German Pollster Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann Dies

Pollster Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann - described by Chancellor Angela Merkel as 'the driving force behind the polls in Germany' - has died at the age of 93, after a long illness.

Noelle-Neumann, who was born in 1916 in Berlin, studied philosophy, history and journalism before spending a year in the US at an American journalism school, where she learnt about Gallup's polling techniques.

During the Nazi era, she worked as a newspaper editor, when it is alleged she wrote several Nazi propaganda papers in collaboration with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.

However, while admitting to having been fascinated by Hitler, she always denied having sympathies for the Third Reich.

In 1947, after the war, Noelle-Neumann and her husband Erich Peter Neumann co-founded the Allensbach Institute ( www.ifd-allensbach.de ) as the first opinion research firm in Germany.

At the time, the company conducted a post-war enquiry to assess former Nazi support, and also carried out monthly surveys on German public opinion. Today, the firm is better known for providing market, media and social research, alongside election/political polling.

During her research career, Noelle-Neumann sparked controversy with her 'spiral of silence' theory, which asserts that people are less likely to voice their opinions if they feel they are in a minority, or fear reprisals or rejection from the majority.

Since her death on Thursday, CDU Federal Education Minister Annette Schavan has described the pollster as a 'pioneer of modern public opinion research and persuasive voice in the public debate in Germany.' She retired from research in 1988.