Obituary for Stefan Donat

If you ask around among journalistic colleagues what Stefan was like as a colleague/boss/employee, you get as many different answers as you ask people. However, the majority of our guild agrees on one thing: Stefan was an extraordinary doer. A page turner. In the true sense of someone who takes things into his own hands and just gets on with it, even if the whole industry shakes its head. Things didn't always turn out well, but you could never accuse him of not at least trying.

Stefan has learned his trade well. For example, he founded a magazine series called "Starclub" and helped other young up-and-coming businessmen with merchandising pages in his publication. Big band topics also appeared in it, about ABBA, the Beatles or Elvis Presley, for example. It was not uncommon for Stefan to meet the big names in person; Stefan's eldest son remembers nights when Brigitte Bardot, Silvester Stallone, gossip reporter Paul Sahner and a police commissioner from St. Tropez sat at the table with the Donat family.
Groundwork. Another of Stefan's cornerstones. Whether as a police reporter at "Hamburger Abendblatt", as head of entertainment at "Bunte", as editor for "Auto Bild" Germany and creator of its counterpart in Switzerland, as editor-in-chief of "auto illustrierte" and last but not least as the inventor of "AutoSprint" in Switzerland, a success story that no one would have believed him capable of, but with which he has earned the greatest respect in the industry.

Stefan was charming, he could be funny and party hard, he was never above hacking short messages into the system just before the editorial deadline at midnight. Well-connected, Stefan traveled to all continents - and he was always generous, truly a man of the world.

If you wanted to or were allowed to work with Stefan and for Stefan, all the basic rules of decency applied. And the basic rules of communication. As a child of the analog world, Stefan never understood why people waste time typing messages or writing emails when it's much easier to pick up the phone and call.

Clear language, no "PillePalle", as he liked to scold. Direct questions, direct answers, just as direct praise and criticism. It was helpful to have a thick skin if you wanted to meet his standards, and that's why one or two of them were tipped over the edge. Stefan was honest. In his likes and dislikes. Not everyone's cup of tea, but he could live with that. For me as a writer, Stefan was reliable, as a boss, as a comrade-in-arms, as a sparring partner, as a rock in the surf of our crazy world of automotive journalism and, increasingly, as a friend.

I would never have dared to address him as anything other than "boss". We've been to the same events many times for more or less exciting car presentations, sometimes sharing the test cars. Now he's gone off on his own. I will miss him.

Dörte Welti, Peter Ruch, Gerd Schuster

The family will fulfill Stefan's wishes. In lieu of flowers or similar donations, please make a donation to the Thurgau Cancer League (thurgau.krebshilfe.ch, Credit Suisse account
80-500-4
IBAN58 0483 5046 8950 1100 0
Bahnhofstrasse 5
P.O. Box 5
8570 Weinfelden) and/or to the Hospiz St. Gallen (hospizstgallen.payress.com) on behalf of Stefan Donat.