Nannen Prize is now called “Stern”

The Nannen Prize will be awarded once this year under a different name. The background is the debate over the role of former editor-in-chief of “Stern” Henri Nannen (1913-1996) during the Nazi era.

Hamburg publisher Gruner + Jahr announced on Friday that it has decided, together with the magazine belonging to the house, to award the Nannen Prize next week (22 June) as a “Star Award” – for “the debate on the past of Henri Nannen to disarm”. The award should shine a light on those for whom one of the most prestigious journalism awards in the country is present: outstanding journalists.

Gruner + Jahr also announced that a committee would be created to advise on the future use of the name for the award and also for the Henri Nannen School. A decision will be made by the end of the year.

In May, Norddeutscher Rundfunk’s “STRG_F” magazine reported some details about Nannen’s known past during World War II. During his lifetime, Nannen made several public statements about his role as a member of an SS propaganda unit, albeit with reservations. Articles about him also appeared in “Stern.” Debate over him has been reignited again and again.

For decades, Nannen was the defining figure of “Stern” magazine, founded in 1948, as its initiator and editor-in-chief. The “STRG_F” post posted on YouTube is about anti-Semitic propaganda pamphlets that come from the SS unit “Südstern” and say they were distributed at the front in Italy during WWII. The NDR’s contribution assigns Nannen an important role in the design of the brochures. The article shows historical anti-Semitic, racist and also sexist excerpts from leaflets that were archived.

The new chairman of Stern’s editorial staff, Gregor Peter Schmitz, then wrote in an article about the flyers entitled “Henri Nannen und wir” that these pictures were disgusting and disgusting and, above all, that they served many anti-Semitic clichés. Schmitz also wrote: As a magazine that shaped Henri Nannen, they want to tackle the debate “whether we should take a more critical look at the (complicated) person Nannen”.

Schmitz also commented on Friday in the press release from the publisher, which merged with RTL earlier in the year: Following the awards ceremony next Wednesday, the time will be taken “for calm and conscientious advice on how to properly handle our founder “. “Next year we will also be dealing more intensively with the early years of ‘Stern’. This is not a dismantling and it is certainly not a campaign – it is one of the basic virtues of journalism: getting to the bottom of things and making balanced judgments.”