Berlin press club
The Berliner Presse Club e. V. is an association of journalists from Berlin and Brandenburg , parliamentary reporters and foreign correspondents . It was founded in Berlin in 1952.
founding
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The Berliner Presse Club e. V. - in the spelling at the time "Press Club"; when it lost the hyphen has not been recorded - it was founded on June 5, 1952 in the Berlin Hotel am Zoo by seven publicists and the Berlin editors-in-chief to "represent the journalism of the capital and maintain dialogue with politics." It was the intention to " continue (to) carry on the tradition of the former Berliner Presse association in a contemporary way ."
Walther Karsch took over the chairmanship, supported by Franz Rupp as deputy chairman and the Berlin publisher Walter Kahnert (1901–1964) as secretary. Johann B. Gradl became treasurer and held this office until 1964. Other founding members were Gerhard Grindel , Maximilian Müller-Jabusch and Erik Reger . The ordinary members of the early years also included Emil Dovifat , Frank EW Drexler , Hans Emil Hirschfeld , Ernst Lemmer , Franz Karl Maier , Jürgen Reiss , Arno Scholz , Karl Silex , Hans Sonnenfeld or Heinz Ullstein and Karl Ullstein .
In the years after the founding, leading Berlin journalists took turns in the chairmanship. Walther Karsch and Franz Rupp were followed in 1954/1955 by Maximilian Müller-Jabusch as chairman and Walter Kahnert as deputy chairman, in 1956 by Helmut Meyer-Dietrich and Walter Kahnert, and in 1957 by Arno Scholz and Helmut Meyer-Dietrich. In the following year (1958) Helmut Meyer-Dietrich was again chairman and Arno Scholz his deputy, in 1959 Karl Silex became chairman and Arno Scholz remained deputy chairman. In the following year 1960, Arno Scholz became chairman and Karl Silex his deputy. In 1961 began the era of Hans Emil Hirschfeld , who held the chair until 1970; The deputy chairman was Günter Matthes , local manager of the Tagesspiegel. In 1971 Günter Matthes took over the chairmanship in 1971 and Hans-Ulrich Kersten , correspondent of various newspapers and secretary since 1965, became deputy chairman. In 1972, when Matthes was no longer running, Hans-Ulrich Kersten became chairman, which he remained until 1989. Herbert Kundler (RIAS) was his deputy chairman from 1972 to 1985. Hans Joachim Werbke (NDR) followed from 1985 to 1989 as deputy chairman. From 1989 to 2001 Adalbert Roloff was chairman of the press club, followed by NDR journalist Rainer Sütfeld (until 2002).
Originally founded as a club for men only, the Berlin Press Club had a hard time accepting female journalists for a long time. In the 50th anniversary year, a woman was elected chairwoman for the first time, namely Evelyn Fischer (Deutsche Welle), who had previously been an assessor on the board for many years. After twelve years, she was succeeded in 2014 by Peter Lange (Editor-in-Chief of Deutschlandradio Kultur).
activity
The Berlin Press Club hardly appears in public, but is largely limited to events that are usually confidential background discussions between the media representatives and the political actors. All German Federal Presidents and all Federal Chancellors were guests in the Berlin Press Club, but also almost all Federal Ministers and the Governing Mayors of Berlin and a number of Senators. In addition, the respective ministers for all-German issues were just as frequent guests as the respective representatives of the Federal Republic of Germany in the GDR later on . The guests of honor of the Berlin Press Club included the various city commanders and ambassadors of the protecting powers, whose press attachés had the status of guest members of the club. Guests of the club were the former American High Commissioner John McCloy along with Shepard Stone , Henry Kissinger , General Lucius D. Clay and the Commander in Chief of the American Forces in Europe, General Alexander M. Haig Jr.
In the 1990s, the Berlin Press Club had to reposition itself after reunification and assert itself in competition with other background groups, especially in competition with the German Press Club e. V., who moved from Bonn to Berlin in 2000 and turned down the offer of close cooperation.
The Berlin Press Club asks around three dozen guests each year for a confidential background discussion. Top representatives from the federal and state governments, from culture, business and science, as well as ambassadors accredited in Berlin from countries that are currently in focus are invited.
The club maintains strictly confidential political discussions. That means that it is not an extended press conference and also not a news generator from the government district like some journalistic circles. The decisive criterion is the guarantee of confidentiality. All guests can rest assured that the contents of the conversation are only used by club members as background information for their articles and programs.
You can only become a member on the proposal of two full members and after a unanimous vote of the board.
The association has been going on an annual information trip abroad since 2003, most recently to Estonia and Latvia in 2015.
"Under 3"
When journalists are concerned with the level of confidentiality of certain information, they like to use the expression "under 1", "under 2" or "under 3".
These designations are derived from the statutes of the Federal Press Conference , which, among other things, regulate the way in which information is handled. For example, Section 16 (1) explains how to deal with the communications received at the press conferences. The section reads:
- § 16 (1) The notifications at the press conferences are made: under 1. for any use or under 2. for exploitation without a source and without naming the person providing the information or under 3. confidential.
Since the Berliner Presse Club committed itself to always treating the conversations held at its events and the information received confidentially, i.e. not to publish, the short form “under 3” was used.
Club structure
In 1995 an amendment to the articles of association was made with the aim of aligning it with the structure of the German Press Club e. V. to facilitate a cooperation and a possible merger. Since then there have been different categories of members:
- Full members: journalists (no longer publicists) from Berlin and Brandenburg
- Guest members: journalists from other federal states
- Corresponding and supporting members (e.g. publishers and university lecturers as well as press officers from administration and business).
You cannot apply for admission; you can only be proposed for admission by two full members. Acceptance is decided upon by the board; any veto must be factually justified in a confidential discussion in the board.
The association has around 150 full members. In contrast to the German Press Club, which only accepts national political correspondents as full members, the Berlin Press Club includes not only correspondents from national newspapers and radio stations from home and abroad but also representatives of the Berlin media scene.
The chairman is Juliane Hielscher , and the deputy chairman is Christoph von Marschall ( Der Tagesspiegel ). The board of directors of the Berliner Presse Club is elected every two years (amendment of the statutes 2015, previously annually) by the general assembly.
The Berlin Press Club had no permanent home for many years. It was founded in the Hotel am Zoo. Its tenth anniversary was celebrated at Schloss Brüningslinden , the 20-year-old at Gehrhus and a reception at the Berlin Museum . The main conference location was for a long time the Hotel Berlin and later the Hotel Steigenberger . Events also took place in the European Academy and the Catholic Academy. The press club rooms in the house of the Federal Press Conference were only a brief interlude. Since 2001 the club has found a permanent location in the dbb forum on Friedrichstrasse .
literature
- Evelyn Fischer (ed.): Under 3: Berlin Press Club: History of an Institution. Dbb-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 3-87863-137-5 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Excerpt from the press release of the Berliner Presse Club e. V. of June 5, 1952 to dpa
- ^ Statutes of the Federal Press Conference
- ↑ berliner-presse-club.de - Board of Directors & Articles of Association. Retrieved September 29, 2017 .