Gerhard Löwenthal

Who was Gerhard Löwenthal?

Gerhard Löwenthal was a prominent German journalist, human rights activist and author. He presented the ZDF-Magazin, a news magazine of ZDF which highlighted human rights abuses in communist-ruled Eastern Europe, from 1969 to 1987. Löwenthal was known as a staunch anticommunist.

He was Jewish, and was deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp during Nazi rule. After the war he chose to remain in his native country and went on to study medicine. He also worked as a reporter for RIAS, before he became one of the first students at the Free University of Berlin.

His father-in-law was CDU politician Ernst Lemmer.

The Gerhard Löwenthal Prize, annually awarded by his widow Ingeborg Löwenthal, the conservative newspaper Junge Freiheit and the Foundation for Conservative Education and Research, is named in his honour.

He is buried at the Jewish cemetery at Heerstraße in Berlin.