Old publisher

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The term old publisher is used in three different meanings, namely as a formerly active publisher , the

  • a) as the owner has handed over the publishing management to his heirs or other successors;
  • b) sold his publishing house as the former owner;
  • c) as the owner who was banned from working between 1945 and 1949 .

Only the terms b) and c) are of journalistic relevance.

Old publisher as former owner

Former publishers as former owners gained journalistic relevance when the then Federal Minister of Economics Wolfgang Clement initiated a modification of the press merger law in 2004 . According to the plans, newspaper mergers with a total turnover of more than 50 million euros should also be allowed in cases of dominant positions if the acquired newspapers are retained “long-term as independent journalistic units”, if the seller (the “ old publisher ”) or a third party has a share of the voting rights of 25 percent (" old publisher clause ") and if the buyer does not obtain the title rights and the "sole right to determine the content of the magazines or newspapers". Attempts to foster press concentration in this way were given up with the end of the red-green coalition . Although the larger publishers in particular had endorsed these attempts, small publishers and media scholars had warned of the consequences.

Old publishers with professional ban (post-war period)

After the Second World War , those publishers were referred to as previous publishers who had been banned from practicing their profession by the Allied military administrations because of their association with the Nazi state. After 1945, these traditional publishers were no longer to play a role in the establishment of a new democratic press and were therefore ignored when the licenses required for publishing newspapers were granted (see also post-war press ).

While in West Germany the professional ban ended with the granting of freedom of the press, it remained for the old East German publishers until the end of the GDR .

Old West German publishers

The old West German publishers were no longer allowed to print daily newspapers between 1945 and 1949 , but many published advertisements or announcement papers . In the post-war years, a new publisher came into being in the daily press with the licensees of the new licensed newspapers .

In the American occupation in particular, the old publishers of larger newspapers had to lease their printing works to the new publishers. This and the exclusion from working as a daily newspaper publisher led to extensive criticism. The lifting of the compulsory license and the regaining of the power of disposal over their own newspaper operations were therefore the goals of old publishers' associations that arose in the three western zones. In 1948, 150 old publishers joined together to form the central West German Working Group for Press Issues eV based in Bergisch Gladbach.

Despite the attempt to exert political influence, the old publishers were not allowed to return to work until 1949. It is true that the Basic Law was promulgated on May 23, 1949 , guaranteeing freedom of the press in Article 5 . But it was not until September 21, 1949 that Law No. 5 (“On the press, radio, reporting and entertainment venues”) passed by the Allied High Commission came into force, which every German (with the exception of former National Socialists who were supported by the Arbitration boards had been classified as “main culprit” or “incriminated”) granted the right to publish newspapers and other periodicals or publications without prior approval. As a result, within a few weeks, the old publishers in particular re-issued hundreds of traditional newspapers that had previously had to cease publication either under the Nazi regime or under the occupation.

As early as September 1st, 220 old publishers had renamed the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Pressef nearly eV to the Association of German Newspaper Publishers - an association that got its name from the predecessor organization founded in 1894 and dissolved in 1933. From this association and the organization of the new license publishers, the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) emerged in 1954 . With the unification of both publishers' associations, the distinction between new and old publishers finally lost its relevance.

Old German publishers

Even under the Soviet occupation , the publishers were considered complicit in National Socialism . The elimination of the old publishers is therefore seen in the history of the press as a quick and consistent step that is said to have been completed shortly after May 8, 1945.

In fact, many old publishers have been expropriated, interned or murdered. However, as in West Germany, a large number were able to publish advertising papers until the end of the 1940s, and a few even published regular daily newspapers for a few weeks in the summer of 1945. The Thüringische Landeszeitung , the former organ of the Liberal Democratic Party of the GDR ( LDPD ), which is still published today , was founded by a cooperative of old publishers.

The old publishers were finally eliminated in the GDR by the 1950s at the latest; after that there were only former newspaper publishers who were able to survive as independent artisanal printers.

The East German publishers did not set up political representation in the GDR but in West Germany. In 1952, some old publishers from East Germany and the former East German territories founded the Association of Central and East German Newspaper Publishers (VMOZV), which joined the West German Association of German Newspaper Publishers as a separate regional association and, like the latter, follows the "tradition of the Association of German Newspaper Publishers (publisher of German daily newspapers) eV before 1933 ”. The number of members rose from eight at the inaugural meeting in July 1952 to 63 in October of the same year and 137 members in 1955.

The VMOZV endeavored to prepare for the reunification of Germany and the return to the old areas of distribution, which was repeatedly expected in the mid-1950s, with dedicated planning . This also included the fact that the old publishers published their former East German daily newspapers in West Germany as newspapers in exile, such as the Magdeburgische Zeitung (in Speyer) or the Leipziger Neuesten Nachrichten (in Frankfurt / Main).

When reunification broke up in the course of the 1950s, the association work of the old East German publishers slackened. The actual unification in 1990 led to attempts by some old publishers to gain a foothold in East Germany, but these efforts were unsuccessful in view of the overwhelming power of the socialist publishers founded after 1945 (and sold to West German publishers after 1990 ). The VMOZV, which had tried in vain to be recognized by the BDZV as an East German regional association, was dissolved in 1991.

literature

  • Volker Schulze: 50 years of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers. In: Newspapers 2004, pp. 19–41. ( online , PDF, 0.15 MB).
  • Stefan Matysiak: In vain planning lead times. East publishers who had fled were planning to return in 1955 with territorial protection and wages freeze. In: Medienmagazin M. No. 7-8, 2000, pp. 13-15. ( online ).
  • Stefan Matysiak: The development of the East German daily press after 1945. Break or transition? Dissertation. Göttingen 2004, online , (PDF, 7.2 MB).

see also: press history , licensed press

Remarks

  1. ↑ For the individual items, cf. German Bundestag, Committee for Economy and Labor: Materials for the public hearing on September 20, 2004 in Berlin on the draft law of the German government Draft of a seventh law to amend the law against restraints of competition. Compilation of the written comments. Committee printed matter 15 (9) 1333, Berlin, September 17, 2004. ( online ( Memento from February 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ); PDF; 1.9 MB)
  2. ↑ See for example Viktor Wurm (Hrsg.): The German press in the fight against monopoly and the license system. 15 years of lack of freedom in the press. The ordeal of German private publishers. Chamber experiences. Published on behalf of the Association of German Newspaper Publishers. Göttingen 1949.
  3. ↑ Cf. Volker Schulze: 50 Years of the Federal Association of German Newspaper Publishers. In: Newspapers 2004, pp. 20–23
  4. ↑ For example Kurt Koszyk: Press under Allied occupation. In: Jürgen Wilke (ed.): Media history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Bonn: Federal Agency for Civic Education 1999, pp. 32–58; here p. 47
  5. ↑ See for example the description in Kurt Bernhard: Newspapers and magazines in Mecklenburg. Adaptation by Johann Ludwig Neuenhahn. Edited by the Central German Cultural Council Foundation (from the middle of Germany; 21). Bonn 1989
  6. ↑ Cf. Stefan Matysiak: The development of the East German daily press after 1945. Break or transition? Diss. Göttingen 2004, pp. 297-353
  7. ↑ Cf. Stefan Matysiak: In vain planning lead. East publishers who had fled were planning to return in 1955 with territorial protection and wages freeze. In: Medienmagazin M No. 7–8 / 2000, pp. 13–15