Wolf Dietrich Schneider (7 May 1925 – 11 November 2022) was a German journalist, author, and language critic. After World War II, he learned journalism on the job with Die Neue Zeitung, a newspaper published by the US military government. He later worked as a correspondent in Washington for the Süddeutsche Zeitung, then as editor-in-chief and from 1969 manager of the publishing house of Stern. He moved to the Springer Press in 1971. From 1979 to 1995, he was the first director of a school for journalists in Hamburg, shaping generations of journalists. He wrote many publications about the German language, becoming an authority. He promoted a concise style, and opposed anglicisms and the German orthography reform.
Life
Schneider was born on 7 May 1925 in Erfurt[2] and grew up in Berlin.[3] Having passed his Abitur, he served with the Luftwaffe until the end of the Second World War. His post-war career began as a translator for the US Army, and in 1947 he joined the Munich-based Neue Zeitung, a newspaper run by the US military government.[4] It was here that he received journalistic training and later worked as an editor. In the early 1950s Schneider was a correspondent for the news agency AP; in later years he was in charge of the news team and correspondent in Washington for the Süddeutsche Zeitung.[5]
In 1966, Schneider joined Stern magazine, where he worked as editor-in-chief, and from 1969 as manager of the publishing house.[5] German media tycoon Axel Springer hired Schneider in 1971 to design the news magazine Dialog, aimed at challenging Der Spiegel's dominant position in the German market.[6] The project ended in failure,[6] however, and Schneider was appointed editor-in-chief of Springer's conservative daily Die Welt, based in Hamburg.[4] Springer dismissed Schneider after only one year.[7]
Schneider remained at Springer as editor-in-chief without portfolio. In 1979, he was appointed the inaugural director of the newly founded Hamburger Journalistenschule, which later became known as Henri-Nannen-Schule.[4] He was to hold this position until 1995.[8] He taught hundreds of students,[9] many of whom are now in prominent positions. He also became widely known during this time as the godfather of concise German prose.[10][11]
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Schneider also presented the NDR Talk Show [de].[4]
Schneider was married and a father of three children.[12][13][14][15] He lived in Starnberg, where he died on 11 November 2022 at the age of 97.[4][11][16]
Language critic
From 1995, Schneider was a vigorous lecturer on the German language, and gave seminars for press officers and young journalists.[17] He was a prolific writer and produced 28 best-selling nonfiction books,[18] among them staple works on proper German style (e.g. "German for life. What school forgot to teach").[19] His last works were "Speak German", a defence of the German language in the face of anglicisms,[20] and Man: a Career, which tells the story of mankind's rise to mastery of the earth, and plots our uncertain future.[21]
Schneider's ideal was a concise written style, avoiding the typically-German pitfalls of rambling sentences, separated verbs, and complex constructions. Schneider was a critic of the German orthography reform[4] and founded with others the pressure group Aktion Lebendiges Deutsch [de] (Living German).[22] Schneider opposed gender neutrality in the German language.[23]
Deutsch fürs Leben : Was die Schule zu lehren vergass (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. 1994. ISBN978-3-499-19695-9. OCLC263552413.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Schneider, Wolf (2005). Deutsch! das Handbuch für attraktive Texte (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN978-3-498-06381-8. OCLC76561621.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Schneider, Wolf (2009). Gewönne doch der Konjunktiv! Sprachwitz in 66 Lektionen (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN978-3-499-62463-6. OCLC699916394.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Schneider, Wolf (2011). Deutsch für junge Profis : Wie man gut und lebendig schreibt (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN978-3-499-62629-6. OCLC724778708.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Deutsch lebt! Ein Appell zum Aufwachen (in German) (2. ed.), Paderborn: Institut für Betriebslinguistik IFB, Verlag Deutsche Sprache, 2010, ISBN978-3-942409-01-8
Journalism
Unsere tägliche Desinformation: Wie die Massenmedien uns in die Irre führen (in German) (5. ed.). Hamburg: Gruner und Jahr. 1992 [1984]. ISBN3-570-03915-3.
Mythos Titanic : das Protokoll der Katastrophe, drei Stunden, die die Welt erschütterten (in German). Hamburg: Gruner + Jahr. 1986. ISBN3-570-05991-X. OCLC15152258.
Die Sieger: wodurch Genies, Phantasten und Verbrecher berühmt geworden sind. Gruner und Jahr, Hamburg 1992; Taschenbuchauflage: Piper-TB 2217, München / Zürich 1996, ISBN3-492-22217-X.
Schneider, Wolf (2012). Die Wahrheit über die Lüge warum wir den Irrtum brauchen und die Lüge lieben (in German). Reinbek bei Hamburg. ISBN978-3-498-06418-1. OCLC809980186.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)