Oeckl, Albert

Albert Oeckl (1909–2001) was the most important figure of the post–World War II era of public relations in Germany. The obituaries on his death (April 23, 2001) reflected the mythically idealized position that Oeckl held. He became a living legend primarily through his national as well as international professional activities, but he is also widely known for his writings, public speeches, and teaching activities.

Oeckl was born December 27, 1909, in Nuremberg and studied law and national economy in Munich and Berlin. In 1934 he earned his doctorate with a dissertation, German Employees and Their Living Conditions, and worked initially as a junior lawyer. Although written under the national socialist government, his dissertation can, from our contemporary viewpoint, be regarded as a profound scientific work with no recognizable kowtowing to national socialist ideology.

Following his internship as a junior lawyer (1934–1935, in the Reichspropagandaministerium in the Munich state office), he began his vocational career in 1936 at IG Farben in Berlin, where he was later to be employed in the head office and the newly founded press office. As he pointed out himself, this was where and when he gained his first journalistic experience and where he learned about the basics of then-current public relations of an international company.

During the war he worked, among other positions, in the news service for the supreme command of the Wehrmacht (OKW, or German Armed Forces) and in the Reichsamt (the German “empire office”) for economic development under Carl Krauch. A recent dissertation at Leipzig University (by Christian Mattke) has shed light on Oeckl's career until 1945. Press relations and monitoring as well as support service for visitors were Oeckl's first duties at IG Farben. He was also responsible for an address card index, which might have triggered the idea for his Taschenbuch des öffentlichen Lebens (“Pocket Book of Public Life,” published in 1950).

On May 1, 1933, he joined the NSDAP (Hitler's ruling national socialist party until 1945); however, he never held a ranking office in the party, nor did he have any national socialist grade. After the war, in 1947, an allied committee classified Oeckl as a Mitläufer (nominal member), a designation given to former members of the Nazi party who were considered not to pose a threat to the emerging democratic, capitalist society. With this classification Oeckl did not have to fear legal consequences stemming from his role during the war. However, he concealed his party membership publicly throughout his life.

Oeckl started his postwar career as the assistant of Dr. Rudolf Vogel, a member of the German Bundestag (German parliament) and of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU). From 1950 to 1959 Oeckl was director of the Public Relations Department of the Deutscher Industrieund Handelstag (DIHT), the German Association of Chambers of Commerce and Industry. From 1959 on he was head of the public relations department of BASF, also a multinational corporation. From 1961 to 1967, Oeckl held the title of deputy director; from 1967 to 1974 his title was director. In 1974 he retired from his active career.

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