Berlin wasps
| Berlin wasps. Illustrated humorous Sunday paper. | |
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| description | German satirical magazine |
| language | German |
| publishing company | Brigl, Berlin (Germany) |
| Frequency of publication | weekly |
| Editor-in-chief | Julius Stettenheim |
Berliner Wespen was the name of a satirical magazine that Julius Stettenheim founded in Hamburg under the name "Hamburger Wespen". The humorous-satirical paper traded as “Berliner Wespen” from 1868 and as “Deutsche Wespen” from 1891.
profile
Alongside the satirical magazines Ulk and Kladderadatsch , the “Berliner Wespen” are among the leading satirical magazines of the German Empire. The newspaper is generally attributed to the German Progressive Party and later to the German Liberal Party .
history
Julius Stettenheim founded the newspaper in Hamburg in 1862 under the name "Hamburger Wespen", after he had already published a satirical calendar with the "Almanach zum Lachen" (1858–1863). In the first few years Stettenheim could not leave his hometown because of an arrest warrant in Prussia. In the first issue, the "Hamburger Wespen" recommended themselves to their readers with the words:
“The wasps let the first beat of their wings roar of their free soul. [...] The wasps won't hurt anyone who doesn't annoy them. Moral: Don't tease them! [...] The color with which they are printed is black, but if you look closely you will not miss either red or gold. [...] You ask that God protect your Germany against its fathers and your editor against the public prosecutor! Amen!"
Already in the first year of their existence they successfully aroused the displeasure of Otto von Bismarck , who was under heavy attack during the Prussian constitutional conflict. They thanked them "nicely" in number 18, 1863:
"Ha, Bismarck, you
wasp reader
, moved your mind, give yourself a rest, what does your Criminal Edict help?
The wasps are too clever for you. Aetsch! Aetsch!
And wouldn't you end up with '
Der Wespen' a permanent subscriber,
We would like to say
thank you very much for the advertisement, Mr Bismarck, you. Aetsch! Aetsch! "
When the arrest warrant against Julius Stettenheim was finally lifted with the amnesty of 1866, he moved to Berlin in 1868 and renamed his paper “Berlin Wasps”.
Frequency of publication
The magazine has been published weekly since 1868. It was included in various newspapers, such as the Tribüne , the Berliner Börsen-Courier or the Freisinnigen Zeitung published by Eugen Richter , but could also be subscribed to separately.
Employee
In addition to Julius Stettenheim, Alexander Moszkowski was also involved as an editor for the newspaper. However, the articles have not been identified by name, which makes it difficult to assign the articles to the authors. The caricatures were mostly by Gustav Heil .
Focus
Fight against anti-Semitism
The Berlin Wasps accompanied the rise of political anti-Semitism from the end of the 1870s with their ridicule. As early as 1879, they made fun of claims in the Germania newspaper , which is close to the Catholic center , that the Jews were getting out of hand in Germany. In the article numbers prove! they satirized the anti-Semitic arithmetic skills:
“Add to this the incredible fertility of that tribe. Out of five Jewish married couples that were statistically examined for this purpose, two had offspring of three each, one of two children, while two couples were childless. Thus, the average child blessing of the Jews is 11 per family. If these 5 couples were allowed to develop further unhindered, they would have swelled to the enormous number of eight trillion people by the fourth generation and would have pushed all Christians into the ocean long before that. The elementary duty of self-preservation therefore demands that the occurrence of that progression in times of extermination be put to a stop. "
“This seems all the more necessary as the method of earning money must in time lead to the greatest inconveniences among the Jews. The normal Jew earns - which is rather too low given the cunning of the race - half a mark per minute, of which about 45 pfennigs are attributable to improper acquisition. If you count the day at only 5000 minutes, then after a month he is already a millionaire. If one of the families mentioned above were allowed to maneuver away undisturbed, it would have the first cubic mile of gold after a leap year; the following generation would already be able to form a sphere from the quantity of gold within which the moon could comfortably carry out its wandering around the earth. So be on your post, Teutons! "
Fight against the reactionary turn in economic policy
At the end of the 1870s Otto von Bismarck turned away from the previously relatively liberal economic policy. In the article Newer Taxes , the Berlin Wasps recommended the “tax friends” of the unofficial Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung , who had suggested a cat tax, to consider some other taxes, such as a spider, songbird, goldfish and duck tax. The tobacco monopoly demanded by Otto von Bismarck should be supplemented by a general "smoking obligation":
“The obligation to smoke service for pipes or cigars begins at the age of eleven and lasts for life. During the first thirty years, the smoking teams are obliged to puff continuously; They are strictly forbidden from using non-smoking coupées and from entering places where smoking is prohibited. "
In a report about an international "tax exhibition" taking place in Berlin in the future, Alexander Moszkowski praised Germany's leading position in "tax manufacturing":
“Already here we want to briefly commemorate the international jury, which will distribute medals, honorary prizes and diplomas to the best achievements at the end of the exhibition. The big gold medal is to be awarded to the person who picks up the most outstanding tax, that is, the tax which yields the relatively smallest amount in the event of the greatest nuisance to the public and the least controllability. It is assumed that this medal will stay in Berlin. "
Criticism of the Social Democrats and the Socialist Law
The Berlin wasps were critical of the social democracy, but at the same time turned against the introduction of the socialist law. They brought both together in their own proposal for a socialist law, the first four paragraphs of which were to read:
"§ 1. The speeches which Messrs Bebel , Hasselmann , Liebknecht , Fritzsche , Bracke and Reinders made in the Reichstag will be printed unchanged at the expense of the allied governments and sent to every German's house.
§ 2. The authorities have to ensure that the socialist, social-democratic and communist travel speakers, where they want to hold a meeting, are given a sufficiently large locality for this purpose so that they are heard by as many as possible.
§ 3. The social democratic papers, namely the Berlin Free Press and the Leipziger Vorwärts, are to be displayed in the most popular restaurants and beer halls, if necessary in several copies, at the expense of the government.
§ 4. Particularly excessive blasphemy and insults to majesty, which can be found in the socialist papers, or which have been expressed in the meetings, are officially disseminated with simple indication of the source in the Reichsanzeiger and in all circular papers and posted on all street corners and pillars. "
In a debate in the Reichstag, the Social Democrats condemn the inhumanity of the law:
" Abg. Bebel. Gentlemen, it is difficult to say how we representatives of social democracy feel in view of this proposal. The applause that followed the reading will have already told you that this is one of the most cruel government measures. I just want to point out how many existences you threaten if you accept this law. Numerous labor leaders will soon be forced to work themselves in addition to Brod (Bravo!) Yes. (Bravo!) Most will be driven back to bookbinding, (Oho!) Fritzsche to cigar making! (Ironical laughter) Gentlemen, accept the law, and an army of maybe a hundred dead agitators will raise their heads! (Laughter.) "
Cartoons
The new crinoline , caricature in the March 13, 1885 edition
Like Berolina the six seventh: on the occasion of the election victory of the German Progressive Party over the Berlin movement , caricature in the issue of November 2, 1881
Wrong world , Eugen Richter gives a sermon to court preacher Adolph Stöcker : “You shouldn't bear false witness against your neighbor”, caricature in the edition of June 8th, 1881
Bismarck: “As I can see, the freedom is a little too great - we want to change that to your satisfaction!” (He chops off her legs.) Berlin Wasps , 1878.
The fairy tale aunt: Bismarck tells Germania about the "Golden Mountains". Berlin wasps .
Bismarck and the church laws, based on Dürer's Ritter, Tod und Teufel , 1875
Web links
- Website for the magazine
- Anti-clerical caricatures from the magazine "Berliner Wespen"
- Berlin Wasps (1869-1884) . Digitized by the Central and State Library Berlin, 2017.