Eulenspiegel (satirical magazine 1928–1933)
Der Eulenspiegel was a German satirical magazine that appeared between 1928 and 1933.
publishing company
On April 1, 1928, the first issue of "Eulenspiegel" was published by the "Eulenspiegel-Verlagsgesellschaft", from issue 10/1929 the magazine was published by the " Neuen Deutsche Verlag ", which belonged to Willi Münzenberg's newspaper group.
Munzenberg's declared aim was to provide bourgeois press groups such as Ullstein , Mosse and Hugenberg with a communist counterweight. Belonging to the Munzenberg Group enabled the "Eulenspiegel", for example, to publish excerpts from other group magazines or partial and preprints from the book productions of the "New German Publishing House" and the "Universumsbücherei". Most of the advertising was for Munzenberg products. The "Eulenspiegel" was thus financially secure without becoming dependent on an influencing advertising market.
The Berlin painter Otto Nagel acted as publisher and editor-in-chief of the monthly issue ; The journalist Bruno W. Reimann was responsible for the articles from the second issue until his death in December 1929 . After that, Nagel also took over Reimann's part.
shape
With its format of 38 × 28 cm, the satirical magazine initially corresponded to the " Simplicissimus ". The title and back of the twelve-page booklet were designed in two colors. In the years that followed, the paper quality, format, printing technology and size of the magazine changed several times, until in July 1930 it had shrunk to a more manageable 23.5 × 31.5 cm and expanded to 16 pages (eight of them in color). The "Eulenspiegel" thus had the character of a magazine.
The structure of the individual issues did not follow a fixed scheme, but was adapted to the requirements of the content. In quantitative terms, the caricature slightly dominated the text contributions with a share of 60 to 75 percent.
content
Published poems , commentaries , short stories and jokes as well as pertinent articles, sometimes as a series. On the picture level, illustrations , picture stories and caricatures played a role.
Circulation and distribution
The circulation of the "Eulenspiegel" was initially 80,000 copies. 115,000 issues were sold in 1931. The low price of 30 and later 20 pfennigs made it affordable for the unemployed and may have played a role in these unusually high sales figures for a satirical magazine. In contrast, the “Simplicissimus” cost 60 pfennigs, the “Kladderadatsch” 57 pfennigs and the “ nettle ” initially 50, later 40 pfennigs.
The "Eulenspiegel" was not only sold through bookshops, kiosks and post offices, but also through colporteurs , with whose help the censorship could be circumvented if necessary. Problems with the authorities are only documented in two relatively insignificant cases, which Nagel knew how to use for advertising purposes.
After the October 1932 issue was delivered, Otto Nagel surprisingly left the magazine. Since no adequate successor was available, the magazine was designed by a collective. The graphic artist Werner Eggert took on formal and editorial responsibility until the end of the year. In January 1932 the "Eulenspiegel" was renamed "Roter Pfeffer" and appeared under this name until it was banned in February 1933.
Editorial policy
The subtitle " Journal for Joke, Satire, Irony and Deeper Meaning " borrowed from Christian Dietrich Grabbe was dropped after the fourth issue. From issue 9/1929, shortly after the artist's death, he received the title addition “co-founded by Heinrich Zille ”.
The magazine saw itself as a political, proletarian-party, satirical paper and thus as a means of class struggle . A program was not formulated, but under the heading “Office hours of the editorial staff” the “Eulenspiegel” described itself as “the only German magazine that openly fights for the interests of the working proletariat ”. "Reaction and philistinism " were named as opponents ("Eulenspiegel" 8/1928).
Especially in the starting number it becomes clear that Nagel tried to address the general public of the workforce. He carefully avoided any association with the party etiquette of the KPD . But already in the second issue and again and again later, the partisanship of the "Eulenspiegel" was clearly evident. In contrast to its predecessors "Der Rote Knüppel" and "Der Knüppel", which were controlled agitation papers of the KPD, the party had no authority over the "Eulenspiegel". The personal connections of Nagels and many employees to the party and its organs were the reason for the proximity to the cultural and political activities of the KPD. Supraregional actions - such as the campaign for the referendum against the construction of the ironclad A - were taken up. In this case, the "Panzerkreuzer special number" (1928) appeared out of line. The highlights of the magazine were further political actions such as the fight against Paragraph 218 (“Eulenspiegel” 4/1931) or the denunciation of the unworthy situation of working-class women (“Eulenspiegel” 10/1931).
Employee
The Berlin painter Otto Nagel, editor and editor until October 1931, was largely responsible for the design of the "Eulenspiegel". Although he made only a few of his own picture contributions, the make-up, the selection of the drawings and, after Reimann's departure, the text contributions were in his hands. He was able to persuade some of his personal friends to cooperate: For example, he won over the social democratic art theorist Adolf Behne for the series “Artists of the Proletariat”. Heinrich Zille , who was already very popular at the time , acted as a co-founder of the magazine and regularly published both daily political articles and humorous drawings from the Berlin backyard milieu. Käthe Kollwitz and Erich Weinert were also among Nagel's personal circle of friends.
The number of employees was relatively large. In addition to authors who drew with their full names, there are many texts and drawings that are only marked with initials, pseudonyms or not at all. For most draftsmen and authors, the contributions were just casual work. Many permanent employees can be found in other sheets. The main authors of the "Eulenspiegel" are Slang , Erich Weinert and F. Bernhard ; the most frequently represented draftsmen Otto Bittner ("bi"), Alfred Beier-Red , Josef Sauer , Alois Erbach , Charles Girod , Günter Wagner ("Gü"), Karl Holtz , Kurt Werth and Heinrich Zille. In addition, especially in the first year, there were caricatures from China, Russia, France, Hungary, England and other countries, which preferably appeared in the series “Eulenweltspiegel”.
In addition to Käthe Kollwitz , George Grosz and Rudolf Schlichter and in the literary field Kurt Tucholsky (under the pseudonym Arno Nadel), from whom contributions from the "Weltbühne" were mainly taken, were among the already prominent employees , Johannes R. Becher , Oskar Maria Graf , Arthur Holitscher , Kurt Kläber , Mynona (di Salomo Friedländer ) and Ernst Toller . Many, but by no means all, of the “Eulenspiegel” draftsmen were KPD members or involved in the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists (ARBKD) or the Association of Proletarian Revolutionary Writers ( BPRS ).
From March 1930, the "Eulenspiegel" also asked its readers to cooperate. The fee included a. Book books from the Universe Library. The response was great and lasting. The anecdotes, jokes, caricatures and picture stories submitted by these "workers 'illustrators" and "workers' correspondents" were published regularly.
The professional staff probably didn't get high fees: they were about a third of what other satirical magazines paid.
Content
Thematically, the "Eulenspiegel" focused on the concerns of the workers. As a result of the global economic crisis , their social situation deteriorated: Issues such as progressive wage cuts, stricter working conditions and the rapid increase in short-time work and the rise in the number of unemployed to 6 million were taken up and denounced. The impoverishment of large circles through the dismantling of unemployment benefits and Brüning's policy of emergency decrees were just as central to the satire as the unworthy position of proletarian women and workers, the armament and the growing influence of the Nazis. The clergy and the church were regularly the victims of ridicule. In contrast, the "Eulenspiegel" conveyed an idealized image of the Soviet Union .
As the social and political crisis intensified, satire became noticeably more aggressive. From 1929 onwards, the satire from abroad, which had been represented under the heading "Owl World Mirror" since 1928, was hardly taken into account. The focus was increasingly on internal German issues. Non-binding entertainment and general, only morally based social criticism gave way to an increasingly aggressive, more precisely oriented, accusatory satire after the first issues of the magazine, which is not only against capitalism, the exploitation of the working class and bourgeois philistineism, but also against the growing National Socialism and the " Social Fascism ”of the SPD .
literature
- Dietrich Grünewald, studies on literary didactics as a science of literary communication processes in theory and practice. On the didactic relevance of satire and caricature. Illustrated in the satirical magazine Eulenspiegel / Roter Pfeffer 1928–1933 , Giessen 1976