Arbeiter-Zeitung (Dortmund)
The workers newspaper. Social democratic organ for the industrial Ruhr area appeared in Dortmund from 1902 . It was the follow-up title of the Westphalian Free Press. Organ for the interests of the working people (from 1890) and the Rheinisch-Westfälische Arbeiterzeitung (from 1892). The successor title was the Westfälische Allgemeine Volkszeitung from 1917 . This appeared until the ban in 1933.
history
Since the end of the Socialist Act , the Dortmund SPD has published its own daily newspaper, which as an organ for social democratic organizations was temporarily of further importance until its own papers were founded there. In 1890, the Dortmund SPD founded the Gerisch publishing house. From 1890 a daily newspaper appeared in this under different names. At first it was called the Westphalian Free Press. Organ for the interests of the working people, from 1892 Rheinisch-Westfälische Arbeiterzeitung and from 1902 Arbeiterzeitung. Social democratic body for the industrial Ruhr area. Since 1917 it was called the Westfälische Allgemeine Volkszeitung. With the change of the title to the Westfälische Allgemeine Volkszeitung, the claim was made to reach readers beyond the working class.
The paper published news and reports tinged with party politics. She also tried to familiarize readers with Marxist and socialist theories. In particular, she reported on the SPD and the free trade unions associated with it . In the local section a lot was reported about local party events and the activities of clubs and organizations belonging to the social democratic milieu. The reader was therefore mainly a supporter of social democracy. Until the mid-1900s, the distribution area included the Reichstag constituencies of Essen , Duisburg , Moers and Hamm . Only then was the area of distribution essentially reduced to the Reichstag electoral districts Dortmund-Hörde, as well as neighboring areas such as Hamm, Soest , Münster and parts of the Münsterland and the Catholic Sauerland . In 1912 the newspaper had a circulation of around 25,000.
Ernst Mehlich and Fritz Henßler , among others, have worked for the paper since the pre-war period . Both were editors-in-chief at times.
During the 1st World War the paper was banned several times. During the November Revolution it was an organ of the regional workers and soldiers' councils . Since 1921 the publication area was limited to Dortmund and Hörde after new newspapers had been founded in other places or newspapers from other places took over the supply. In addition to the trade unions, the newspaper was also the organ of the local workers' athletes (since 1925) and the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold . The circulation increased from 23,500 in 1926, over 28,000 (1928) to 38,000 (1931). By 1932 it had fallen back to 34,000 copies.
After the Reichstag Fire Ordinance of March 24, 1933, social democratic publications were initially banned for two weeks. Ultimately, the ban remained.
literature
- André Biederbeck: The Dortmund working class 1890-1914: On the importance of spaces and places for the constitution of a social democratic identity . Cologne / Weimar, 2018 pp. 92–94.