On the death of Peter Scholl-Latour – One who never lost the curiosity – Süddeutsche.de

Tomas Avenarius

He was one of the best known journalists in Germany – but in the land of alls also the most controversial: Peter Scholl-Latour told his readers and viewers tirelessly the complicated world politics, almost all countries visited this world. He was 90 years old.

There are journalists books whose titles tell more than the actual content and even those who know, who have never opened the book. “Death in the rice field” is one of them. It was the reporter Peter Scholl-Latour famous in Germany – his book has become quite independent of the story to the Smalltalk-synonym for the topic Vietnam War. The man who wrote it, was one of the most famous journalists of Germany and remained until the end also one of the most controversial: Scholl-Latour was the one as doyen of the German international journalism and profound knowledge of the Islamic world and Asia, while others mocked him or grumbled. In Germany, the land of the alls and the professors, it still applies just as objectionable if one in his documentaries or books and talk shows complicated things in the interest of clarity down breaks sharply and, yes, sometimes a bit strong simplifies

Whether they admired him or criticized. Journalist Scholl-Latour has experienced things to all his colleagues, professional look at it, can only envy. As a television journalist who reported for French television from the Vietnam War, he was captured in 1973 with his team of Vietcong. Anyway, he managed to persuade the guerrillas to be able to turn his captivity among them a documentary in the eight days: The film “Eight days at the Vietcong” aired

Peter Scholl-Latour and – from left to right – sound engineer Dieter Hofrath, assistant Klaus Pattberg and cameraman Joseph ‘Joschi’ businessman after her release from Vietcong prisoner.

(Photo: dpa )

In 1978, Scholl-Latour eyewitness the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The German television man was sitting on the plane, when Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini flew on February 1 from exile from Paris back to Tehran. The Air Force of the Shah, whose rule definitely ended with the coming of the Shiite revolutionary leader had threatened to shoot down the Air France jet before landing. Shot was not the German correspondent was allowed to turn the Ayatollah while praying on the aircraft aisle, rose with him in Tehran off the plane. Then he showed himself more refined than his colleagues: While the other the acclaimed Khomeini tried to follow in the city through the crowd of millions of people, flew Scholl-Latour back and sent from Paris his report. Exclusive, because the other TV people were indeed remained in Tehran and the TV was in the late seventies rather a slow, technically difficult matter.

starts at the “Saarbrücken newspaper”

Scholl-Latour, son of a German physician and an Alsatian was born 1924 in Bochum, was in the Nazi era because of his Jewish origin big problems, was even in Gestapo custody. Always strongly attracted to France, he fought after the war as a French paratroopers in Indochina before Washington came into the jungle-war Paris. He studied politics and Islamic Studies at the Sorbonne, later in francophone Lebanon and then hired at the Saarbrücken newspaper , for which he roamed the world. Africa, Asia, the Middle East

After a short term as a government spokesman in Saarland he went for the ARD correspondent to Africa, then to Paris, then sat for a while on a high television functionary items at WDR. Really known he was with his reports from the Vietnam War, joined the early 80s as editor in chief for Star , the then counted something in Germany. After a time on the Gruner and year-Verlag level Scholl-Latour became self-employed, working on their own: newspaper, television, books. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Soviet empire crumbled, the al-Qaeda terrorist, September 11 – “Scholl” almost felt responsible everywhere and traveled to old age, so that you can him in Cairo or Najaf on the way could run

this purpose, the books he wrote, often enough there were bestsellers. “Allah is with the steadfast”, “The delusion of Heavenly Peace”, “The Sword of Islam”, “Under Cross and Knute “- the list is quite long, some have devoured the books, others wanted not even take in hand. Either way alone shows their number, that because someone wanted to continue working until the end, both as a journalist and as a man never lost his curiosity about life

And then of course the talk shows. For contrary opinions , coupled with a most confident appearance and the obligatory scarf in collar he was always good. No station would want to miss the German TV-God of War and Monsieur Middle East: Scholl-Latour was everywhere, in the conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya and Iraq, the Arab Spring. He even traveled to Syria, in the palace of the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Scholl-Latour himself as a realist both in terms of dictatorship and the struggle for freedom (“With thieves I get along well”), made from his harsh assessment of the recent Arab history no secret: He warned one of the first in front of a maldevelopment of the Arab Spring, called dictators such as the Syrian Assad (“of which there are many”) is still better than a civil war with 170,000 dead. ” / p>

Middle East expert Peter Scholl-Latour The pike in the pond

In Islam, it is said that there are three faiths, Sunna, Shia and Scholl -Latour: The journalist Peter Scholl-Latour was 90 years old – now he has died. About a man who is always able to secure the confidence of the great rulers in the Middle East. ‘/ P>

These were utterances with which he aneckte. But Scholl-Latour knew and understood Islam and the culture around it very well and therefore made no secret of his opposition to Islamist ideas. With other topics he was clear: the European policy in the Ukraine, he commented with a “Fuck the EU” and Washington’s address turned he ranted: “! Americans must speak of international law who can kill people with drones”

braggart he was not, but that really does not even completely modest. He still celebrated and not forget to predict in an interview that Angela Merkel and Helmut Schmidt congratulated him his 90th birthday in March. It will have pleased him that he could clarify on this occasion, that he really all States of the world have pretty much traveled: “Perhaps even missing a few reefs in the Pacific, a few small islands in the Caribbean.”

Peter Scholl-Latour died on Saturday aged 90 after a serious illness in Rhöndorf am Rhein.