German voice

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German voice

description Party newspaper of the NPD
publishing company German Voice Publishing House ( Germany )
Headquarters Riesa , SaxonySaxonySaxony 
First edition 1976
Editor-in-chief Peter Schreiber
executive Director Peter Schreiber
Web link deutsche-stimme.de/
ISSN (print) 0934-3040

The German Voice (DS) is the press organ of the National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD). The newspaper is published by the NPD federal executive board and appears monthly in the German voice publishing house . In its ideological orientation it is close to the party and disseminates ethnic-nationalist , racist and historical revisionist content. According to the sheet, the print run was 25,000 copies in 2009.

The paper is published by the NPD's own Deutsche Demokratie Verlagsgesellschaft mbH . Peter Schreiber is the publisher's managing director .

The German Voice has been published as a monthly magazine since April 2020 .

history

The German Voice has been published by the "Deutsche-Demokratie-Verlag" of the same name since 1976. In 1998 the circulation was 8,000 copies, since 1999 10,000 copies appear. Since January 1, 2006, the newspaper has also been available at kiosks and in station bookshops. The publishing house and the magazine were based in the Upper Bavarian village of Sinning until 1999 , where, however, a citizens' initiative against the settlement was quickly founded and finally led to the relocation of the publishing house and the magazine in February 2000. After a short stay in Stuttgart , the German voice has been based in Riesa , Saxony, since summer 2000 . For many years, the chief editor of the NPD newspaper was Holger Apfel, member of the Saxon state parliament . Since April 2009, this task has been held by Karl Richter , city councilor for the right-wing extremist citizens' initiative Ausländerstopp in Munich, who was dismissed from this position in January 2014. His successor is the DS managing director Peter Schreiber. Apple's resignation from this post was closely related to the withdrawal of the Saxon NPD leadership from the NPD federal board.

The head of the NPD publishing house, German Voice , Jens Pühse , had to answer to the Dresden Regional Court since February 20, 2007 for inciting people and distributing propaganda material from anti- constitutional organizations. The indictment accused the then 35-year-old NPD board member of having commissioned CDs with Nazi propaganda and right-wing extremist music between 2000 and 2003 and then selling them. During a search of the publishing house based in Riesa in Saxony in March 2003, more than 9,000 records were confiscated. The officers also secured extensive computer technology and written documents in the publishing house and in three apartments. Pühse was acquitted on March 7, 2007.

Since 2009 the German voice has operated the YouTube channel "DS-TV". In the videos uploaded there, in addition to editor-in-chief Peter Schreiber, the NPD management staff as well as people from right-wing extremism that are not part of the party, such as Nicolai Nerling or Frank Kraemer, blogger and guitarist of the right-wing rock band Stahlgewitter , appear.

The German voice is observed by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution .

Affiliated magazines and regional editions

From January 1998 to March 1999, the NPD party executive published the advertising leaflet "DS EXTRA" with a monthly circulation of up to 100,000 copies. The successor to “DS EXTRA” is the free distribution newspaper “NN aktuell - Nationale Nachrichten”, which appears quarterly. In the summer of 2000, a regional “Edition for Hamburg” of “NN Aktuell” appeared for the first time. The newspapers “ Berlin-Brandenburger Zeitung - Newspaper of National Renewal” (BBZ), “Neue Thüringer Zeitung”, “Der Ordnungsruf” (MV), “Young Franconia” and the like, which are combined in a “National Media Association” . a. also appear irregularly as regional editions of the "German Voice".

Alignment

The NPD is currently the strongest party in the right-wing extremist camp. It is committed to national collectivism , a worldview taken from National Socialism with an emphasis on the " national community " and the "national whole". These views are reflected in the party organ, and although the German voice also deals with current events, it wants to have an opinion-forming effect on the party.

Articles can be found under headings such as “ Germany must become German again! "(Edition 12/2002) or a review of the book" Volk, Nation, Rasse "in the same edition, in which a separation of" races "is openly propagated. The anti-Semitic orientation of the newspaper is borne out by headlines such as “ Central Council of Jews Beats the War Drum ” or comments such as “ German Humiliation and Rehabilitation ” at the conclusion of the Luxembourg Agreement of 1952.

In addition, numerous revisionist topics are mentioned in the newspaper , B. the theory of the so-called "war guilt lie" popular in right-wing extremist circles or the denial of the Holocaust . In issue 9/2002, for example, a revisionist was given the opportunity in an extensive interview to present his theses in detail, according to which the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 was a “ preventive strike ”.

The expansive nationalist , revisionist and revanchist orientation is evident in slogans such as “ Germany is bigger than the Federal Republic and GDR ” or “ rectification of the anti-German propaganda lies ”. Headlines like " Stop fraudulent asylum seekers " are used against immigrants. In addition to current events, the main topics of the NPD (unemployment, immigration policy, etc.) are dealt with under “Germany / Politics”. In the business section you often come across anti-capitalist polemics, criticism of the euro as “ art money without a fatherland ” is also popular . The “Abroad” department primarily serves anti-American , anti-Israel and anti-Semitic resentments.

Obituaries , honors, anniversary advertisements and party congress announcements take up a large space in the party organ . Characteristic, however, are the many comments and leading articles, which are intended to strengthen ideology, and a full-page reader forum, which is intended to serve “the nationally-minded exchange of views”.

In addition, according to the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Baden-Württemberg, the magazine is also a place for partly purely party and scene-internal fundamental debates and has the character of a theoretical and strategic body. The goal is to make right-wing extremist propaganda more attractive, less vulnerable and thus more efficient.

Controversy about the place of printing

A scandal broke out among the newspaper's regular readers when it became known in June 2005 that the NPD had its party sheet printed in Poland , since no German web offset printer was supposedly ready to produce the sheet , during the election campaign in September 2004 Saxony and now at the same time once again in the Saxon state parliament, the DS editor-in-chief and Saxon NPD parliamentary group leader Holger Apfel with election campaign slogans such as “Close the border for wage pushers” fueled the fears of German workers.

First of all, the police discovered the May edition of the German Voice in two Polish vans and then, following an investigation, employees of the Polish State Security prepared a raid on a printing works in Zielona Góra . Several copies of the German Voice were confiscated and the public prosecutor in Poland checked whether the right-wing extremist content of the newspaper violated Polish law. The investigative proceedings initiated by the Polish public prosecutor's office against the publishing director of Deutsche Demokratie Verlags GmbH, Jens Pühse, and the managing director of the Polish printing company have been closed.

Holger Apfel then came under criticism and pressure to justify himself in the Saxon parliament, but also in the right-wing extremist scene. He berated the Saxon Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU): "With all due respect: you are an asshole to me" and claimed that no printing company in Germany would have been willing to print the German voice, which is why he and the party at least two years earlier decided to have the sheet printed in "East Central Europe". From various quarters, however, it was pointed out that other right-wing extremist newspapers such as the National-Zeitung or the Berlin-Brandenburger Zeitung are or have been printed in Germany. Apple said there was “a unique pogrom mood in Germany, explicitly against the NPD”.

After the Polish print shop terminated the contract with the NPD in May 2005 - presumably after the authorities had pressured it - the paper is now being printed in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius , although this is not noted in the imprint.

Mail order

A mail order company has been affiliated with the publisher for several years, offering a comprehensive range of products from stickers to perfumes, but also supplying the right subculture with T-shirts, CDs, videos, etc. Jens Pühse is particularly active here with his mailing “ Pühse's List”. After the Federal Testing Office for Media Harmful to Young People had indexed the online catalog of the mail order business on April 11, 2013, DS-Verlag had to switch off its mailing page. In March 2015, the Thuringian NPD state vice-president Thorsten Heise , already owner of the right-wing extremist " Nordland Verlag " and "WB Versands", announced that he had taken over DS-Versand. In the meantime (2015) there is an internet mail order business called "Deutsches Warenhaus". In addition to books from Kopp Verlag , the “Deutsche Warenhaus” also sells books from large publishers such as Bertelsmann .

The name follows on from the agitational formula of the anti-Semitic movement since the late 19th century against “Jewish department stores” which are to be “Aryanized”.

Press festival of the "German Voice"

Once a year, the newspaper organizes the "Press Festival of the German Voice" at different locations, mostly in East Germany. The event has now developed into one of the largest meetings of the right-wing extremist scene, at which, in addition to the NPD functionaries and other speakers such as the right-wing terrorist Peter Naumann or foreign right-wing extremists such as David Duke (USA) and Nick Griffin (GB), numerous well-known right-wing rock - Bands and right-wing extremist songwriters such as Frank Rennicke , Annett Müller or Michael Müller perform. The number of participants has risen continuously in recent years from around 1500 on September 8, 2001 in Grimma to 1800 on August 3, 2002 in Königslutter (Lower Saxony) to around 3,800 on August 9, 2003 in Meerane . The highlight so far was the press festival on August 7, 2004 in Mücka, East Saxony, with around 7,000 visitors, including predominantly right-wing radical skinheads . In 2005, the press festival was canceled due to the preparations for the federal election campaign . As a substitute event, the NPD Open Air in Gera was named " Rock against War " with around 500 right-wing extremist visitors. The 2006 press festival took place on August 5th in Dresden-Pappritz with 7000–8000 participants.

It was not until 2010 that the press festival was relaunched. Around 2000 right-wing extremists took part in the event in Jänkendorf, Saxony, on August 7, 2010. Mainly NPD and JN members appeared as speakers. Brutal Attack , Sturmwehr , Ü-Band , Sleipnir and Frank Rennicke could be signed as bands and songwriters . The stewardship of the Free Network and the JN Sachsen then complained about the behavior and political sentiments of the guests. In a statement, the steward service described the visitors as “the sediment of the scene”.

On August 11, 2012, the event took place on private property in the Uecker-Randow district. The police counted around 1,000 visitors, which was a further decrease compared to previous years. Holger Apfel and Udo Pastörs from the NPD, the former federal leader of the banned Wiking youth Wolfram Nahrath and Sigrid Schüßler (former chairwoman of the Ring National Women ) had announced themselves as speakers . Performances by the singer-songwriters Frank Rennicke and Jörg Hähnel as well as the bands Die Lunikoff-Verschwaltung , a band around Ken McLellan ( Brutal Attack ), Cradle of Fate , Faust and Sachsonia were planned as the music program. The event was organized by Eckart Bräuniger .

The press festival did not take place in 2013, and due to the "huge organizational effort" and the shortage of staff at DS-Verlag, the former managing director Andreas Storr also announced the cancellation for 2014.

Financial situation

For some time now, the party-owned German Voice Publishing House has been in financial difficulties. The 2010 annual report shows a loss of over 35,000 euros. The publisher then had to borrow 140,000 euros from the Saxon NPD regional association. In return, the then federal chairman Holger Apfel and his deputy Udo Pastörs secured even greater influence, including “authority to issue instructions”. In 2013 Pastörs called the publishing house's economic concept “ diffuse ” and called for a fundamental “ renovation program ”.

Street renaming

In July 2010, Mannheimer Strasse in Riesa , where the publishing house is located, was renamed Geschwister-Scholl- Strasse on the initiative of Mayor Gerti Töpfer .

literature

  • Florian Hartleb : Journal portrait : German voice [party newspaper of the NPD], in: Uwe Backes / Eckhard Jesse (ed.): Yearbook Extremism & Democracy, Volume 17, Baden-Baden 2005: Nomos, pp. 218–235.
  • Florian Hartleb: The "German Voice" - The intellectual mouthpiece of the NPD? In: The NPD: Conditions for the success of a right-wing extremist party. Edited by Uwe Backes u. Henrik Steglich, Baden-Baden 2007, pp. 355–382.
  • Friedemann Kahl: The "German Voice". A newspaper analysis. Structure, content, language. Saarbrücken, 2009.
  • Helmut Kellershohn : The 'German Voice' of 'Junge Freiheit'. Readings of völkisch nationalism in central publications of the extreme right , Unrast, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-89771-752-7 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Website of the German Voice : Media data Retrieved on April 4, 2009.
  2. ^ Anton Maegerle : "Reinvention" for the "German voice" . In: Blick nach Rechts , March 9, 2020, accessed on April 29, 2020.
  3. ↑ NPD power struggle: The wings of an aggressive party vice judge are clipped In: www.endstation-rechts.de
  4. ↑ DS-TV. Accessed June 11, 2020 (German).
  5. ^ Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia: German Voice ( Memento from September 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ^ The party newspaper "German Voice" (DS). www.verfassungsschutz-bw.de
  7. ↑ netzeitung .de NPD prints newspaper in Lithuania ( memento from June 9, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ Christina Hebel: Offer on the index: NPD-Verlag has to switch off online catalog. In: Spiegel Online . May 7, 2013, accessed December 23, 2014 .
  9. ↑ Neo-Nazi Heise takes over German Voice Mail. www.endstation-rechts.de, March 20, 2015.
  10. ↑ Checked on December 16, 2015 at http://www.deutsches-warenhaus.net/Buecher-200/Geschichte-209/Aktuell/
  11. ↑ Among a large number of documents are mentioned: Peter Waldbauer: Lexicon of anti-Semitic clichés. Anti-Jewish prejudices and their historical origins. Murnau 2007, p. 111 ff .; Detlef Briesen: Department store, mass consumption and social morality. On the history of consumer criticism in the 20th century. Frankfurt a. M. 2001, passim.
  12. ^ Silke Heinrich: Open air through the summer. Neo-Nazi festivals attract thousands of visitors . In: The right margin . 126 (September / October), 2010, pp. 10-11 .
  13. ^ "2,000 hand in hand against the NPD press festival." Www.endstation-rechts.de, August 13, 2012
  14. ↑ Andrea Röpke : NPD festival at the pigsty. Looking to the right , June 4, 2012, accessed June 7, 2012 .
  15. ↑ Marc Brandstetter: For 140,000 euros: NPD bosses Apfel and Pastörs secure influence on the German voice. , www.endstation-rechts.de, August 15, 2012
  16. ↑ merkur-online.de: Street renamed: NPD soon to be Geschwister-Scholl-Straße
  17. ↑ Anne Onken reports from Riesa: NPD stronghold Riesa: uproar in the brown hinterland. In: Spiegel Online . July 21, 2010, accessed December 23, 2014 .