The fight for freedom

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The freedom struggle (short and freedom struggle ) was a Nazi newspaper while official newspaper of the NSDAP in Gau Saxony . The publisher was initially Born, later NS Gauverlag Sachsen GmbH . It appeared almost daily from August 1, 1930 to May 8, 1945.

As part of several research projects, the almost completely preserved editions have been microfilmed by the Sächsische Landesbibliothek - Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Dresden (SLUB) to the extent of around 66,000 pages and have so far been largely digitized. The content of the 1930–1936 editions can be viewed on the Internet, but the entire editions are only available if they are present in the SLUB.

"The fight for freedom" has been the subject of a comprehensive research project funded by the Free State of Saxony at the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism (HAIT) since 2017 , which is now being continued independently: With the help of a location, subject and person database , the diverse (also mutual) dependencies in the Nazi state (party, authorities, population) are mapped on the basis of its own and controlled publications.

history

scope

The 15-year history of the NS newspaper led from what was initially a “leaflet-like combat paper” of the NSDAP to a locally differentiated newspaper with up to 40 pages. There were regular regional editions for the district teams in Bautzen, Chemnitz, Dresden, Leipzig and Zwickau. There were also regular side dishes. These were aimed at different groups, e.g. B. Hitler Youth , women or administrative employees, and were inserted repeatedly. In addition, weekly supplements appeared: “Sächsischer Sonntag” and “Our Reich”. In the later course of the war its scope was restricted again, in 1943 the traditional Dresdner Nachrichten was merged with it. In the last weeks of the Second World War it was again only four or even only two pages, with the Dresdner Zeitung being tacitly taken over from February 16, 1945 , so that "The Freedom Struggle" was the only daily newspaper still to be published in the period until the end of the Second World War Dresden was.

Content

In the course of its 15-year publication, “The Freedom Struggle” had changes not only in terms of scope, but also in terms of content. While massive (polemical and often malicious) criticism of regional administrative structures and personalities of the so-called "system time" of the Weimar Republic was made up to 1933 , the following years marked a clear turning point in the daily newspaper's reporting: the previously extremely aggressive choice of words was favored dispensed with a more proportionate rhetoric - although from today's perspective it remained undiminished provocative. On this basis, "The Freedom Struggle" was able to reach even middle-class circles in the big cities.

After the National Socialists came to power, the criticism of regional administrative work was increasingly replaced by articles on international and national politics, whereby statements on strategies for change in society as a whole came to the fore and thus - in addition to an extensive advertising section - offered a broad spectrum of information. The potential of the regional newspaper becomes particularly clear at those points where the National Socialist ideology was supposed to diffuse into regional power structures: While bans on competing press products immediately after the seizure of power and the function as the official gazette favored the establishment of the "freedom struggle" as the leading daily newspaper in Saxony, At the same time, the readership was gradually expanded beyond the previous target group of staunch National Socialists. The change in the clientele left a clear mark on the reporting. This was also noticeable on the circulation side, "The Freedom Struggle" finally outstripped the Dresden daily newspaper with the highest circulation up until then, the "Dresdner Latest News".

The daily newspaper remained obviously and primarily a propaganda sheet, nevertheless, according to the research project of the HAIT, publicly held controversies shimmer through the wording of the respective articles: “The National Socialist ideology was - despite the persecution and elimination of political opponents - not without contradictions, almost automated to establish itself in the general population. ”In the process, controversies became apparent not only with regard to ideological aspects, but also with reference to other state interventions in everyday life.

The historian Thomas Widera showed in a lecture the implementation of racism and anti-Semitism using the example of issues of the "freedom struggle" of 1935:

“During the spring and summer of 1935, in the run-up to the Nuremberg Party Congress of the NSDAP in September, the racist agitation in the daily press was intensified in order to prepare the anti-Semitic racial laws for propaganda purposes. On May 24, 1935 (p. 33), on the occasion of the Saxon meeting, “The Freedom Struggle” was provided with a 40-page special supplement which contained a clear declaration of war: “The National Socialist is an anti-Semite”. On July 18, the National Socialists published the names of so-called “ racial abusers ” with big headlines on the first page of the “Freedom Struggle ”. The beginning of the journey to the ghettos and extermination camps paved the way for the particular ordinances of local authorities: On July 21st (p. 21), under the heading “Jews undesirable!”, “Der Freiheitskampf” printed letters to the editor with the request to ban visits from Enforce swimming pools in Dresden. The Dresden city administration reacted immediately and a few days later (July 24, p. 3) triumphed “The Struggle for Freedom”: “The municipal baths are finally free of Jews!” On August 6, names were again published on the first page, this time with the addresses of Denounced - an unequivocal call to use violence in the social environment. Victor Klemperer sadly noted in his diary on August 11, 1935: 'The baiting of Jews has become so excessive, far worse than during the first boycott, pogroms have begun here and there, and we expect to be beaten to death here soon. Not through neighbors, but through nettoyeurs [French. Cleaner, the author], which is used here and there as a 'people's soul'. ""

- Thomas Widera : In: Saxon State Library - State and University Library Dresden (Ed.): Relying on News Media. Long Term Preservation and Perspectives for Our Collective Memory . IFLA News Media Section Satellite conference 2017, August 16th-18th, 2017.

The orientation of the economy to the requirements of the future war, the ideological indoctrination of the population and the beginning of the Second World War led to another change: In addition to express war reporting, there was a reinforcement and reshaping of the premises of National Socialist ideology related to women. The "Freedom Struggle" was aimed explicitly at its readers and was increasingly oriented towards their interests.

The expanding aerial warfare over Germany, the first air raids on Dresden in 1944 and 1945 and also worried considerations regarding air protection in Dresden also led to the following text:

“What would the woman from Cologne say about the situation of the woman from Dresden today? ›Don't get upset, dear Dresden woman! We got to know concrete bunkers, anti-tank traps and blast holes on all bridges in peacetime. The protective measures have always calmed us down on the Rhine and made it possible for us to live in safety from the enemy. Therefore, dear Dresden woman, get used to everything men do for you. Patriotic love begins in a strong heart. Don't let black listeners, fearful rabbits and rumors talk about it.

- From: "Tactics for housewives". In: Der Freiheitskampf , NSDAP organ, printed on February 13, 1945 for the February 14, 1945 edition : Götz Bergander: Dresden in the air war - prehistory - destruction - consequences.

The edition of February 14, 1945 did not appear, on the night of February 13 to 14, 1945 Dresden was drowned in a firestorm.

Caesura after the air raids on Dresden on 13-15. February 1945

After February 16, however, "The Freedom Struggle", with a further reduction in its printed pages (as in its early years), again switched to (extreme) propaganda, in which it openly denounced and, as in its early years, now physically annihilated everyone ( internal) opponents of the Nazi regime (primarily referred to as “babblers”, “defeatists” and “deserters”). So in the edition of February 19, 1945: “No endangerment of our combat strength. Cowards and self-interested people come to stand-up courts ... Anyone who is obliged to do military service or who does not report should be treated as a deserter ... Everyone must help here. There are enemy agents and deserters to be arrested ”. On April 16, 1945 Dresden became the fortress explained and still May 2, 1945 ( Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels had been suicide committed) wrote "The freedom struggle": "The worst enemies are the gossips and rumor-mongers among us. Take hold of them, defend yourself against these rags. Have the courage and the moral courage to report these traitors - no matter what rank or position they hold - so that they can be rendered harmless. "

The last time “The Freedom Struggle” appeared on May 8, 1945. Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann called on the front page to ignore the partial capitulations in Reims and northern Italy and to keep fighting. As far as the paper still reached subscribers in the destroyed city: On the evening of May 7, 1945, the Red Army had advanced into the north of Dresden, crossed the Elbe in the night of May 8, 1945 and occupied Dresden's old town on May 8, 1945 around 11.00 a.m. Clock.

Editors-in-chief ("main editor")

The first editor in charge was Heinrich Bennecke in 1930 , who had previously been the editor of the Saxon Observer , a weekly newspaper from the Kampfverlag by Gregor and Otto Strasser . After that, until 1932 Arno Franke was the chief editor of the "Freedom Struggle". After bitter internal party quarrels, he resigned from the NSDAP with publicity in the spring of 1932 and published a sharp reckoning with his former party shortly before the Reichstag election of July 31, 1932 under the title Das Doppelgesicht der NSDAP .

Kurt Hoffmeister , who, according to Walter Weidauer, was the closest confidante of Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann, followed him as chief editor until 1945 . According to Weidauer, Hoffmeister succeeded in moving to the western zones after the end of the Second World War, and according to his statements he should hold positions in the 1940s and 1950s. a. as "editor in charge of the political part of the ' Wiesbadener Kurier '".

Research project of the "Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research"

Initially from 2017 as part of a joint project coordinated by the Saxon Academy of Sciences under the title Virtual Archives for Research in the Humanities , and which ended on January 31, 2020, the “ Hannah Arendt Institute for Totalitarian Research e. V. “(HAIT) with his project.

Starting points

The starting point was that the newspaper inventory of the received editions of the "Freedom Struggle" by the Sächsische Landes- und Universitätsbibliothek (SLUB) was merged with that in the Dresden City Archives and its received editions as part of other research projects as early as the 1990s and this inventory was archived as microfilm . In the meantime, the digitization center of the SLUB had started to digitize the microfilms for long-term archiving and saved the image data in high-resolution, printable and lossless TIFF image format. On the one hand, these digital copies formed the basis for the HAIT project. On the other hand, several remaining gaps in the newspaper inventory could largely be closed through research in regional archives. In this way, the almost daily editions of the "Freedom Struggle", which lasted almost 15 years, are available almost completely.

Another starting point was that, on the one hand, targeted destruction of files and, on the other hand, the war events in spring 1945, a large part of the information on the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) in Saxony had been irrevocably lost. This resulted in a considerable loss of information, for which there were no or at best local attempts to close them between 1945 and 1990: this was also not ideologically desirable. And finally, even before 1933, a change took place in Saxony from a stronghold of social democracy in the Kaiserreich ( Red Kingdom ) to one of the most active and ambitious districts in National Socialist Germany. This development is as strange as it is interesting and raises several research questions. The contents of the "freedom struggle" also reflect power structures and everyday events and provide deeper insights into social interactions that go far beyond the stereotypical expectations of a propaganda paper. The "freedom struggle" therefore offers ample potential for systematic development.

Exploratory project from 2009

The idea of ​​the HAIT was therefore whether it is possible to close the sensitive gaps on the research side by setting up one (or more) research database (s) using the 66,000-page inventory of the "Freedom Struggle": Whether partially, largely or completely, had to be done initially remain open. The HAIT was initially able to methodically start an exploratory project in 2009 under the direction of Thomas Widera, which already had the goal of creating a database that should facilitate the indexing of this extraordinarily extensive inventory of the "freedom struggle" on the history of National Socialism. In addition to digitization , access based on content criteria should be implemented. As a “exploratory project”, however, only the feasibility itself had to be checked; the methodology as such could only be worked on.

Since at the beginning of the project an error-free, functioning full-text recognition of the "Freedom Struggle", which was mainly printed in Gothic script, was not yet available and the entire content could not be fully surveyed, the indexing was initially based on the institute's internal research interests. From this qualitative approach, a total of six superordinate categories (topics) were derived and increasingly differentiated in the course of the development. During the course of the project it became clear that this newspaper not only contains valuable information about the day's events, but also about people. In the process, people were initially recorded by name, but the density of information about various functionaries suggested that the project should be expanded to include an additional personal database.

The result was that a database was created as a computer-aided finding aid that allows a targeted open-access search for data and events on the regional history of National Socialism in the newspaper inventory of around 66,000 sheets and access to selected texts by linking them to the digital copies. The indexing of the daily newspaper's content and the linking of the aggregated data with other databases expanded historical studies of National Socialism in Saxony to include knowledge of the structure and organization of dictatorial rule. They show the actors involved in the development and configuration of Nazi rule in the respective social environment. The personal database was also created “progressively”: Primarily personal information (surname, first name, date of birth and place, etc.) from the various contributions is collected here, as well as party affiliation and functions, e.g. Sometimes even related relationships. The data can be used to trace the careers of previously unknown or insufficiently investigated regional party officials.

Database construction from 2017

From 2017, this was made more precise and expanded beyond use within the institute: The common authority file is now used for keywording and person allocation, and the historical register of Saxony for location identification. In addition to fixed information such as the date and the article title, the database also contains additional information on the content of the respective article. In contrast to the specific search for press articles on certain events, the database also enables systematic queries according to the thematic assignment in the category structure and thus an analytical perspective on historical relationships.

The period from 1930 to 1936 is currently approved (as of January 2020), the other years up to 1945 will be added successively after processing. In cooperation with the SLUB, we are currently working on a more open access option - the display of the full-text digitized material has so far only been possible via user access at workstations of the SLUB or the institute library - as well as other digital options: In this perspective, the HAIT project is to be cooperated be supplemented with the SLUB by a full-text search in the entire inventory of the daily newspaper "Der Freiheitskampf". As soon as the text recognition has been implemented, the previously qualitative project can be expanded to include this quantitative dimension, thus opening up the historical analysis spectrum and opening it up in an interdisciplinary manner.

However, it must be taken into account that until legal reservations have been finally clarified, no direct connection from the database to the original text of the digital image can be activated on the Internet. The digitized copies of the newspaper pages are currently only accessible on a computer in the reading room of the SLUB.

literature

  • Markus Fischer: New perspectives on the Saxon Nazi press. The NSDAP organ “The Freedom Struggle” as a historical source. In: New Archive for Saxon History, 84 (2013), pp. 275–294.
  • Christoph Hanzig, Michael Thoß: »Rotmord« in court - politically motivated homicides in Saxony in the mirror of the Nazi daily newspaper »Der Freiheitskampf« from 1931 to 1936 . In: Gerhard Lindemann , Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): ... that's where we strike. Political violence in Saxony 1930–1935 (= Reports and Studies No. 78 of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism). V & R unipress, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8471-0934-1 , pp. 193-230.
  • Ralf Krüger: Press under pressure. Differentiated reporting despite National Socialist press control measures. The liberal Dresden Latest News and the NSDAP organ The Freedom Struggle in comparison . In: Reiner Pommerin (Ed.): Dresden under the swastika . (= Dresden historical studies , Volume 3), Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-412-11197-X , pp. 43–66.
  • Josephine Templer: Reception of political violence and its function in the Saxon press between 1930 and 1933. "The fight for freedom" and the "workers' voice" in comparison . In: Gerhard Lindemann, Mike Schmeitzner (eds.): ... that's where we strike. Political violence in Saxony 1930–1935 (= Reports and Studies No. 78 of the Hannah Arendt Institute for Research on Totalitarianism). V & R unipress, Göttingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-8471-0934-1 , pp. 21-52.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Christiane Steigel, Manja Pressler: Introduction to the use of the database at hait.tu-dresden.de , accessed on April 1, 2020.
  2. ↑ Martin Munke, Matti Stöhr, Thomas Widera: "The fight for freedom" - Digitization and Indexing of a National Socialist Daily In: Saxon State Library - State and University Library Dresden (ed.): Relying on News Media. Long Term Preservation and Perspectives for Our Collective Memory . IFLA News Media Section Satellite conference 2017, August 16th-18th, 2017, at Sächsische Landesbibliothek - State and University Library Dresden. Online (PDF, German), p. 12. Accessed April 1, 2020.
  3. ↑ Götz Bergander : Dresden in the air war - prehistory - destruction - consequences. 2., revised. and exp. Edition, Böhlau, Kön 1994, ISBN 3-412-10193-1 , p. 138.
  4. ↑ Quoted from: Walter Weidauer : Inferno Dresden . 4th, reviewed and expanded edition, Dietz, Berlin 1965, pp. 177, 180.
  5. ↑ Wolfgang Welkerling: Dresden and the Occupying Power - Impressions of Contemporary History after 1945 . In: Dresdner Geschichtsverein (Hrsg.): Russia and Saxony in history (= Dresdner Hefte - contributions to cultural history. No. 74, 2/2003). Dresden 2003, ISBN 3-910055-67-2 , pp. 92–97, here p. 92.
  6. ↑ Andreas Peschel (ed.): The SA in Saxony before the "takeover". The estate of Heinrich Bennecke (1902–1972). Sax, Beucha / Markkleeberg 2012, ISBN 978-3-86729-092-0 , pp. 45-46, 48.
  7. ^ Sperling's magazine and newspaper address book: Handbook of the German press . Volume 57, 1931, p. 578 and Volume 58, 1933, p. 559.
  8. ↑ Clemens Vollnhals : The divided Free State: The rise of the NSDAP in Saxony . In: ders. (Ed.): Saxony in the Nazi era . Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Leipzig 2002, pp. 9–40, here p. 39.
  9. ^ Institute for Newspaper Studies at the University of Berlin (ed.): Handbook of the German daily press. Armanen-Verlag, Leipzig 1944 (7th edition), p. 185.
  10. ^ Walter Weidauer: Inferno Dresden . 4th, reviewed and expanded edition, Dietz, Berlin 1965, p. 181. With reference to the fact that after his “murder incitement” (Weidauer) he had “several hundred murders” on his conscience.
  11. ^ Project "Virtual Archives for Research in the Humanities" at saw-leipzig.de , accessed on April 1, 2020.