2024/08/16

Hans Halter – Wikipedia

Hans Halter – Wikipedia

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Hans Halter (born 8 April 1938 in Muskau ) is a German medical journalist and author .

Life

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Hans Halter studied medicine and is a qualified specialist in skin and venereal diseases . During his time as a medical student in Berlin, he worked for months as an escape helper after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, as was first revealed in an article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung in 2011. [1] After working as a doctor for a while, he went into journalism in 1972. He worked as a reporter for Der Spiegel for more than 30 years , working mainly on medical topics. In 1982, for example, he was the first German-speaking journalist to report on the immune deficiency disease AIDS . [2]

After 1983, a long-standing, sometimes controversial discussion about AIDS developed. [3] Halter was of the opinion that AIDS was a deadly infectious disease whose "motor" was "promiscuity". [4] In 1986, Halter was the first person in the world to report on the decoding of the AIDS pathogen. [5] He also published in the scientific journal Aids-Forschung on the situation of infected hemophiliacs [6] and gave detailed interviews to several gay scene magazines, such as the Berlin Siegessäule . [7]

In 1983 he was awarded the Egon Erwin Kisch Prize for his report on surgery, The donor heart must not die, in Der Spiegel . [8] Halter is the author and editor of around twenty books (selection under Works ). He now lives in Berlin and works as a freelance author.

Award and controversy

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Three decades after the AIDS controversy of the 1980s, in 2013, the Schwules Netzwerk NRW e. V. awarded the Kompassnadel to the editorial staff of the news magazine Der Spiegel , which had helped shape the discourse "for many decades" with "human-affirming reporting on homosexuality - appropriate to the times" . [9] Since 2001 , the association has been awarding the Kompassnadel to personalities or institutions that have "made a special contribution to promoting the social acceptance of gays and lesbians". [10]

The award given to Der Spiegel by the Schwules Netzwerk NRW was met with criticism from the Deutsche AIDShilfe e. V. In January 2013, the association published a statement on its website in which it distanced itself from the award ceremony and criticized the "unspeakable reporting by 'Der Spiegel' at the height of the AIDS crisis." Der Spiegel had "promoted the worst resentment against gay men," and Hans Halter in particular had "regularly painted the picture of the promiscuous gay man who satisfies his urges without regard for his own health." [11]

The Schwules Netzwerk NRW responded in March 2013 with a statement that the criticism expressed about the award by Spiegel was "not unexpected". Therefore, the press release for the award ceremony already contained a reference to the "learning process" of Spiegel itself, which began with a "not always appropriate" treatment of gay men. [12] The department head Markus Verbeet accepted the compass needle on July 6, 2013, on behalf of the editorial staff of Spiegel and Spiegel online . [13]

factories

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As a Spiegel reporter (the relevant AIDS articles of the 1980s):

  • Shock from the other side . In: Der Spiegel . No. 22 , 1982, p. 187–189 ( online – 31 May 1982 , The first publication about AIDS in Germany before the disease was identified as AIDS – the term AIDS does not yet appear in the article).
  • The sadness is increasing. Reactions of the Berlin homosexual scene to AIDS . In: Der Spiegel . No. 23 , 1983, p. 156 f . ( online – 6 June 1983 , The first Spiegel cover story Deadly epidemic AIDS. The mysterious disease).
  • “I am a faggot, I am perfectly healthy.” SPIEGEL reporter Hans Halter on homosexuals’ fear of the AIDS epidemic . In: Der Spiegel . No. 29 , 1984, p. 130–134 ( online – July 16, 1984 ).
  • Aids: “The bomb has been planted .” In: Der Spiegel . No. 45 , 1984, p. 100–114 ( online – November 5, 1984 ).
  • with Wolfgang Sternsdorff: SPIEGEL interview “Five years in quarantine?” Professor Manfred Steinbach on disease control measures against the spread of AIDS . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1984, p. 28–32 ( online – 24 December 1984 ).
  • Internal memo – Subject: Title . In: Der Spiegel . No. 52 , 1985, p. 3 ( online – 12 August 1985 , The internal communication concerns the second Spiegel cover story, AIDS and Love. What risk?, which was edited by Hans Halter , and deals with the accusations made (“Scaremongering, promoting prejudice, aiding and abetting the new persecution of a repeatedly persecuted minority – all of these were made against SPIEGEL when it dealt with the subject of AIDS in several articles in 1983 and 1984”) and rejects them).
  • “We have to take the rocky road.” SPIEGEL reporter Hans Halter on AIDS virus research in Germany . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1986, p. 213–237 ( online – April 28, 1986 , The article is part of the third Spiegel cover story AIDS. The virus unraveled – race for the vaccine and reports for the first time on a vaccine against AIDS).

As book author (selection):

  • I have done my thing here – lives and last words of famous women and men. Bloomsbury, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-8270-0697-X .
  • War of the Jugglers – the failure of the German secret services. Steidl-Verlag, Göttingen 1993, ISBN 3-88243-246-2 .
  • Your rights as a patient – ​​fundamental judgments, case studies, legal avenues, self-help groups. Econ, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-612-21200-1 .
  • The big ADAC health book . ADAC-Verlag, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-87003-202-2 . (Also published as The big health book . Orbis-Verlag, Munich 1991.)

As editor:

  • AIDS, the deadly plague . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1985, ISBN 3-499-33067-9 .
  • Be careful, doctor! – the crisis of modern medicine, together with Klaus Franke, Gisela Oehlert, and Jürgen-Peter Stössel. Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1981, ISBN 3-499-33010-5 .
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References

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  1. ↑ Across all borders in a Cadillac . Review by Hans Halter of Burkart Veigel's escape-assistance book Wege durch die Mauer , published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 227 of October 1, 2011, page 12. Below the review is the editorial note: "The journalist Hans Halter lives in Berlin and was himself an escape-assistant at the time."
  2. ↑ Jochen Bölsche: Editorial. In: Der Spiegel Special 07/1996. July 1, 1996, p. 3 , formerly in the original (no longer available online) ; accessed on February 23, 2020. ( Page no longer available . Search in web archives )
  3. ↑ Rearview mirror . In: Der Spiegel . No. 3 , 1986, p. 194 ( online – January 13, 1986 ).
  4. ↑ The engine of the epidemic. A conversation with Hans Halter . In: Siegessäule . AIDS special issue, December 1985, p. 34.
  5. ↑ Subject: Title “AIDS – The virus unraveled. Race for the vaccine” . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 1986, p. 3 ( online – April 28, 1986 ).
  6. ↑ Hans Halter: “The injustice that befalls one individual is a threat to all.” On the situation of HIV-infected haemophiliacs in France and Germany . In: Aids-Forschung (AIFO), Issue 2, February 1993, pp. 62–64.
  7. ↑ The engine of the epidemic. A conversation with Hans Halter . In: Siegessäule . AIDS special issue, December 1985, pp. 33–34.
  8. ↑ Egon Erwin Kisch Prize: 1977–2004: All prize winners at a glance. In: stern.de . July 1, 2003, accessed on June 18, 2021 .
  9. ↑ Gay Network NRW: The winners of the Compass Needle 2013 . In: schwules-netzwerk.de.
  10. ↑ Gay Network NRW: Compass Needle . In: schwules-netzwerk.de.
  11. ↑ German AIDS Help criticizes SPIEGEL's award of acceptance prize. In: German AIDS Help. January 28, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Statement on the criticism of SPIEGEL as winner of the Kompassnadel 2013. Statement by the Gay Network NRW from March 14, 2013. In: schwules-netzwerk.de.
  13. ↑ “We are ready to talk .” Dr. Markus Verbeet in conversation with the Gay Network NRW. In: schwules-netzwerk.de.
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