Elephant toilet
The Elephantenklo was the alternative magazine or instead newspaper in Gießen and appeared every 14 days from 1977 to 1987, in the last year of its existence once a month.
Technical
The printed edition was around 1200 copies at weddings. The magazine was published in A4 format, initially printed and glued in A4 on partially inferior recycled paper, then on A3 sheetfed offset , corresponding to four pages and at times with oversize format , and later on A2, i.e. H. eight pages, folded, with side trim and staple. At first the cover paper was yellow, later two colors were usually printed, in exceptional cases there was also four-color printing. Photos were always black and white and were initially rasterized onto paper and later directly onto reprofilm.
The set flags were written with a ball-head typewriter , later with a type wheel typewriter with margin compensation, and glued to layout sheets, which were put onto stand sheets in prepress using reprofilm and then processed into printing plates. Almost all work steps, from the editorial meetings to the layout , collating and stapling to delivery, were carried out by the respective employees themselves.
After buying used composers , mechanical newspaper typesetting devices from IBM, which enabled real proportional typesetting, the appearance of the paper became semi-professional and subscriptions at normal prices became possible after receiving a postal distribution number.
The first issues cost 0.50 DM, the last 4.00 DM.
Surname
The elephant toilet in Gießen is a traffic engineering structure above the so-called Selterstor, one of the busiest intersections in the city, and according to official usage, a pedestrian platform. The vernacular name is explained by three large openings in the middle that reveal the intersection below. For many people, it is a rather monstrous monument to failed urban planning, as it is difficult to negotiate for the disabled in wheelchairs as well as for pushchair users with only one lift and often defective escalators . As such, the overpass also became a target and a negative visual object for architects and town planners.
The elephant toilet structure became the eponym and symbol for the Elephantenklo magazine - now written with an elaborate "ph". Like many others in German cities in the mid-1970s (Frankfurt Pflasterstrand , Nuremberg Plärrer , Vogelsberg “Basalt”, Frankfurt ID and others), it developed from a student milieu into an alternative city magazine.
In the early days of the elephant toilet you could see on the magazine head to the left of the lettering, drawn by hand, an elephant sitting over one of the passages of the same building.
precursor
Between 1974 and 1977 the so-called Gießener Lighter appeared in allusion to the daily newspaper Gießener Anzeiger . The magazine ran a total of nine issues and then fell asleep. The project from the university scene started with the aim of creating a counter- public and reporting on local left-wing initiatives. Practically, however, and because of the long time intervals between two issues, each issue took on thematic focal points such as “Life Perspectives”, “Shared Apartments” or “Pub Culture”. The last issue dealt with the left-wing basic groups , which at this time began to win elections against the established and often dogmatic Marxist university groups in many departments and student parliaments of German universities.
history
At the beginning and against the background of the German autumn 1977 with the blackout ordered by the authorities in connection with the terrorist manhunt, there was the spread of news that had been suppressed by the bourgeois press. The founding of the taz in 1979 was also a consequence of the events of that time.
"News from below" was the subtitle of the early years, then and with a view to the two established Gießen daily newspapers "Zeitung für Gießen und Umgebung" . Much emphasis was placed on what is known as the reporting of those affected, as well as socio-political issues and debates, the disputes over nuclear policy and the West Runway at Frankfurt Airport. A calendar of events, private classified ads and the occasional update of a list of contact addresses for citizens' initiatives and project groups were an integral part of the paper as a "service" for the local political scene from the start. Over time, those involved changed, interests and target groups changed. From the original self-image of being a mouthpiece for and for those affected, a staff-changing core editorial team arose relatively soon, which, to the best of its ability and with varying degrees of success, created its own topics and stories, for example about psychiatry , heroin , medical teaching and research in the Third Reich or the military base Hessen, tried to implement. They always saw themselves as an undogmatic left-wing political project. The appearance of the first green party political movements at the beginning of the 1980s was followed with a great deal of skepticism and very critically. On the other hand, it was difficult to deal with cultural topics, visual arts, film or music. Still, music and movie reviews began to appear more and more frequently in the later years. Glossy columns also found their way into the magazine.
The regulars among the leaf designers and employees mostly came from the university political scene, others had worked in the socio-political sector or were unemployed. Like many projects started on a grassroots basis at that time, newspaper work was done free of charge and without economic intentions, with changing and usually very thin staffing levels and at the price of chronic underfunding. Sales in bookstores, pubs and kiosks, later also with regular subscription, often just covered the printing costs. The printers, who themselves were among the founders of the paper, waived their wages. Paid advertisements came almost exclusively from politically or personally connected "alternative" small businesses or pubs. No value was placed on national, large-format advertising for cigarettes or drinks, for example. This had serious long-term effects on the quality of the research work and the reports, and the elephant toilet suffered until the end. The magazine experienced the highest circulation at the beginning of the 80s, during the squatting that also took place in Giessen , when a furniture store demolished an entire row of houses with partially legally impeccable tenancies under legally dubious circumstances for the construction of a parking garage.
There were repeated strategy discussions, conceptual changes and facelifts in the appearance over the years. As a result, the elephant toilet became semi-professional in terms of craftsmanship and, despite all difficulties, always appeared very regularly every fortnight and until it was closed every month for a year. In terms of content, personnel and finances, however, you saw your back to the wall. And while other alternative magazines took the path of commercialization and mutated into advertising papers suitable for the masses, the remaining active magazines decided at the end of 1987 to discontinue the paper due to lack of resources.
On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the founding and at the same time the 20th anniversary of the hiring, former employees got together in 2007 and took a look at history. In the Giessen youth center Jokus there was a panel discussion on the topic of the situation of the alternative press today, a CD-ROM with all cover pictures and other material was created, an exhibition showed a selection of original cover pictures and contemporary photographs from the city. There was also a feeling of nostalgia. Last but not least, a unique 76-page elephant toilet special was produced. This can also be downloaded from the Internet address.
swell
- Gunter Klug: "Whoever survives Gießen does not die". The history of the alternative city newspaper Elephantenklo. In: Rainer Kah (Ed.): Seiltänze - Contributions to the idea, history and practice of the "alternative movement" using the example of Giessen , Psychosozial-Verlag, Giessen 2000
Web links
- Elephant toilet
- match-cut.de
- DaDaWeb
- AfAS archive - archive for alternative literature