Lutz Hachmeister


Lutz Hachmeister was a German media historian, award-winning filmmaker and journalist. He particularly gained international attention for directing the 2005 film The Goebbels Experiment, co-produced by the BBC and the Canadian History channel, and featuring Kenneth Branagh as the narrator for the Goebbels Diaries. In 2006 Hachmeister established the Institute for Media and Communication Policy in Berlin and Cologne, which is strongly tied to the Anglo-American media scene.

Academic career

Hachmeister was born in Minden, Westphalia. He graduated from the University of Münster, writing his doctoral thesis about the history of communication research in Germany. His professorial thesis deals with Franz Six, Adolf Eichmann's superior, who was nominated to rule Great Britain as the head of the SD in case of a German occupation. Hachmeister's book about Six's career was widely recognized as one of the "new biographies" in the 1990s, describing in detail the mentality and role of the young academic elite in shaping the "Third Reich".
Contrary to current trends in media studies and communication research, Hachmeister's "konkrete Kommunikationsforschung" relies heavily on the classical socio-psychological models in US communication studies. He also frequently referred to the Canadian communication theory and the German decisionist law professor Carl Schmitt.

Professional career

As a journalist, Hachmeister worked for several leading German newspapers, such as Der Tagesspiegel, Die Woche and Süddeutsche Zeitung. He also was an associate professor of journalism at the University of Dortmund. His research on former Nazi intelligence specialists in the formative years of Germany's leading news magazine Der Spiegel aroused a debate about the history of the paper, which was usually considered to have pure leftist-liberal traditions. Hachmeister's documentary about the life and death of Hanns Martin Schleyer, the former head of the German employers association, who was murdered in 1977 by the Red Army Faction, won a Grimme-Award in 2004. The following year, The Goebbels Experiment premiered at the Berlin Film Festival and was selected as a New York Times critics' pick.
Hachmeister later headed the Institute for Media and Communication Policy and was considered "Germany's leading media expert". The Institute is particularly known for its high-ranking media colloquia, which hosts international guests like Alan Rusbridger, Greg Dyke or Norman Pearlstine. Hachmeister was also the founder of the Cologne Conference, a "media Bauhaus" and festival for aesthetic and strategic trends in the audiovisual industry.

Death

Hachmeister died in Cologne on 26 August 2024, at the age of 64.

Selected films

  • 2017 "Wallraff war hier"
  • 2015 "Der Hannover-Komplex"
  • 2011 The Real American - Joe McCarthy
  • 2010 Three Stars
  • 2008 Revolution! Das Jahr 1968
  • 2008 Freundschaft! – Die Freie Deutsche Jugend
  • 2007 Baie des Milliardaires
  • 2005 The Goebbels Experiment
  • 2004 Schleyer. Eine deutsche Geschichte.
  • 2000 Hotel Provençal. Aufstieg und Fall der Riviera.
  • 1997/98 ''mondän!''

Selected bibliography

  • Hitlers Interviews: Der Diktator und die Journalisten. Köln, Kiepenheuer & Witsch 2024
  • Hôtel Provençal. Eine Geschichte der Côte d‘Azur. Munich, C. Bertelsmann 2021
  • Hannover. Ein deutsches Machtzentrum, Munich, DVA 2016
  • Heideggers Testament. Der Philosoph, der Spiegel und die SS, Berlin, Propyläen 2014
  • Grundlagen der Medienpolitik: Ein Handbuch. Munich, DVA 2008
  • Nervöse Zone: Politik und Journalismus in der Berliner Republik. Munich, DVA 2007
  • Wer beherrscht die Medien? Die 50 größten Medienkonzerne der Welt.4th ed., Munich, Beck 2005
  • Schleyer. Eine deutsche Geschichte. Beck, Munich 2004
  • Der Gegnerforscher. Die Karriere des SS-Führers Franz Alfred Six. Munich, Beck 1998
  • Theoretische Publizistik. Studien zur Geschichte der Kommunikationswissenschaft in Deutschland. Berlin, Wissenschaftsverlag Spiess 1987