Gazette des Ardennes

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The Gazette des Ardennes was a French-language newspaper that was published by the German occupation authorities during the First World War from November 1, 1914 to November 9, 1918 for northern France and Belgium, but also for French-speaking western Switzerland and the French-speaking neutrals. The newspaper was even sent to members of parliament in France for a while through intermediaries in Switzerland.

Financing and publication sequence

The Gazette des Ardennes was a German military company. It was under Section 6 of Division IIIb of the General Staff of the Field Army, i.e. the military intelligence service of the Supreme Army Command . The General Staff supported its founding with 10,000 to 15,000 marks , later due to the efforts of its publisher, the newspaper was self- supporting and even made a profit. The newspaper was run by the publisher Dragoon - Rittmeister der Reserve Fritz H. Schnitzer , a German reserve officer and coffee wholesaler from Rotterdam, who spoke French well, but had no journalistic experience. An active editor-in-chief since March 1915 was the French-born Alsatian and German citizen Dr. René Prévot - before the war Paris correspondent for Münchner neue Nachrichten - whose work was judged to be efficient by friends and enemies.

The first edition appeared on November 1, 1914. Prévot quickly converted the newspaper to the large folio format 44 × 56 cm typical for France and a layout familiar to French newspaper readers . Initially, there was only one issue a week, which increased to six times a week by early 1918. In 1915 and 1916 the financial situation was so difficult that the editors had to forego a serial novel and were only able to deliver a limited number of free copies to the German army. From the end of 1917, the editorial staff included advertising - which came exclusively from German companies - in the paper, which made such a profit that the publisher even signed a war bond for 560,000 marks. The circulation quickly skyrocketed from the original 4,000-5,000 copies and in the last two years of the war was around 175,000 copies per number, with the newspaper appearing six times a week and, in accordance with French reading habits, also provided illustrated supplements. The French readers were particularly interested in the regularly printed lists of French prisoners of war in German prison camps. The "Gazette des Ardennes" was the first to report on the death of the French MP Emilie Driant (1855–1916), who fell as a lieutenant colonel and commander of a hunter half-brigade off Verdun on February 21, 1916, which was of interest to officials in France. His belongings were then sent to the widow via Switzerland.

The editorial office was located in Charleville , even if the newspaper head said otherwise at times. The Gazette des Ardennes was set in the rooms of the newspaper L'Usine , which had renewed its equipment shortly before the war. It was printed in the Petit Ardennais printing house , for which a large rotary printing press was brought from Lille . The printers were German soldiers and conscripted French. In order to organize the removal of the newspaper, a rail connection was even built between the railway and the city's tram network. After the withdrawal of the German army in October 1918, the Gazette des Ardennes in Frankfurt am Main was housed in the Generalanzeiger premises . The last issue appeared there, dated November 2, 1918. On November 9, the editorial office was occupied by the Workers 'and Soldiers' Council, which closed the newspaper the following day.

distribution

The Gazette des Ardennes published its circulation in the head of the newspaper. At the beginning of 1915, 25,000 copies were printed, after which their circulation increased sharply because in October they had started to publish lists of French prisoners of war in German camps. At the end of October 1917, the newspaper said it had a circulation of 175,000, which remained stable until the end of the war. This information seems realistic, because another German source speaks of a print run of between 149,000 and 194,000 copies for 1918.

In addition to the main edition, there was an illustrated edition that appeared three times a month. In 1917 it had a circulation of 100,000 copies. Following the French press tradition, illustrated almanacs were also published for the years 1916, 1917 and 1918. The newspaper publisher also published brochures on political issues, but also a Franco-German vocabulary or a telephone directory for the German headquarters.

Sales were taken into their own hands by the commandant offices of the German military government. When it was launched in one place, the newspaper was initially distributed free of charge for two weeks, then sold for five cents and later five pfennigs . From May 1915 it could be obtained by subscription. The market penetration was immense: there were places like Douai where one newspaper was sold for every eight residents. In Belgium - where other newspapers published by the German occupation authorities existed - and in Alsace-Lorraine , which was part of the German Empire , the Gazette des Ardennes was widespread. And it was read in German prisoner-of-war camps, where it had its own staff. However, the Gazette des Ardennes is said to have met with great distrust among French-speaking prisoners of war. Some specimens were dropped by airplanes behind enemy lines, while others were spread across Switzerland.

Their success is evidenced by the fact that France reacted to the German product with fake editions of the Gazette des Ardennes , which were dropped behind the front. Numerous war memories by the French also suggest that the only information medium available in French in occupied northern France was actually widely read.

The propaganda character of the newspaper

The editors tried to give the impression that they were independent in their reporting. The Gazette des Ardennes not only published the German army report, but - as is common in the German press - also voices from neutral foreign countries, as well as the enemy army reports, including the original French army report. However, it was more difficult for readers to make a direct comparison because the French army report was printed with a few days' delay. The Gazette des Ardennes kept citing examples of censorship in the French press, but never mentioned the fact that there was also censorship on the German side.

Regional reporting was used to try to arouse the interest of French readers. While the French province was portrayed as lovable, all of France's negative traits seemed concentrated in Paris . As a rule, the French employees wrote under pseudonyms . The newspaper also printed numerous reports by prisoners of war, which made the stay in German camps seem almost like a vacation. Stylistically, it was not possible to tell from the articles that the newspaper was published by Germans.

In the opinion pieces, Germany was portrayed as a young, ambitious, but basically pacifist power that only claims its “ place in the sun ”. Contrary to what the Allied propaganda claims, the Germans are not “barbarians”, but are fulfilling a cultural mission in Europe. Great Britain was heavily attacked and portrayed as the main culprit in the war. Germany wants to free France from the British yoke. The fact that the Entente used colonial soldiers in the war ("wild tribes against the white race") is an elementary violation of the solidarity of old Europe. The Irish struggle for independence against the British colonial power enjoyed particular sympathy .

Although they are unfortunately currently involved in a war, there is no hatred of their neighbors in Germany. France's natural place is linked to Germany's side in a Franco-German friendship. The illustrated edition of the Gazette des Ardennes showed pictures of German soldiers helping French civilians, especially children. Germany was presented as a cultural nation, with particular emphasis on the religiousness and love of music of German soldiers: there was extensive coverage of the Christmas festivities held in the occupied area, especially for French children. The "real barbarians" are the English, which was verified by photo documentation of the destruction caused by English artillery.

The historian Andreas Laska has analyzed the attitude of the newspaper using the example of various events. The first major event to which the Gazette des Ardennes had to react was Italy's entry into the war on May 23, 1915 on the side of the Entente. On May 28, she printed the text of the declaration of war; the following day, the entry of the Italians into the "camp of the Cossacks, the negroes and the Indian butchers" was ridiculed in a major editorial. Readers were only informed five days late about the beginning of the Battle of Verdun on February 21, 1916. Although they then learned from the army reports how the battle went, the newspaper refrained from evaluating it until the end of May. The start of the Battle of the Somme in July was reported, but its strategic importance was denied, while the Battle of Verdun, in which the tenacity of German troops was praised, aimed at Paris. These two front-door battles received seldom commentary, while the newspaper reported extensively on the events in Romania. The capture of Bucharest was celebrated in long articles with big headlines and maps, while it was not mentioned that there was nothing to celebrate on the Western Front from a German perspective.

The United States was always mentioned respectfully by the Gazette des Ardennes before entering the war, and Woodrow Wilson's peace initiatives were benevolent. After the entry into the war in April 1917, the tone changed abruptly. Readers were initially only informed about the entry into the war itself on page 3. It has been compared to Italy's entry into the war, which only brought the Central Powers new victories. On July 8, 1917, one commentator said it was a French illusion to believe that an American army would ever be sent to Europe. Another comment said that their soldiers were unscrupulous militiamen with no military knowledge. The beginning of the spring offensives on March 21, 1918 was not mentioned by the Gazette des Ardennes for a week, the usual army report was not made. On March 31, a commentator cheered that the three-year trench warfare had turned into a war of movement on a grand scale. The first German failures, on the other hand, were only reported with a long delay. The tenor remained that the English, French and Portuguese suffered one defeat after another. The Allied counter-offensive of July 18, 1918 was again reported only with delay, but then it was claimed that the German army was not surprised by it. Territorial losses were portrayed as strategically insignificant. Up until the end of the war, the newspaper claimed that Germany had remained undefeated in the field ( stab in the back legend ).

Legal processing

The Gazette des Ardennes was an important part of German propaganda during the First World War. The Kaiser , who followed the development of the newspaper benevolently, had it sent to him regularly. After the war, the French military judiciary brought several trials against collaborators from the Gazette des Ardennes . She pronounced three death sentences and several prison terms. The death sentence against Emile-Georges Toqué was even carried out. In the trials against the radical socialist newspaper Bonnet rouge in 1917, against the ousted French interior minister Malvy and against the former French prime minister Joseph Caillaux , the Gazette des Ardennes played , albeit falsely, an incriminating role.

literature

  • Andreas Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée: des Moniteurs officiels (1870-1871) à la Gazette des Ardennes (1914-1918) et à la Pariser Zeitung (1940-1944). Herbert Utz, Munich 2003. ISBN 3-8316-0293-X .
  • Rainer Pöppinghege: German propaganda abroad 1914-1918: The "Gazette des Ardennes" and its editor-in-chief Fritz H. Schnitzer . In: Francia . Vol. 31, No. 3, 2004, pp. 49-64.
  • Jürgen W. Schmidt: "Everyday military life and press work in the Great Headquarters of Wilhelm II. - The Gazette des Ardennes" (The war diaries of Rittmeister Fritz H. Schnitzer September 22, 1914 - April 22, 1916) Berlin 2014 ISBN 978-3-89574-850- 9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 135.
  2. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 135.
  3. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 140f.
  4. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 131.
  5. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 156f.
  6. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 161.
  7. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 136.
  8. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 132.
  9. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 136.
  10. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 136f.
  11. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 147. Lists of French prisoners of war had previously appeared as separate supplements .
  12. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 147.
  13. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 147.
  14. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 157.
  15. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 147.
  16. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 133.
  17. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 134.
  18. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 148f.
  19. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 156.
  20. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 150.
  21. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 151.
  22. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 146.
  23. ↑ Pöppinghege: German Foreign Propaganda ..., p. 53.
  24. ^ Pöppinghege: German propaganda abroad ..., p. 53f.
  25. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 152.
  26. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 153f.
  27. ↑ Pöppinghege, "German Foreign Propaganda 1914–1918 ...", p. 59.
  28. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 157f.
  29. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 184.
  30. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 158.
  31. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 198.
  32. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 142-145. Here also the resolution of the pseudonyms.
  33. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 185.
  34. ↑ Pöppinghege, "German Foreign Propaganda 1914–1918 ...", p. 59.
  35. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 177.
  36. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 178.
  37. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée …, p. 179f.
  38. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 183.
  39. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 181.
  40. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 182f.
  41. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 178.
  42. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 190–192.
  43. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée …, p. 162: ce camp où voisinent les cosaques, les nègres et les éventreurs des Indes .
  44. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée …, pp. 163–165.
  45. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 166.
  46. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée …, p. 167f.
  47. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 168.
  48. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 173.
  49. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 175.
  50. ^ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., p. 177.
  51. ↑ Pöppinghege, "German Foreign Propaganda 1914-1918 ...", p. 60.
  52. ↑ Laska: Presse et propagande allemandes en France occupée ..., pp. 143f.