Actualis

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Actualis
Actualis logo
description Swiss tabloid
publishing company Actualis AG
First edition December 14, 1940
attitude May 31, 1941
Sold edition 12,200 to 32,900 copies
(own information)
Editor-in-chief Eugene Theodor Rimli
executive Director Walter Stucki

Actualis was a Swiss illustrated daily newspaper that appeared from late 1940 to late May 1941. It is considered the first tabloid in Switzerland and was the only daily newspaper that was produced using gravure printing . The editor-in-chief was Eugen Theodor Rimli , previously the editor in charge of Tat .

Actualis reported on the topicality in numerous pictures and short texts on eight pages a day in large format and was sold for Rp. 20  by street vendors and at kiosks. Actualis did not survive the extremely unfavorable time for a tabloid newspaper in view of the censorship prevailing during the Second World War . After affairs over articles on Marcel Pilet-Golaz and Heinz Guderian , there was a dispute between the editorial team and the publisher. At the end of April 1941, Rimli and the second drawing editor, Artillery - Lieutenant Colonel Max Barthell, resigned from the editorial team in protest because the Chairman of the Board of Directors Walter Stucki had hired an employee who did not suit them as his delegate with authority to issue instructions to the editorial staff. The events finally led to the closure of the newspaper at the end of May 1941, although the initial sold circulation had risen from 12,200 to 32,900 copies.

prehistory

In the first issue of Actualis , editor-in-chief Rimli explained the motives for founding the new newspaper. An illustrated daily newspaper in Switzerland is an urgent necessity. Pictures are the formula of the decade; long editorials no longer suited fast-moving times. Actualis is not a political paper and "not bound to any party, association or economic group". She is not a sensation sheet, even if she uses big titles. These are there to provide a quick overview of the day's events. Because of the boring Swiss daily newspapers, the Swiss would increasingly turn to foreign newspapers like Paris-Soir and Signal . That requires a Swiss counterweight. A Swiss abroad named JP Zimmermann brought the idea back to Switzerland from France and started the preparatory work at the end of 1938. In a ten-part series “Actualis lifts the veil” from March 2 to 15, 1941, the Actualis summed up the problems in founding the newspaper.

The search for journalists, financial resources and a printer turned out to be very difficult in view of the project, which was generally considered risky, and it was not until August 1939 that a sample number could be produced in the Berne Association's printing office, unusually using the gravure printing process. On October 17, 1939, the Federal Council approved the publication of the newspaper in spite of the now existing ban on start-ups, as the preparations for the establishment were mostly completed before the ban came into force and the Actualis therefore did not fall under the ban. Now, however, the outbreak of the Second World War and the associated general mobilization delayed publication.

The publishing company Actualis AG was founded on September 27, 1940 . The St. Gallen silk manufacturer Max Stoffel paid in half of the share capital of CHF 160,000 , while Kapitalbank AG and Kredit-Bank AG, both in Zurich , contributed the other half. The director of the credit bank, Walter Stucki, was appointed chairman of the board of directors, and Stoffel the only other member of the board of directors. Eugen Th. Rimli, who was the correspondent of various newspapers in Germany from 1935 to 1936 , including Weltwoche , and who had been expelled from Germany in 1936 for "hateful reporting" about Germany in Swiss newspapers and who then headed the editorial department of the crime until 1939 , became the boss - and foreign editor, Max Barthell as domestic editor and editor for military questions and Ernst Kauer as federal city editor . A little later, Hans Hubert drew as a picture editor.

When the Actualis was finally ready for publication towards the end of 1940, it turned again to the Federal Council for security reasons, and the Federal Council confirmed the approval on December 2, 1940 despite strong opposition from the traditional press, which feared the threat of competition. The Swiss Newspaper Publishers Association and the Swiss Press Association requested the Federal Council to refuse approval for the new newspaper because there was no need for it and the publication of a new newspaper could not be justified in view of the difficult paper supply situation. In addition, there is a risk of foreign influence. Actualis was able to prove, however, that it is financed exclusively with Swiss money. The paper mills also certified that they were able to deliver the required amount of paper at any time. Nevertheless, the Federal Council now imposed the unusual requirement on the publisher to limit the size of the newspaper to a maximum of eight pages.

As a further test, the newspaper publisher, the appearance of Actualis more difficult, the newspaper suspected the publisher of the Confederation , Fritz Pochon, by virtue of his office as president of the publishers belonging news agency SDA whose intelligence service of Actualis withheld or provide only with unjustified price surcharges and the international news agency UPI ban to want Actualis to supply because they will be printed in Bern and the contract of the collar with UPI contains a similar clause. UPI refused, however, pointing out that the newspaper was published in Zurich. The traditional newspapers also resisted the approval of stands for the sale of the newspaper; they also rejected advertisements for the Actualis .

Launch and article on Pilet-Golaz

The circulation rose rapidly after the first edition on December 14, 1940, from 12,200 to 32,900 copies in just two months, and was already approaching the calculated profitability threshold of 40,000 copies. However, the two articles by the domestic editor Max Barthell on January 16 and 17, 1941, in which he called for the resignation of Federal Councilor Marcel Pilet-Golaz , initiated the downfall of the newspaper.

Vichy France and Germany signed an agreement in November 1940 on the further use of the army material of the 43,000 French and mostly Polish soldiers of the 45th French Army Corps interned in Switzerland since June 1940, and on the release of the French soldiers. Then they should return to France and be allowed to take their horses, which represented by far the greatest value of the army inventory. The Polish soldiers were to remain in Switzerland while all army material was to be delivered to Germany. To implement the contract, he required the consent of Switzerland. The Federal Council issued this at the request of the competent Federal Councilor Marcel Pilet-Golaz and found that it did not violate Swiss neutrality.

The decision met with vehement criticism, above all from the social democratic press, which found it highly reprehensible that the Polish army material was being handed over to their enemy, with whom they were still at war. The extradition also violates the neutrality of Switzerland, even in a serious way. Barthell, in his large article on the front page of January 16, 1941, "Switzerland delivers the war material interned in June to Germany - return of the French - fate of the Poles unclear", agreed with this criticism and noted the call for the resignation of Pilet-Golaz will "not fall silent until he has complied with him".

The next day Barthell followed up with an even sharper version under the title “Me sött de Pilet goh laa”. The title referred to actions in Bern in which in November 1940 hundreds of pieces of paper with this inscription were stuck on shop windows, telephone poles and house posts in view of expected resignations from the Federal Council. Pilet-Golaz asked neither the Commission for Foreign Affairs nor the Powers of Attorney for their opinion on how to deal with the Franco-German treaty. Barthell now called on Pilet-Golaz very directly to resign, also recalling the Schaffner affair , which Pilet-Golaz had received in 1940 together with other representatives of the Swiss National Movement .

The APF war censorship agency thereupon issued the Actualis “the formal order to cease any continuation of the… campaign with immediate effect”. The main shareholder Max Stoffel, who had privately " promised the unreserved support of Actualis on every issue " to two federal councilors , resigned angrily from the board of directors on February 5, 1941 because of the articles. But he kept the shares.

In another matter, the APF issued a public warning to Actualis in February 1941 for "sensational dissemination of uncontrollable reports and promoting rumors," against which the newspaper filed an appeal without success.

Article on Guderian and attitude

Completely contrary to the declared intention to be careful like «Heftlimacher» «so that we do not provide the press censorship with an excuse for any measures», Actualis acted again when on March 21, 1941 she wrote an unsigned article entitled « Heinz Guderian , the « Blucher der Tanks ›», in which Guderian was highly praised and declared that during the Battle of France he had found the «trick», which was «probably not entirely in the spirit of martial law», of placing prisoners on the front of the tanks to help the French tankers to keep them from attack, i.e. to abuse them as human shields .

The article gave the APF the reason it had been waiting for to ban the Actualis for 10 days. The latter argued that the article came from the press service "Mondial Press" and that it was responsible, but in the opinion of the APF the editors should have recognized that the allegation of such dishonorable actions by a German general should not have been published under any circumstances. Actualis also filed an appeal against this decision without success.

The events prompted the director and chairman of the administrative board, Walter Stucki, to provide the editorial team with a minder in the form of a delegate in April 1941. For this he chose a 24-year-old Swiss abroad named Robert Baer, ​​correspondent for the Daily Express , who according to Rimli and Barthell spoke neither German nor French, only English. Max Barthell then resigned from the editorial office in protest at the end of April 1941, Rimli did the same out of solidarity and friendship, and some of the other editorial staff also resigned. In some bourgeois newspapers, despite all other criticism of the Actualis, the decision was described as understandable; In these times, "the maxim of the Swiss press to employ only free, independent citizens, applies twice".

The newspaper appeared during May 1941 under the responsibility of Walter Stucki for editing and management, after which it was discontinued. In the farewell issue of May 31, 1941, Stucki distanced himself "from the manner in which one of our highest magistrates [Pilet-Golaz] was pilloried". Actualis AG was dissolved in September 1941.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b «Actualis» lifts the veil. The assassinations part two. In: Actualis. March 4, 1941, p. 5.
  2. ↑ a b What is going on in the Actualis? In: National newspaper . May 2, 1941, p. 4.
  3. ↑ With swearing or cursing. In: plain text. July 9, 2007.
  4. ^ A b Eugen Th. Rimli: The new newspaper. New? In: Actualis. December 14, 1940.
  5. ↑ «Actualis» lifts the veil. The secret of the «Actualis». In: Actualis. March 5, 1941, p. 5.
  6. ↑ Peter Müller: Max Stoffel. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  7. ↑ Actualis lifts the veil. The masterminds of the «Actualis». In: Actualis. March 7, 1941, p. 5.
  8. ↑ Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. November 6, 1940, p. 2043.
  9. ^ Ernst Bollinger: Actualis. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  10. ↑ «Actualis» lifts the veil. A look behind the scenes of the founding of a newspaper. In: Actualis. March 2, 1941, p. 3.
  11. ↑ «Actualis» lifts the veil. A newspaper is said to be murdered. In: Actualis. March 3, 1941, p. 4.
  12. ↑ Independent Expert Commission Switzerland - Second World War: Refugees as a topic of public political communication in Switzerland 1938–1947. Supplement to Switzerland and the refugees at the time of National Socialism. Chronos, Zurich 2001, p. 40 f. (PDF; 978 kB).
  13. ^ Order from Bern: The campaign against Mr. Pilet must be stopped! In: Actualis. January 20, 1941.
  14. ↑ «Actualis» lifts the veil. The stabbing legend of the «Actualis». In: Actualis. March 11, 1941, p. 5.
  15. ↑ Swiss Official Gazette of Commerce. February 8, 1941, p. 267.
  16. ↑ Warning of the «Actualis». In: Actualis. February 24, 1941.
  17. ↑ Actualis lifts the veil. The stabbing legend no. 3. In: Actualis. March 13, 1941, p. 5.
  18. ↑ 10 days ban - and what we were allowed to say about it. In: Actualis. April 3, 1941, p. 1.
  19. ↑ The dispute at the Actualis. In: The Bund . May 6, 1941, p. 3.
  20. ^ "Actualis". In: Appenzeller Zeitung . May 4, 1941, p. 2.
  21. ^ Walter Stucki: Farewell to the "Actualis". In: Actualis. May 31, 1941.