August Prell (publisher)

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August Prell (1918)
The Böttingerhaus , the birthplace of August Prell.
Advertisement for the opening of the Zur Schützenlis'l pub by August Prell (1882).

Conrad August Heinrich Prell (born February 13, 1856 in Bamberg , † June 28, 1926 in Bussum ) was a German publisher and journalist. He became known as the founder and editor-in-chief of the longest-running German-language newspaper in the Netherlands, the German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands . In addition, he was also active as an author and pub owner for a well-known inn.

Life

From Germany to the Dutch East Indies and the Netherlands

Prell comes from a family known in his home region, his father was the lawyer, member of the state parliament and owner of the Böttinger house Ignaz Prell (1805–1874). He joined the army, which he left as a lieutenant in the cavalry, and then worked in forestry. After some financial difficulties, Prell went to the service of the colonial army in the Dutch East Indies and after his departure settled in Amsterdam , where many Germans already lived at that time. In 1882 he opened the Zur Schützenlis'l restaurant . There Prell met an old childhood friend who was on a business trip and got him the money for a better-equipped restaurant. So he was able to open the "old German beer and wine bar" Bavaria , which became a meeting place for artists, politicians and athletes. However, Prell was not a good businessman and had to close his place again.

In 1884 Prell married Isabella Broekman, with whom he had two sons: Hans Maria Friedrich Wilhelm (* 1885) and Bodo Ludwig Adolph (* 1886). One of the Amsterdam correspondents of the Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant , JFA Huese, discovered Prell's talent for writing and helped him write down his memories of the time in the colonial army , these first appeared in the NRC and were called Geeft eight in 1893 ! Schetsen uit het Indische soldatenleven published as a book.

As founder and editor-in-chief of the German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands

1893 founded the first bounce in Haarlem -based German newspaper in the Netherlands , which in 1906 changed its name to German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands and Belgium changed and finally since 1919 German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands said.

During his tenure as publisher and editor in chief had bounce some trouble with colleagues and competitors who, like him were part of the German-speaking minority in the Netherlands, it processed in 1900 against a former employee who is a German anti-cheating newspaper in the Netherlands had published . About a decade later there was a dispute with Heinrich Poeschl, editor-in-chief of the short-lived competitor newspaper Deutsche Zeitung in Amsterdam , who accused Prell of threatening potential advertisers. Prell then opened an investigation, which revealed that Poeschl had previously been convicted of extortion as editor of the mortgage market in Austria, whereupon he had left after leaving a bail. This was confirmed in his newspaper by the Austrian consulate.

At the beginning of the 20th century Prell was not only involved in such local disputes, but also attracted attention in the German Reich for articles that were perceived as tactless; However, the German envoy in the Netherlands, Karl von Schlözer , reported to the Foreign Office that Prell had been "kept in check" by a German Rotterdam shipowner. Nonetheless, he was certified to be a "beer honest" person. Prell's attitude did not change and continued to give cause for complaints, so in 1917 Walther Rathenau was very angry about the portrayal of his person and informed Prell that the attitude of the paper had offended the German-friendly Dutch and, if no change was made, the paper along with it an end to German support must be expected. The newspaper found it difficult to survive, but because it was not desirable from a German point of view to stop it during the First World War , it was subsidized at the time. Prell's publisher debts were taken over, but since the revenues were administered from then on, he only received an editor's salary.

Prell was also attacked from the Dutch side: at the beginning of the war, Telegraaf , who was initially still friendly to Germany, accused him of being a German spy, whereupon he turned to the Dutch Association of Journalists, which exonerated him. After Prell's accusation that the Amsterdam press was "sullying" Germany, the Telegraaf attacked him - not without linking Prell's name to the word "cheating" - as a Pan-Germanic , "first best scribe" and "unwanted stranger" who lived on German alms . Since only parts of the newspaper archive of the Deutsche Wochenzeitung have been preserved and the editorial archive is lost, Prell's convictions cannot be reconstructed over the entire period. EAJP Bergs, who analyzed issues from the post-war period in his master's thesis, attested that he had a German national attitude for that time.

The newspaper survived all difficulties and hostilities and was carried on by Prell until his death. It was then taken over by his sons, who, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, placed the paper under the new order ideologically, but could not avoid the fact that the newspaper had to be closed in 1942 during the German occupation of the country.

Other activities outside the newspaper

Even if the reach of his newspaper was limited to various small readership groups, Prell's position in the country was not insignificant, especially in Amsterdam and allowed him, for example, to talk to the governor-general for the Dutch East Indies, Joannes van Heutsz, about the concerns of the veterans of the colonial army. According to his own memories, it followed in 1904 under the title Taptoe! (German  Zapfenstreich i. S. v. Signal) Memories of other veterans and invalids. Een losbol had previously appeared in about 1894 with short stories by Prells and other Dutch authors. Prell was privately active as a singer in German clubs and also took lessons from the well-known bass-baritone Johannes Messchaert .

literature

  • Genootschap Amstelodamum (Ed.): Jaarboek Amstelodamum 1928 . Genootschap Amstelodamum, Amsterdam 1928, pp. 219-220 (contained on Genootschap Amstelodamum 1900-2000. Alle Jaarboeken & Maandbladen . Stichting Historic Future, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-76650-11-X ).
  • Nicole Eversdijk: Culture as a political advertising medium . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2308-4 , pp. 216-218. Revised and abridged dissertation Münster 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary in Het Vaderland , June 29, 1926, p. 4.
  2. ↑ August Conrad Prell. In: Het Vaderland , February 13, 1926, p. 6 (reversed here as "August Conrad" instead of "Conrad August").
  3. ↑ August Prell. In: Algemeen Handelsblad , June 29, 1926, p. 2.
  4. ^ " The revolution of 1848/49 and the political life of the late 19th century in Ebensfeld ( Memento of March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )" by Günter Dippold ( PDF ) and August Conrad Prell. In: Het Vaderland , February 13, 1926, p. 6 (reversed here as "August Conrad" instead of "Conrad August").
  5. ↑ August Conrad Prell. In: Het Vaderland , February 13, 1926, p. 6 and Genootschap Amstelodamum (ed.): Jaarboek Amstelodamum 1928 . Genootschap Amstelodamum, Amsterdam 1928, p. 219 (contained on Genootschap Amstelodamum 1900-2000. Alle Jaarboeken & Maandbladen . Stichting Historic Future, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-76650-11-X ).
  6. ↑ opening advertisement in Het nieuws van den dag , December 12, 1882, p. 4
  7. ↑ a b c Genootschap Amstelodamum (ed.): Jaarboek Amstelodamum 1928 . Genootschap Amstelodamum, Amsterdam 1928, p. 219 (contained on Genootschap Amstelodamum 1900-2000. Alle Jaarboeken & Maandbladen . Stichting Historic Future, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-76650-11-X ).
  8. ↑ "Old German beer and wine bar" as advertised in the Algemeen Handelsblad , July 7, 1883, p. 4. Meeting point for well-known people after Het leven rondom de Dam bij avond. In: De Tijd , January 11, 1958, p. 7.
  9. ↑ On marriage cf. Family reports uit other couranten. In: Het nieuws van den dag , September 6, 1904, p. 6. For the wife's first name, cf. Obituary in the Haagsche Courant , December 7, 1940, p. 16. On the sons cf. Obituary in Het Vaderland , June 29, 1926, p. 4, for their full names cf. Entries at militieregisters.nl ( Memento from February 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ Genootschap Amstelodamum (ed.): Jaarboek Amstelodamum 1928 . Genootschap Amstelodamum, Amsterdam 1928, p. 220 (contained on Genootschap Amstelodamum 1900-2000. Alle Jaarboeken & Maandbladen . Stichting Historic Future, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-76650-11-X ).
  11. ^ German weekly newspaper in the Netherlands , German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands and Belgium and weekly newspaper for the Netherlands in the catalog of the German National Library.
  12. ↑ Rechtzaaken: Beleeding. In: Algemeen Handelsblad , December 5, 1900, p. 2, Volledig Eerherstel. In: Het nieuws van den dag , November 7, 1901, p. 11 and entry of the newspaper in the catalog of the International Institute for Social History .
  13. ↑ André Beening: Onder de vleugels van de adelaar. De Duitse buitenlandse politiek ten anzien van Nederland in the period 1890–1914 . Dissertation, Amsterdam 1994, pp. 111-112.
  14. ↑ Mededeelingen van den Nederlandsche Journalistenkring , number 149, October 1912, p. 123. Here in the wrong spelling Hypothekmarkt .
  15. ↑ Nicole Eversdijk: Culture as a political advertising materials . Waxmann Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8309-2308-4 , pp. 216-218.
  16. ^ Pivot course of the Telegraaf after Paul Stoop: Dutch press under pressure. German foreign press policy and the Netherlands 1933–1940 . Saur, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-598-20547-3 (also dissertation Amsterdam), p. 90, footnote 24. Accusation and discharge according to Genootschap Amstelodamum (ed.): Jaarboek Amstelodamum 1928 . Genootschap Amstelodamum, Amsterdam 1928, p. 220 (included on Genootschap Amstelodamum 1900–2000. Alle Jaarboeken & Maandbladen . Stichting Historic Future, Amsterdam 2000, ISBN 90-76650-11-X ) and Een spion! In: Het Volk , November 3, 1914, p. 7.
  17. ↑ Ongewenschte vreemdelingen. In: De Telegraaf , December 8, 1915, p. 7.
  18. ↑ EAJP Berg: Waarom heeft altijd right voorrang. De German weekly newspaper for the Netherlands 1919–1924. , P. 50. Master thesis Amsterdam 2013.
  19. ^ René Vos: Niet voor publicatie. De legale Nederlandse pers tijdens de Duitse bezetting , Sijthoff, Amsterdam 1988, pp. 63 and 468.
  20. ^ CAH Prell. In: Het Vaderland , June 29, 1926, p. 1 and Gouverneur-Generaal Van Heutsz over Oud-Indian soldiers. In: Het nieuws van den dag , August 8, 1904, p. 17.
  21. ^ Entry for August Prell in the catalog of the Royal Library of the Netherlands .
personal data
SURNAME Prell, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Prell, Conrad August Heinrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher and journalist
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Bamberg
DATE OF DEATH June 28, 1926
Place of death Bussum