100th birthday of Marion Countess Dönhoff - Germany / Federal Republic of Germany 2009 - 55 Euro Cent
Theme: Calender
Country | Germany / Federal Republic of Germany |
Issue Date | 2009 |
Face Value | 55.00 |
Stamp Type | Postage stamp |
Item Type | Stamp |
Chronological Issue Number | 2639 |
Chronological Chapter | GER-BRD |
SID | 103753 |
In 19 Wishlists |
Marion Hedda Ilse Countess Dönhoff was one of the most influential journalists in Germany. For decades, it shaped the political debate and repeatedly championed international understanding and the reconciliation of Germany with its eastern neighbors. On 2 December 1909 she was born in East Prussia. She experienced an unconventional youth at the family estate Schloss Friedrichstein and became a woman who did not follow the zeitgeist: she showed her rejection of the National Socialist dictatorship. When the Soviet army kept advancing in 1945, she fled to the west on her horse Alaric, leaving behind her home and her "first" life. In her "second" life she became a journalist. She made the Hamburger Pressehaus the second home of the newly founded weekly magazine DIE ZEIT and used her experience in resistance in numerous articles. In addition, the countess published more than 20 books. Their commitment to a reconciling attitude in Ostpolitik and for the reunification of Germany was rewarded in 1971 with the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. Seven honorary doctorates and many other awards and prizes followed. In 1988, Countess Dönhoff founded the Foundation for International Understanding, which still benefits from all its book fees. Germany's most successful publicist died on 11 March 2002 at Crottorf Castle in Friesenhagen. On March 14, 2002, Helmut Schmidt wrote in an obituary: "The Germans have lost a pioneering fellow citizen."