The future (Alsace)
The future. Independent weekly for the defense of the Alsace-Lorraine home and people's rights was an autonomist weekly newspaper in Alsace .
history
The future appeared from 1925 to 1927 in Saverne (Zabern), Département Bas-Rhin , and went back to plans of the Alsatian politician Karl Hauss to found an independent autonomist newspaper, which had been postponed again and again due to lack of finance. After funds from Germany had been obtained through the mediation of Robert Ernst , the newspaper was able to appear for the first time on May 9, 1925. Paul Schall became editor-in-chief, and from January 1, 1926 Eugen Ricklin was the publisher , former president of the second chamber of the state parliament of Alsace-Lorraine .
The first edition was sent out to all mayors, clergymen and teachers across Alsace with a circulation of 5000 in order to make the new publication medium known. After ten months, Die Zukunft had a circulation of 35,000 copies, which is high in regional comparison (i.e. every twelfth Alsatian family received the paper). On November 12, 1927, the newspaper was banned by the French authorities in the run-up to the Colmar Autonomist Trial .
Political orientation
The newspaper vehemently attacked the French policy of assimilation in Alsace since 1918. The central government demanded equal rights for the German language, the preservation of the Concordat of 1801 and the denominational schools instead of a radical separation of state and church , the establishment of an independent state administration and greater consideration of the local civil servants when filling administrative positions. Numerous articles should keep the German-speaking traditions of the country in mind. A clear party-political program of the newspaper was not recognizable, rather contradicting tendencies became apparent in the individual articles, which reflect the internal differences of the Alsatian autonomist movement. The affiliation to the Third French Republic was not in question for a long time.
In autumn 1927, Die Zukunft became increasingly radicalized in the direction of separatism and spoke of the Alsace-Lorraine people as a "deceived, disenfranchised, depressed, insulted and abused" minority who demanded the right to self-determination . This was ultimately the reason for the newspaper to be banned.
literature
- Karl-Heinz Rothenberger: The Alsace-Lorraine home and autonomy movement between the two world wars . Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. Main 1976 (Europäische Hochschulschriften. Volume 42), ISBN 3-261-01485-7 (Rothenberger cites oral and written surveys, among others, Paul Schalls , Robert Ernsts and Friedrich Spiesers as sources for his work and gives their views of the events in several places .)
- Philip Charles Farwell Bankwitz: Alsatian autonomist leaders 1919–1947 . The Regents Press of Kansas, Lawrence 1978, ISBN 0-7006-0160-0 .
- Christopher J. Fischer: Alsace to the Alsatians? Visions and Divisions of Alsatian Regionalism, 1870-1939 . Berghahn, New York-Oxford 2010 (Studies in Contemporary European History, Vol. 5). ISBN 978-1-84545-724-2 (English).
Remarks
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, p. 92 reports that, according to R. Ernst, the donor was neither the Foreign Office nor an organization, but a "private body in connection with a large industrialist". Bankwitz 1978, p. 21 suspects on the basis of known personal connections that the donor was Hermann Röchling .
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, p. 92.
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, p. 92
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, p. 129; Bankwitz 1978, p. 25
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, pp. 93-96
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, pp. 96-97; Fischer: Alsace to the Alsatians? Berghahn, New York-Oxford 2010, pp. 179-182 and 185-186 (English).
- ↑ Rothenberger 1976, p. 129