He was provocative, pointed and sarcastic: When Horst Stern postulated that the deer must be shot in the local forests rather than spared, he inflicted the whole nation on Christmas Eve 1971. Horst Stern was an environmentalist from the start and as a journalist tackled controversial issues such as animal experiments in medicine. Now he died at the age of 96 years in Passau, as his son confirmed.
Born in Szczecin in October 1922, he dropped out of school and subsequent banking. After returning from war captivity to Germany, he worked for the "Stuttgarter Nachrichten" as a court reporter (read here a detailed portrait of the environmentalists and journalists).
Stern took over the trade magazine "Yacht" and was later to write a book for another publisher - to have never come close without a boat or a horse. He made his sailing license, bought a boat and remained faithful to water sports for decades. Later he took riding lessons.
Early reminders
As a television journalist, he warned in the seventies with impressive, sometimes drastic film footage and comments before a thoughtless approach to nature and revealed grievances. His ARD program "Stern's Hour" is still a household name for many television viewers.
In 1975 he founded, among others, Bernhard Grzimek, the German Federal Government for the Environment and Nature Conservation. In 1984, Stern withdrew from the current reporting, but attracted attention as a freelance writer, including "Man from Apulia" and "hunting novella".