Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler

Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler
Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (1956)
Born	28 April 1918 Dahlem (Berlin), Germany
Died	20 September 2001(2001-09-20) (aged 83) Zeuthen, Brandenburg, Germany
Nationality	German
Occupation	Journalist Television presenter
Political party	SED
Spouse(s)	Marlis Hoeres (1940) Inge Keller (1952) Christine Laszar (1958) Marta Rafael (1960)
Children	Stephan (von) Schnitzler Karin Schnitzler
Parent(s)	Julius Eduard von Schnitzler

Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (April 28, 1918 – September 20, 2001) was an East German journalist and host of the television show Der schwarze Kanal (German: The Black Channel) 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.

Abandoning his medical studies, Schnitzler trained for a business career in Cologne and became a merchant.

When the Second World War broke out in 1939, Schnitzler was drafted into the Wehrmacht, but was taken prisoner by British forces in 1944, following the Battle of Normandy. After his capture, he began to work for the British Ministry of Information and for the German-language service 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 (NWDR) in Hamburg. He was transferred to their Cologne studios on 1 January 1946, where he was assigned to the post of Associate Director and Head of the Politics Department. His political bias soon became apparent to his superiors and he was removed from his position in Cologne and returned to the NWDR's Hamburg offices until his eventual dismissal in 1947, after being accused of spreading communist propaganda.