fiscal considerations. As the Bertelsmann Stiftung itself ...

and was an honorary member since 1993.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bucerius, Gerd 1906 births 1995 deaths People from Hamm German male journalists 20th-century German journalists 20th-century German newspaper publishers (people) German newspaper publishers (people) 20th-century German judges Members of the Hamburg Parliament Members of the Bundestag for Hamburg Members of the Bundestag 1961–1965 Members of the Bundestag 1957–1961 Members of the Bundestag 1953–1957 Members of the Bundestag 1949–1953 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany Grand Crosses with Star and Sash of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Senators of Hamburg University of Hamburg alumni German male writers German newspaper founders Die Zeit founders