John Willms
The inventor of the “literary quartet” is dead
Johannes Willms was 74 years old.
© imago images/teutopress
The historian and author Johannes Willms has died. Among other things, he was known as the inventor of the “literary quartet”.
Johannes Willms (1948-2022) died in Munich during the night from Monday to Tuesday. The “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and the ZDF report unanimously. The historian and author, who conceived, among other things, “The Literary Quartet”, was 74 years old. He died after a short illness, like Evelyn Schels, Willms’ widow, the “SZ” have confirmed.
Born in Würzburg in May 1948, Willms initially worked for Hessischer Rundfunk before moving to ZDF in 1978. There he worked, among other things, as an editor on the cultural magazine “countryside”, which he directed between 1988 and 1992. At that time he also conceived the program “The Literary Quartet”, whose participants often included Marcel Reich-Ranicki (1920-2013) and Hellmuth Karasek (1934-2015).
“Highly esteemed as a historian and as a journalist”
Willms later became, among other things, head of the feature section and culture correspondent for the “SZ”. Most recently, he published numerous works with Verlag CHBeck, including “The General: Charles de Gaulle and his Century” and “Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Battle”.
“Johannes Willms, valued as a historian and as a journalist, perfected the art of informing a large audience in a committed, differentiated and critical manner, while being extremely entertaining and always remaining authoritative despite all clarity,” explains ZDF culture director Anne Reidt in a statement by the transmitter.