Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler

Who was Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler?

Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler was an East German journalist and host of the television show Der schwarze Kanal from March 21, 1960 to October 30, 1989.

Schnitzler was born in Berlin the son of German vice consul Julius Eduard von Schnitzler, scion of a Cologne banking dynasty, who had been ennobled by the state of Prussia in 1913. Karl-Eduard attended a boarding school at Bad Godesberg and joined the Sozialistische Arbeiter-Jugend youth organisation of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1932. After receiving his school-leaving qualification in 1937 he began studying medicine at the University of Freiburg but later trained as a management assistant in Cologne.

When World War II broke out in 1939, Schnitzler was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but was captured by British forces in 1944 following the Battle of Normandy. After his capture, Schnitzler began to work for the Ministry of Information and the German-language wing of the BBC where his talents as a broadcaster were soon recognised. After his release in 1945 he returned to the British Zone of Allied occupied Germany and became an employee of the British controlled radio station Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk in Hamburg.