Franz Schönhuber

Franz Xaver Schönhuber (10 January 1923 in Trostberg – 27 November 2005 in Munich) was a German journalist, politician and author. He gained fame as a founder and eventual chairman of the right-wing German Party The Republicans.

Schönhuber attended Gymnasium in Munich and gained his Abitur in 1942. As a nineteen-year-old he was a member of the Hitler Youth and a member of the Nazi Party. He voluntarily joined the Waffen-SS and was deployed at the front. He has claimed to have been an instructor and translator for the French Charlemagne brigade. As a SS-Unterscharführer, he gained a second class Iron Cross.

After the war during the denazification process, the Allies classified him as a mere follower rather than a key participant. He then began a career as a journalist and wrote for several established newspapers including the Münchner Abendzeitung and the Deutsche Woche. He was also chief editor for tz. At the same time, he hosted television programs for the Bayerischer Rundfunk, first Gute Fahrt and later Jetzt red' i. In 1975 he was the division leader of Bayerischer Rundfunk in the area of "Bavaria Information".

From 1975 to 1981 he was chairman of the Bayerischer Journalisten-Verband (Bavarian Journalist Union) and member of the Deutscher Presserat. His career was hit when in 1981 he published his autobiography Ich war dabei (I was there). He was accused of minimizing the grave crimes of National Socialism, although within a lawsuit he also won a determination that the book did not represent an identification with the Nazi regime. He was forced off of his program and from the chairmanship of the Bayerischen Journalisten-Verband.

...
Wikipedia