The other Germany

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The other Germany

description German political magazine
First edition 1925
attitude 1969
Frequency of publication Fortnightly; initially weekly
Sold edition approx. 30,000 (1933) copies
(ZDB)
editor Fritz Küster
ZDB 126114-9

The other Germany. Independent Newspaper for Resolute Democratic Politics was a republican and pacifist politics newspaper founded in 1925 . The newspaper emerged from the monthly Der Pazifist founded in 1921 and, like its predecessor, was published by Fritz Küster . The Other Germany was the publication organ of the West German regional association of the German Peace Society . Heinz Kraschutzki was an important employee .

The Other Germany in the Weimar Republic

Front page from March 11, 1933 with the announcement of the ban

During the Weimar Republic , Kurt Tucholsky , Erich Kästner , Hermann Mohn , Heinrich Ströbel , Hein Herbers , Berthold Jacob , Carl Mertens and Friedrich Wilhelm Foerster wrote for the newspaper. The National Socialists banned the paper in March 1933, and Küster was imprisoned in various concentration camps from 1933 to 1938 .

In 1925, Das Andere Deutschland published three articles by Berthold Jacob, in which the system of temporary volunteers to circumvent the provisions of the Versailles Treaty was exposed. As a result, Jacob and Küster were sentenced in 1928 in the " pontoon trial " for "public treason " to nine months of imprisonment each.

The other Germany as the center of the anti-fascist struggle in Latin America

The name Das Andere Deutschland (DAD) was also adopted in 1937 by an aid committee for German emigrants founded as an association in Buenos Aires .

The association Das Andere Deutschland saw itself as a non-partisan political movement that, in contrast to other organizations that already existed in Buenos Aires, primarily dealt with the concerns of refugees, especially non-Jewish refugees, as it has been the case for Jewish refugees since 1933 existing Aid Association of German-Speaking Jews existed. It was a rather loose association based on a broad political spectrum and a unanimous anti-fascist front. The protagonists of the movement were close to the SAPD , the left wing of the SPD , and the ISK and for a long time acted without significant political or private conflicts. "The internal break occurred here, as everywhere in the German emigration after the Hitler-Stalin Pact in 1939. "

The Pestalozzi School and the Argentinisches Tageblatt were the founding initiatives for the association Das Andere Deutschland , although the school's teaching staff initially held back in order not to cause difficulties for the Argentinean school authorities.

The association's first leaflet was signed by ten people, including Carl Meffert and Erich Bunke, a former sports and mathematics teacher at the Karl Marx School (Berlin-Neukölln) and father of Tamara Bunke . With reference to the National Socialist repression in Germany, the founding appeal said:

"In this time of the most serious threat to Germany, all friends of Germany must unite in order to preserve German honor and German reputation in the world, in order to save Germany itself."

In order to be able to finance the help for the emigrants, a donation account was set up at the Argentinisches Tageblatt . Support was not only given to those in need in Argentina , but also to German Spanish fighters in France and needy Czech people. The students of the Pestalozzi School, to a large extent themselves refugee children, took an active part in the relief campaigns and collected donations. Among other things, they benefited children who were interned in French camps such as the Camp de Rivesaltes . The Other Germany published the brochure "Children Behind Bars" in 1941 and 1942, the title page of which was designed by Carl Meffert .

Over time, supporters and sympathizers of Das Andere Deutschland found themselves in Bolivia , Brazil , Chile , Colombia , Cuba , Paraguay , Uruguay and Venezuela . In January 1943, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the National Socialist seizure of power in Germany, the movement organized the "Congress of German Antifascists of South America" in Montevideo, Uruguay . Walter Damus , a member of the board of directors of the Other Germany and a teacher at the Pestalozzi School in Buenos Aires, was also a member of the board of directors of the congress .

A radio message from the congress in Montevideo was sent to the German people via stations in Moscow , New York City and London . This "Political Manifesto of the German Antifascists of South America", which was passed against the votes of the communists, propagated the construction of a socialist Germany after the smashing of Hitler's fascism. The formation of a “Central Committee of the German Opposition in South America”, which was also decided, did not materialize because of the communist resistance. On the contrary, it was from this side that the establishment of a Latin American committee of the “ Movement Free Germany ”, which was closely related to the KPD , was promoted as the sole representative of all Hitlerites in exile in Latin America. From then on, the Other Germany was considered sectarian.

The work of the Committee on the Other Germany survived for some time in Argentina after the end of the Second World War. In the summer of 1945 it initiated the Deutschland-Hilfswerk , which, in conjunction with other aid organizations, collected donations in money and in kind for people in need in Germany.

The magazine La Otra Alemania / The Other Germany

From 1938 a magazine edited by August Siemsen appeared under the double name La Otra Alemania / Das Andere Deutschland . Initially distributed only hectographically , then printed from March 1939, the magazine reached a circulation of 4,000 copies in the 1940s: “The focus of reporting was on Nazi activities in South America, news from Germany, reports and commentaries on the war in Europe, reports on Statements, positions and publications from other centers of anti-fascist exile (Great Britain, USA, Mexico) and reviews of anti-fascist literature. “Austrian emigrants designed their own pages, and the magazine temporarily had the youth supplement created by Pieter Siemsen, August Siemsen's son "Today and Tomorrow" at.

In the early years the magazine published many articles by authors who emigrated outside Argentina, such as: B. from that in Peru living Hans Loehr . He initially signed his articles "... from a friend from Rio Negro"; from 1947 he then drew with his name.

In the post-war years, authors such as Hermann Ebeling (temporarily under the pseudonym Henry Wilde), Heinz-Joachim Heydorn and Minna Specht also wrote for the magazine.

The other Germany after the Second World War

After the end of the Second World War , Fritz Küster founded the newspaper Das Andere Deutschland in Germany . In 1947 the sheet reached a circulation of 150,000 copies. It advocated recognition of the Polish western border and called for a policy of détente and reconciliation with the states of Eastern Europe. The newspaper also supported the Paulskirchen movement , the campaign against atomic death and the upcoming Easter marches . From 1963 it was published by Ingeborg Küster. The newspaper was last published three years after Fritz Küster's death in 1966 .

literature

  • Helmut Donat : "The other Germany." In: Helmut Donat, Karl Holl (Ed.): The peace movement. Organized pacifism in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (= ETB 10024 Hermes-Handlexikon ). Econ-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-612-10024-6 , pp. 26-29.
  • Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' . dipa-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, 1995, ISBN 3-7638-0353-X .
  • Winfried Seelisch: The other Germany. A political association of German emigrants in South America , thesis at the Otto Suhr Institute of the Free University, Berlin, 1969 (also in the holdings of the German National Library)
  • Angela Huss-Michel: Literary and Political Journals of Exile 1933-1945 , Metzler, Stuttgart, 1987, ISBN 978-3-476-10238-6 .
  • Olga Elaine Rojer: Exile in Argentina 1933-1945. A Historical and Literary Indroduction , Peter Lang Verlag, New York, 1989, ISBN 0-8204-0785-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See exilarchiv.de : [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.exilarchiv.de  
  2. z. B. the chanson Der Graben (1926)
  3. Schnorbach suspects that it was a deliberate adaptation of this name, since Heinrich Grönewald had a relationship with Küsters magazine in Germany before his emigration and August Siemsen , whose sister Anna was a member of the German Peace Society, was also known should. Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , p. 190
  4. Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , p. 192
  5. Schnorbach already refers to the close relationship between the school and the DAD in the title of his book about the school: Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany'
  6. Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , p. 189
  7. Quotation from: Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , p. 189
  8. ^ Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , pp. 191–192
  9. Hermann Schnorbach: For a 'different Germany' , p. 193
  10. The Other Germany - Antifascist Struggle in Latin America
  11. The Other Germany - Antifascist Struggle in Latin America
  12. ^ Günter Wiemann: Hans Löhr and Hans Koch - political hikes , Vitamine-Verlag, Braunschweig, 2011, ISBN 978-3-00-033763-5 , p. 113
  13. For articles by the two see: La Otra Alemania