German People's Newspaper (1953–1989)

The German People's Newspaper (DVZ) was founded on May 12, 1953 as a daily newspaper closely related to the Bund der Deutschen . From 1954 it appeared as a weekly newspaper. On the German question she took a non-confrontational stance towards the GDR and also included communist voices in the range of opinions she offered. In the fall of 1990 it merged with the former newspaper of the Kulturbund der GDR Sunday to Friday .

history

The Deutsche Volkszeitung was founded in 1953 by the former center politicians Joseph Wirth , Wilhelm Elfes and Georg Herrmann . The editor of the newspaper was initially Joseph Wirth, the editor-in-chief was until 1972 with the former editor of the magazine of the center party Germania Georg Herrmann. In the first edition, the editor-in-chief explained the program of the new newspaper as a company that "should not serve any party in the old sense". In educated bourgeois diction, he saw the newspaper as “a wave of intellectual movement” similar to the “Bund der Deutschen” . He rejects "any too harsh setting of boundaries to the right or left" and also turns to "like-minded people within the existing parties" with the aim of using "their strength and enthusiasm" in the context of these political organizations "for the great German and human cause" to make effective.

At the beginning of 1954, due to financial problems, the DVZ had to be converted to a weekly publication (now: Deutsche Volkszeitung. Weekly newspaper for democratic progress ) and was now published by Monitor-Verlag in Düsseldorf. In it, unusual for the Federal Republic of Germany, West German and foreign communist voices were given the opportunity to express themselves alongside mainly left-wing liberal opinions. According to the temporary editor-in-chief Franz Sommerfeld , looking back in the 1990s, it saw itself as a “left-wing pluralist forum”. It included the left-wing positions not represented by the mainstream of West German journalism. Above all, in its extensive features section, it saw itself as a demanding left-wing alternative to the two Christian-conservative weekly newspapers Deutsches Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt and Rheinischer Merkur / Christ and Welt as well as the liberal time (Sommerfeld). It had a "small reader base" (Kapitza) also in the GDR. The cultural-political role and importance of the DVZ is reflected in the breadth and awareness of its contributors and interlocutors.

In terms of content, DVZ reporting in the 1950s and 1960s focused particularly on domestic German issues such as the “German question”, “fight against atomic death” and “remilitarization”. With the campaign against the emergency laws and the emergence of a left student movement, she tried to be a platform for them. In terms of domestic and foreign policy, like the papers for German and international politics and the closely related parties Bund der Deutschen und Deutsche Friedens-Union ( Bund der Deutschen Friedens-Union) , she pleaded for a federal development in the “German question” and for a federal solution between the German states. In international politics, she turned extensively to the Vietnam War, and in view of the long-term chemical poisons used by the USA long after its official end. With the initiation of the professional bans in connection with the re-admission of a communist party in the FRG and the new Ostpolitik, the “radical decree” developed into a key issue. At the beginning of the 1980s, the DVZ supported the broad protest movement against the nuclear armament of the superpowers and the NATO double decision to station further medium-range missiles in Europe ("peace movement").

In 1968, when the DKP was founded, the SED leadership considered working towards merging the DVZ with the newspaper of the Association of Persecuted Persons of the Nazi Regime (VVN), Die Tat , but this did not happen. Both newspapers were "in sharp opposition to the Adenauer government." The act was known for exposing former National Socialists among high-ranking West German officials and politicians and for the crimes for which they were responsible.

The amalgamation of DVZ and Tat to form the Deutsche Volkszeitung / the Tat. The weekly newspaper for democracy and peace followed in 1983. The new paper was published by Röderberg-Verlag, which in 1987 was taken over by Pahl-Rugenstein Verlag . Towards the end of the 1980s, the paper took up more and more articles that thematized crisis developments in the socialist states. She switched to the political course taken by Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin .

In the course of the subsequent "turnaround" in 1990, the orders for the sometimes large-format advertisements from book publishers, tourism, shipyards and foreign trade companies in the GDR, which had been published in the DVZ for many years and which had previously covered a significant part of the costs, were dropped could. At this point in time it was about one million DM annually from advertising, as the author Arne Kapitza assumes. This part of the income covered the manufacturing costs. Without these advertisements, the newspaper ran into financial difficulties and went into liquidation in late 1989. A call for donations then brought DM 320,000 within a week to an account set up by co-editor Dieter Lattmann . By 1990, 812 silent partners had raised DM 1.27 million. At the beginning of 1990 the newspaper was re-established in Berlin under the name Volkszeitung in association with Elefanten Press Verlag . In the fall of 1990 it merged with the former newspaper of the Kulturbund der GDR Sunday to Friday . This paper is one of the few newspapers that has succeeded in penetrating the East and West German press markets. In 1994, around 20,000 subscribers were “evenly” distributed across both parts of the country.

Authors (selection)

Wolfgang Abendroth Otto Wolff von Amerongen Georgi A. Arbatov Kurt Bayertz Arno Behrisch Walter Boehlich Hedwig and Max Born Volker Braun Max Otto Bruker Tissy Bruns Wilfred Burchett Peter O. Chotjewitz Franz Josef Degenhardt Frank Deppe Ingeborg Drewitz Wilhelm Elfes Elisabeth Endres Bernt Engelmann Karl-Rainer Fabig Anne-Marie Fabian

Klara Maria Faßbinder Eberhard Fechner Gerd Fuchs Gerhard Gleißberg Alexander Goeb Mikhail Gorbachev Karl Heinz Götze Gerd Greune Georg Fülberth Egon Günther Walter Hagemann Jens Hagen Ulla Hahn Michael Hatry Florence Hervé Agnes Huefner Mechtild Jansen Beate Klarsfeld Lorenz Knorr

Mira from Kühlmann Mechthild Küpper Günter Kunert Dieter Lattmann Luca Lombardi Peter Maiwald Angelika Mechtel Herbert Mochalski Heiner Muller Uwe Naumann Thomas Neumann Martin Niemöller Michael Opperskalski Norman Paech Hermann Peter Piwitt Hans Platschek Uta Ranke-Heinemann Max Reimann Renate Riemeck

Hans-Günter Rolff Werner Rügemer Ronald M. Schernikau Günther Schwarberg Georg Seeßlen Konstantin Simonow Josef grinding stone Michael Schneider Gerd Semmer Franz Sommerfeld Monika Sperr Gerhard Stuby Christa Thomas Uwe Timm Günter Wallraff Peter Weiss Karl Graf von Westphalen Joseph Wirth Erich Wulff

Number of copies

(according to information from Kapitza, Mellies,)

• 1950s: approx. 24,000–32,000
• 1960s: approx. 25,000
• 1970s: approx. 20,000–35,000
• 1980s (merger with the fact ): 23,000-40,000
• 4/1989: 26,000 to 29,000

literature

• Arne Kapitza: Transformations of the East German Press. Berliner Zeitung, Junge Welt , and Sunday / Friday in the process of German unification , Opladen 1997. ISBN 3-531-13010-2
• Dieter Lattmann : Article: One vote is needed , in Friday No. 51 of December 17, 1999, first in: Volkszeitung, December 8, 1989.
• Dirk Mellies: Trojan horses of the GDR? The neutralist-pacifist network of the early Federal Republic and the Deutsche Volkszeitung, 1953–1973 . Frankfurt am Main (among others) 2006. ISBN 3-631-55825-2

See also

German People's Newspaper (1945/46)

Web links

• Remnants of the editorial archive of the DVZ, Volkszeitung / Tat in the anti-fascist press archive Berlin (APABIZ)
• Partial bequests or collections from Helmut Bausch (co-founder of the Bund der Deutschen (BdD, 1953), editor of the Deutsche Volkszeitung and activist in the Aktion Demokratie Progress (ADF) and in the German Peace Union (DFU)) and Joseph Wirth

Individual evidence

1. ^ Friedrich-Martin Balzer / Hans Manfred Bock / Uli Schöler , Wolfgang Abendroth . Scientific politician, bio-bibliographical contributions, Leverkusen 2001, p. 453.
2. ↑ Dirk Mellies, Trojan horses of the GDR? The neutralist-pacifist network of the early Federal Republic and the Deutsche Volkszeitung, 1953–1973, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, p. 66.
3. ^ Arne Kapitza: Transformation of the East German press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Friday" in the process of German unification . Opladen 1997, p. 90.
4. ^ Arne Kapitza: Transformation of the East German press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Friday" in the process of German unification . Opladen 1997, p. 89 ff.
5. ↑ Dirk Mellies: Trojan horses of the GDR? The neutralist-pacifist network of the early Federal Republic and the Deutsche Volkszeitung, 1953-1973 . Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, p. 78.
6. ↑ By Dong-Ki Lee: Option or Illusion ?: the idea of ​​a national confederation in divided Germany 1949-1990. Berlin 2010, passim.
7. ↑ See e.g. For example: Peter Weiss , On the Situation in Vietnam, in: DVZ, December 7, 1978; another., The agitation against Vietnam continues, in: DVZ, December 14, 1978.
8. ↑ See e.g. E.g. Karl-Rainer Fabig, War wounds for 100 years, in: DVZ, February 24, 1983.
9. ↑ See e.g. E.g. Agnes Hüfner , Pen Club condemns professional bans. Dortmund conference condemns monopolies of opinion, in: DVZ, April 13, 1972.
10. ^ Arne Kapitza, Transformation of the East German Press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Freitag" in the process of German unification, Opladen 1997, p. 90.
11. ^ Arne Kapitza, Transformation of the East German Press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Freitag" in the process of German unification, Opladen 1997, p. 90.
12. ↑ Dirk Mellies, Trojan horses of the GDR? The neutralist-pacifist network of the early Federal Republic and the Deutsche Volkszeitung, 1953–1973, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2006, pp. 75 and 101f.
13. ^ Arne Kapitza: Transformation of the East German press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Friday" in the process of German unification, Opladen 1997, p. 91.
14. ↑ Arne Kapitza, Transformation of the East German Press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Freitag" in the process of German unification, Opladen 1997, p. 91f.
15. ^ Arne Kapitza, Transformation of the East German Press: "Berliner Zeitung", "Junge Welt" and "Sonntag / Freitag" in the process of German unification, Opladen 1997, p. 92.
16. ↑ Franz Sommerfeld , When the story began to rotate - From the Volkszeitung to Friday, November 9, 2015, in: [1] .
17. ↑ Arne Kapitza, Transformation of the East German Media and its Impact on Journalistic Culture in East Germany, in: Marcel Machill (Ed.), Journalistische Kultur.Rahmenbedingungen im internationalevergleich, Opladen 1997, pp. 53-69, here: p. 54.
18. ↑ For Fabig see the “Non-profit network for environmental sick e. V. ": [2] .
19. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20111007053344/http://www.faz.net:80/redaktion/mechthild-kuepper-11104207.html '
20. ↑ Mellies, pp. 67 and 102.