East Germany. As host of Der Schwarze Kanal, which ran for 20 minutes every Monday night, Schnitzler edited together extracts of Western television footage and recorded caustic, virulently anti-Western commentary over it. The show was particularly derisive towards West Germany and what Schnitzler perceived as Western imperialism across the world. His vitriolic style earned him the nickname Sudel-Ede – roughly, "Besmirching Eddie". Schnitzler joined the central committee of the Society for German–Soviet Friendship in 1978. In that same year, he also became a professor at the University of Film and Television in Potsdam-Babelsberg. He became known among other communist politicians as a hardliner. Post-GDR career and death In the course of the 1989 Wende in East Germany, Der Schwarze Kanal was cancelled. Schnitzler pre-empted his exclusion from the reformed communist Party of Democratic Socialism by quitting and joining the German Communist Party. In Schnitzler's late career, he published several articles in the satirical magazine Titanic and continued to work with the small German Communist Party. In 1998, Schnitzler appeared on the local German television talk show Ich stelle mich (TV Berlin). Schnitzler maintained that his show was truthful, and continued to support several GDR policies. Schnitzler would retire to Zeuthen, where he died of pneumonia on 20 September 2001. Interviews with Schnitzler can be found in Stasiland by Anna Funder and The Saddled Cow by Anne McElvoy. Sources Gerlof, Kathrin: GegenSpieler: Gerhard Löwenthal, Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt 1999, . Prase, Tilo, Kretzschmar, Judith: Propagandist und Heimatfilmer. Die Dokumentarfilme des Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler (= Materialien – Analysen – Zusammenhänge. 10). Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig 2003, . Goodrum, Sarah: A Socialist Family of Man. Rita Maahs’ and Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler’s Exhibition „Vom Glück des Menschen“. In: Zeithistorische Forschungen 12 (2015), p. 370–382. References External links Obituaries: Karl-Eduard von Schnitzler, The Independent, 4 October 2001 1918 births 2001 deaths Politicians from Berlin Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany) politicians German Communist Party politicians East German television personalities German untitled nobility German military personnel of World War II West German defectors to East Germany Recipients of the National Prize of East Germany Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit Recipients of the Banner of Labor People from Steglitz-Zehlendorf