Obituary for Joachim Preuss – Media

Of the mirrors in the 74 years of its existence has not been blessed with humor or irony gifted people in its editor-in-chief. Joachim Preuss belonged to the minority of this species. Preuss, born in 1945 in the turmoil of the end of the war in Badekow, northeast of Lüneburg, grew up in Hamburg-Othmarschen and remained loyal to his city and district. He completed a bank apprenticeship, studied business administration (in Hamburg of course), and then went to Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung. It was from there that Werner Funk, who was then head of the economic department, brought him in 1977 mirrors.

Preuss quickly became deputy head of economics, then head of the then newly invented department K III, which was to deal with sport, zeitgeist and modern life. Preuss was responsible for life. He wrote a lot of cover stories, sometimes relaxed and flaky, sometimes ironic and distant, and together with the later editor-in-chief Hans Werner Kilz in 1983 he also wrote the book “Flick – The Bought Republic”, which is still the standard work on the German party donation affair.

He declined one or the other promotion

Preuss, an avid skat player and HSV fan, was anything but a careerist. He refused one or the other promotion – not without weighing all the pros and cons on a long stroll along the Elbe. But when Kilz appointed him as a deputy to the editor-in-chief in 1994, he agreed. After Kilz was kicked out at the mirrors and his switch to Süddeutsche Zeitung At first, Preuss was Hanseatic cool towards his successor Stefan Aust. Of course, Aust was determined to keep him as his deputy; he knew that Preuss was a good journalist and popular among the editorial staff. It took a while before Preuss could make friends with Aust, who had come from Spiegel TV. But when Aust had to leave in 2008, Preuss went with him out of solidarity.

Anyone dealing with Preuss in the editor-in-chief met a friendly, knowledgeable, even casual colleague who laughed a lot and did not take himself too seriously – in short: a lovable, fine person. Joachim “Jockel” Preuss died on Tuesday at the age of 76 after a long illness in Hamburg.

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