Abstract
Gunther Wallraff (born 1942) is possibly the best known and (in certain circles) most unpopular reporter and writer in West Germany. Initially a bookseller, he worked in the 60s in a number of factories and industrial offices. It was during this time that he started to make his reputation as a decidedly unusual journalist. He describes his particular form of writing as ‘industrial reportage’: disguised as a workman - German or foreign - he gets a job in a factory or industrial concern, and works there for several months, observing and noting what goes on around him. His subsequent accounts of industrial corruption, exploitation and injustice have caused a furore in business circles in West Germany (cf. the somewhat similar tactics of the Hungarian, Miklós Haraszti, whose trial was reported in INDEX 1/74). His latest book is an exposé of the insurance business in West Germany, a series of startling reports which the big insurance companies have sought through the courts to suppress - to no avail.
On 23 May he was sentenced by a court in Athens to fourteen months' imprisonment - after distributing leaflets in Syntagma Square and being beaten up by secret police. But his action received mostly very reserved comment in Germany. The principal objections were that it was an unjustified interference in another State's affairs, a bid for martyrdom or a publicity gag. In a speech he wrote for the trial, Wallraff sought to explain to the Athens court why he undertook this action. He was not allowed to deliver it. In its edition of 7 June the German newspaper Die Zeit published the essential passages from this speech. They appear below: (Wallraff was released under the generalamnesty in July.)