hankyoreh

Edeltraut Bramstedt

A memorial ceremony was held for Jurgen Hinzpeter, a late German journalist who shared grim images of the 1980 Gwangju Democratization Movement with the world.

The city of Gwangju and the May 18 Memorial Foundation held the ceremony for Hinzpeter on May 16 beside a stone tower at the former cemetery for the incident. Around 100 people attended, including family members of victims and members of the general public.

Also present were a number of prominent figures from overseas, including Hinzpeter’s widow Edeltraut Bramstedt, 79; sister-in-law Roswitha Bramstedt Mitt, 72; Bradley Martin, Norman Thorpe, Tim Shorrock, and Donald Kirk, who covered the events as foreign correspondents; and former East Timor President Xanana Gusmao.

Speaking at the ceremony, Bramstedt said she was “grateful to the city of Gwangju and its people for realizing my husband’s wish to be buried in Gwangju.”

“I am happy a place of rest has been made for him in a historic place,” she added.

During a 2005 visit to South Korea, Hinzpeter donated fingernail clippings and strands of hair with the May 18 Memorial Foundation, expressing a wish to be buried in Gwangju after his death. On May 15 of this year, the foundation enshrined Hinzpeter’s remains in a memorial stone, with Bramstedt and other family members present.

Attendees at the May 16 ceremony sang the song “March for the Beloved” to honor Hinzpeter. Gusmao consoled the grieving widow, placing a green scarf around her neck.

Hinzpeter covered the situation in Gwangju at the time of the movement as a Japan correspondent for ARD-NDR, a German public broadcaster. He also played a major role in establishing the incident as a democratic movement against injustice at a time when it was in danger of being dismissed as a “mob disturbance” as the military administration of the time hoped. On Jan. 25 of this year, he passed away after a long illness at the age of 79 in the northern German city of Ratzeburg.

By Jung Dae-ha, Gwangju correspondent

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