13 June, 2006
The Austrian journalist Hubertus Czernin, who helped to uncover the past of Kurt Waldheim and the Nazis' loot of art works from Jewish owners, has died aged 50. Czernin was home affairs editor at the weekly magazine "Profil" in the 1980s which published several damaging stories about the secret Nazi past of the presidential candidate Kurt Waldheim. Czernin later became editor-in-chief of "Profil", but was sacked in 1996 over a cover that portrayed then Chancellor Franz Vranitzky as a nude emperor. The journalist, who was very interested in ethical and moral themes including Austria's seven years under Nazi rule, went on to found his own publishing house and conducted an in-depth research into art looted by the Nazis. Czernin died on Saturday from a very rare cellular disease which bears his name. Today, he was to be bestowed with a prize from a Jewish organization for his lifetime humanitarian work.