author
Walther Georg Hartmann
1892–1970
A German writer and editor who also played a major role in the history of the German Red Cross, he moved between literature, journalism, and public service. His life joined the worlds of books and humanitarian administration in a way that still feels unusual today.
1 Audiobook
Wir Menschen: Gedichte
by Walther Georg Hartmann
About the author
Born in Strelitz on July 17, 1892, and dying in Freiburg im Breisgau on October 18, 1970, Walther Georg Hartmann was a German author, editor, and public figure. Reference sources describe him not only as a writer, but also as a philosopher, Germanist, and journalist, which helps explain the range of his work and interests.
Hartmann is closely connected with the German Red Cross. He worked there from the early 1920s, edited Red Cross publications, and is associated with the early development of the Jugendrotkreuz, the youth branch of the organization. During and after the Second World War he held senior posts, including leadership of the foreign affairs office and, from 1950 to 1957, the role of secretary-general of the reestablished German Red Cross.
Alongside that institutional career, he published literary work and is represented in public-domain collections such as Project Gutenberg. That combination of cultural writing and organizational leadership makes him an especially interesting figure: someone remembered both for his books and for his part in rebuilding major humanitarian structures in Germany.