VOB centrag

Zentrag is an abbreviation for the Zentrale Druckerei- ,kaufs- und Revisionsgesellschaft mbH founded in October 1945 in the Soviet occupation zone . As the later VOB Zentrag, the Zentrag was subordinate to the Central Committee (ZK) of the SED and was managed directly by the apparatus of the ZK. The Zentrag was dissolved in 1990.

history

In order to remain self-sufficient in the production of ideology, according to a demand from Lenin's essay on party organization and party literature , the SED subordinated itself to a large number of printing works and publishers as well as the administration of the paper quotas. The Zentrag comprised over 90 printing works, newspaper publishers and sales organs. At the central and district level , all publishers of SED and FDJ newspapers belonged to the Zentrag. Through the VOB Zentrag, the SED had a monopoly over around 90 percent of the GDR's printing capacity. In addition to the membership fees of the SED, the VOB Zentrag played a major role in the financing of the party work. In 1989 the SED subsidized its subordinate press with 332 million marks.

At the head of the Zentrag were the managing directors and main directors:
Karl Huth and Adolf Rupprecht (parity, 1946–1949), Erwin Brillke and Rudolf Bernstein (1949–1950), Paul Hockarth (from 1950), Sepp Hahn (1953–1954) , Paul Dampmann (1954–1957), Heinz Sonntag (1957–1961), provisional Hans Hirschfeld (1961–1963, Deputy Chief Executive Officer). From 1963 the heads were general directors and were called:
Paul Hockarth (1963–1967), Paul Kubach (1967–1983) and Werner Würzberger (1983–1990), the last general director of the Zentrag.

After the reunification of Germany , the Treuhandanstalt and the Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks administered the assets of VOB Zentrag in trust. The existing documents (annual balance sheets, meeting minutes, etc.) were handed over to the Federal Archives in Koblenz.

literature

M. Rexin: Mass media in the GDR , in: Werner Weidenfeld , H. Zimmermann (Hrsg.): Germany handbook: a double balance 1949-1989 , Landeszentrale für Polit. Education, Düsseldorf 1989, ISBN 3-927098-12-4

Web links

Press in the GDR ( Memento from October 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) in the online lexicon about Back then in the GDR at the MDR
Central media control in the GDR, housework 2002, politics - Pol. Systems - historical

Individual evidence

↑ Collection of documents from the former VOB Zentrag , accessed on April 2, 2018.

[1] Collection of documents from the former VOB Zentrag , accessed on April 2, 2018.