Rolf Zick (16 April 19218 March 2024) was a German journalist.

Life and career

Zick was born in

Dransfeld Dransfeld is a town in the district of Göttingen, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approximately 12 km west of Göttingen. Dransfeld is also the seat of the ''Samtgemeinde'' ("collective municipality") Dransfeld. Infrastructure ...

on 16 April 1921 to a family of teachers. His father was a member of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

from 1924 to 1933, and a member of the . Zick reported that his sister was killed under the Nazi regime among the although her name is not officially listed, and his father was degraded and relocated under the . Zick achieved his at the in 1939 and was then drafted to the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

. He experienced 70 bombings of Hanover as a

FLAK Anti-aircraft warfare (AAW) is the counter to aerial warfare and includes "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It encompasses surface-based, subsurface ( submarine-launched), and air-bas ...

commander, and was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

prisoner of war until 1948 during which he reports being abused for medical experiments. 13-03-19-landtag-niedersachsen-by-RalfR-076

He then began his career as a journalist with local news in

Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...

. He moved to Hanover in 1960 and reported for decades on state politics in

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

. He founded an independent press office in 1974, , and worked as its chief. He also served as president of the state press conference of Lower Saxony from 1971 to 1990. His daughter Anne-Maria Zick continued the , which eventually merged with the Zick died in Hanover on 8 March 2024, at the age of 102.

Awards

* 1981

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (, or , BVO) is the highest state decoration, federal decoration of the Federal Republic of Germany. It may be awarded for any field of endeavor. It was created by the first List of president ...

* 1994

Lower Saxony Order of Merit The Lower Saxony Order of Merit () is a civil order of merit, of the German State of Lower Saxony. The order was established 27 March 1961. The order is presented in three classes, the highest is the Grand Cross of Merit (Großes Verdienstkreu ...

* 2011 * 2011 Honorary president of * 2020 of * 2021 Honorary president of

Publications

* (with Burkhard Nowotny): ''Hörfunk in Grossbritannien. Privater Lokalrundfunk'', Verband Nordwestdeutscher Zeitungsverleger, 1980 * (with Maria Haldenwanger, Rolf Manfred Hasse): ''Kostbarkeiten in Bibliotheken Niedersachsens'', ed.: Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Bibliotheken in Niedersachsen, Hannover 1996 * ''Ich war dabei und habe überlebt'' ISBN 3-00-002062-4, 1997 (5th edition, 2002)Löblicher Beitrag: Erlebnisbericht eines Kriegsgefangenen
(in German) ''Das Ostpreußenblatt/ Preußische Allgemeine Zeitung'', 22 March 2003 * ''Die Landespressekonferenz am Puls des Geschehens'', LPK, Hannover 1997, ISBN 3-00-002338-0 * ''Landesverkehrswacht Niedersachsen: 50 Jahre jung – Eine Dokumentation'', Landesverkehrswacht Niedersachsen, 2001 * ''Die CDU in Niedersachsen: eine Chronik'', Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Sankt Augustin 2008, ISBN 978-3-940955-28-9 * ''60 Jahre Zahnärztekammer Niedersachsen – Eine Chronik 1949-2009'', Zahnärztekammer Niedersachsen, 2009 * ''Walter Hirche – Ein Liberaler aus Niedersachsen'', Georg Olms Verlag, 2014, ISBN 978-3-487-08534-0 * ''Ein starkes Land im Herzen Europas: die CDU in Niedersachsen 1945 bis 2015'', Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, Sankt Augustin, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-95721-190-3 * ''Der letzte Zeitzeuge : Ein halbes Jahrhundert hinter der landespolitischen Bühne'', ed. by Presse Club Hannover, Olms Verlag, Hildesheim, Zürich, New York 2021, ISBN 978-3-487-08635-4.

References

External links

Rolf Zick: Der Zeitzeuge wird 100
in: Rundblick – Politikjournal für Niedersachsen vom 11. April 2021
Leibniz-Ring für Journalist Rolf Zick (99)
' 14 October 2020

Lower Saxony
Rolf Zick
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zick, Rolf 1921 births 2024 deaths German journalists Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Nazi Party members German men centenarians People from Göttingen (district)