A Special Tribute to Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann

Abstract

There are many thoughts racing through my mind thinking of Elisabeth. The way she swept through a hotel lobby, immaculately dressed, turning heads, and impressing both those who knew her well, and those who had never seen this elegant lady, clearly the grande dame of any gathering. A contributing and ethical colleague, always ready to share her knowledge, her findings and most of all her wisdom, she led WAPOR out of the wilderness of a number of years of neglect, and as Thomas, her loyal student and one of her many professional colleagues, comments, saved, and loved, WAPOR. Confidant of Chacellors and Editors, known by generations of policy makers and opinion leaders throughout the world, she always was helpful to colleagues, and by her example, influenced thousands of scholars in the field. The one thought about Elisabeth I will always treasure was the dinner in a restaurant in one of the international WAPOR conferences with her closest WAPOR colleagues, including our much missed co-founder Marty, and another of her professional colleagues, Wolfgang Donsbach, then Managing Editor of the Journal, Fred Turner and several others, we were interrupted by a young woman who approached our table, which fell silent, and the young women said (in German, which Wolfgang translated for us),“Professor Noelle-Neumann, it is a privilege to meet you. I just wished to tell you that you are an icon for German women”.