Joachim Siegerist

Who is Joachim Siegerist?

Werner Joachim Siegerist is a German-Latvian journalist, author and conservative politician. He is chairman of the anti-communist German Conservatives and co-publisher of the Konservative Deutsche Zeitung. He played a role in the early days of Latvian independence.

His father was Latvian and fought in the Waffen-SS, and his mother was originally from Wiesbaden and later moved to Schleswig-Holstein, where he grew up. He was active in the Junge Union and the Christlicher Gewerkschaftsbund. Between 1971 and 1973 he was a prominent journalist of the Bild-Zeitung, the biggest newspaper of Europe. In 1980 he founded the Bürgeraktion Demokraten für Strauß and campaigned for the candidacy of Franz-Joseph Strauß for Chancellor. Following Strauß's defeat he became the leading reporter of the HÖRZU, a magazine also published by the Axel Springer Verlag. In 1985 he left Springer over political differences, and wrote his first book, Willy Brandt - Das Ende einer Legende. For that book, he was sentenced for slander of Willy Brandt 1987. 1994 he was let off for probation on slander and sedition after calling Gypsies throughout evil and criminal mob.