History of censorship

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The history of censorship stretches from ancient times to the present.

Roman antiquity

A history of censorship in the Roman Republic must guard against the misunderstanding that the office of censor should be equated with the current usage of the term: In the Roman Republic, censors were officials whose official designation was derived from census (Latin for: tax class of a citizen).

A censorship of written material can only be proven with difficulty in antiquity; until the emergence of Christianity there seems to be no evidence of systematic surveillance, suppression or influencing of manuscripts. This is all the more astonishing since modern historical research assumes a high level of literacy and extensive book collections in public and private libraries. It can therefore be assumed that most of the Roman censorship regulations have not been passed down to the present day.

Nevertheless, there are some laws and events in political history that anticipate today's ideas of censorship: for example, the prohibition of mocking verse in the Twelve Tables Act of 450 BC. Chr. Or the so-called damnatio memoriae , in which all statues, works and inscriptions of a person who had fallen out of favor were removed or erased in order to erase the memories of them.

In addition, there were strict laws against the spread of magic and individual cults in the religious field, for example after the emergence of Christianity . (→ Persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire ) When Christianity became the state-supporting religion in the Roman Empire in late antiquity, the mania for destruction was increasingly directed against all written material that was in apparent or actual contradiction to the Christian faith. These were all books that were not written by Christian authors. The uncontrolled destruction of ancient literature at the transition from the 4th to the 5th century was a major reason for the massive loss of books in late antiquity . This form of total destruction of intellectual work is unique in history, but can no longer be called censorship either.

All of these examples show that the political practice closest to modern censorship was never carried out continuously over an extended period of time until the end of antiquity. It is problematic to speak of ancient censorship in the modern sense. This does not mean that Rome was at any one time a refuge of unrestricted freedom of expression: in imperial times, for example, mere suspicion was enough to have a person executed for insulting the emperor and the Roman gods.

Church (Middle Ages / Modern Times)

Roman church

The practice of censorship in the Roman church gradually developed with the consolidation of the Roman episcopal see to become the monarchical head within the church. This process has never run smoothly and has always been in competition with powerful bishops , religious and reform movements and, last but not least, the Byzantine churches . In this respect, inner-Catholic disputes that resulted in heresy accusations , persecution of heretics and book burnings always reflect the struggle for the supremacy of the Roman bishop, also against the national kings. Sometimes publications of other religions were also banned, such as Jewish writings in the Republic of Venice , and the publishers reacted by relocating the printing works to the island of Kefalonia .

In addition, there is competition between the church censorship authorities: in the Middle Ages, every theological faculty of the universities and thus the respective monastic order that prevailed at the university, as well as urban authorities and bishops, participated in the prohibition of “heresy”. Attempts at the central collection and definition of "heretical" books were developed by the Inquisition , above all the Spanish ones, and in the 16th century led to the famous index , which was first published in 1559. Until 1966, a large part of the world literature of modern European times was found on the index. However, this index again competed with national indices and was a less effective instrument for post-censorship: there was often up to two years between the first publication of a work and the start of the censorship process. This could often turn out badly for the author, but the complete disappearance of the work from the public was never achieved. Since it is for an Enlightenment author such as B. Voltaire , it became a matter of honor to land on the index, and with the index itself becoming a reading list for free spirits, ironically, the index itself was placed on the index.

The abolition of the Roman index in 1966 is not to be equated with the end of internal church censorship: Even today, the Inquisition, renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , practices a form of censorship for publications by clerics. Under Pope Benedict XVI. However, this “censorship authority” began to open its archives for individual, selected researchers (e.g. Felicitas Goodman) and thus at least work on the historical cases.

Censorship in the Protestant churches

The censorship in the Protestant churches is much more complicated to describe than that in the Roman Catholic, since here the princes (e.g. Brandenburg-Prussia, Saxony, etc.) were usually also regional bishops. Church censorship was thus transferred to state censorship of the territories of the empire. (This is described below.)

Modern nation states

Germany

Censorship note on a press photo of a German soldier who died in the attack on Poland in 1939.

In the Holy Roman Empire, the Reichshofrat was responsible for the control of literature. The Imperial Book Commission in Frankfurt am Main was subordinate to him . In 1744, the Tübingen booksellers had to present the books they had brought with them from the fair to the deans of the faculties for inspection . On June 1, 1772, the censorship dictated by Frederick II came into force. It should " only control that ... what is against the general principles of religion and against both moral and civil order ".

The Renewed Censorship Edict of Friedrich Wilhelm II. From December 19, 1788 arises u. a. against the "spreading of practical errors that are harmful to the community about the most important affairs of men, the corruption of morals through slippery images and enticing depictions of vice, the malicious mockery and malicious rebuke of public institutions and decrees, whereby in some not sufficiently informed minds, grief and dissatisfaction about them are generated and nourished, and for the satisfaction of lower private passions, the slander, the envy, and the greed for revenge, which disturb the calm of good and useful citizens, also hurt their respect for the public, especially in the so-called folk writings have been abused. "

Napoleon's strict censorship laws also came into effect in 1803 in the associated states of Baden , Bavaria and Rhineland . In 1806, censorship was introduced in Württemberg , particularly for the printing of historical, geographical or political works. From 1809, a censor was installed in every place with a book printer or bookshop. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, freedom of the press was included in the German Federal Act . With the Karlsbad Resolutions in 1819, strict censorship was introduced that was uniform for the German Confederation , which provides for preventive censorship for all publications with fewer than 20 printed sheets and subsequent repression censorship for all publications beyond that.

In the caricature Die gute Presse from 1847, from an unknown pen, cancer stands for regression , the mirror of cancer for backwardness, the mole for blindness , candle extinguisher for darkness, the scissors and pen for censorship , the rod for tribulation, the eyes for surveillance , the children for the patronized press, the sheep's head policeman for the stupidity of the state power and the Spitz for the spying .

In response to the freedom movements in neighboring countries, the German censorship regulations were tightened in 1830. Unrestricted freedom of the press was demanded during the German Revolution of 1848/49 . From August 1849, the freedom of the press was gradually restricted. It became part of the Reich Press Act in 1874 . From 1878 to 1890 the Socialist Law canceled the freedom of the press again. In 1900, the German Reichstag passed Lex Heinze .

During the First World War , the War Press Office published the censorship book in 1915 . From 1918 onwards, the Weimar Constitution guaranteed freedom of expression in words, writing and images. The Republic Protection Act was passed on July 21, 1922 and allowed drastic interventions in the freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. On December 18, 1926, the law to protect young people from trash and dirty writing of the Weimar Republic was passed.

After the book burning in Germany , Jewish and politically unpopular authors and publishers were persecuted from May 31, 1933 . The editors' law of October 4, 1933 defined journalism as a task regulated by the state. The Reich Culture Law of September 22, 1934 continued the further conformity . The Reich Chamber presented in 1935 blacklists together unwanted books that are no longer in bookstores may be disseminated.

After the end of the Second World War in 1945, a licensing requirement was introduced in all German occupation zones and a list of the literature to be sorted out was drawn up, according to which books, including those from private collections, are to be confiscated. The license requirement in the west was lifted in 1949. The Basic Law stipulates in Article 5: There is no censorship. The GDR carries out the licensing under the name of the printing approval process until the end of 1989.

From 1953 to the 1960s, there was an interministerial committee for East-West film issues in the Federal Republic of Germany , which was responsible for reviewing films imported from Eastern Europe. About 130 films from the GDR, the CSSR and the Soviet Union received no approval and were not allowed to be shown. Around 1966 the committee ceased its activities. In 1965, the Brown Book published by the GDR was confiscated in the Federal Republic . In the same year - triggered by the showing of the Swedish film " Das Schweigen " - a campaign took place under the leadership of the CDU MP Adolf Süsterhenn , which wanted to link the freedom of art and science guaranteed in Article 5 to the "general moral order".

In 2002, the SPD politician Jürgen Büssow had several Internet providers in North Rhine-Westphalia block access to various pages on foreign servers that transported right-wing extremist and National Socialist content, as well as blocking access to the American Google website Rotten.com .

In April 2009, the family minister prompted Ursula von der Leyen , the law on combating child pornography in communications networks , should be required by all providers in Germany to terminate prescribed by the Federal pages with illegal offers.

Censorship in the GDR

France

French Revolution and Empire (1789-1815)

With the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1789, Article 11, the right to freedom of expression is introduced, at the same time with the restriction that this right may only be exercised within the framework of (positive) state legislation.

The royal censorship authority of the ancien regime (read: the monarchy ) continues to exist formally until 1791, but ceases to work. Many of the royal censors are ardent supporters of the French Revolution and advocate liberal press law in the National Assembly. This is very controversial, especially when dealing with royalist authors who want to maintain the monarchy.

In the constitution of 1793 (Article 353) the prior censorship - i.e. the review of manuscripts before publication - is repealed. This opens the door to an arbitrary system of subsequent prosecution of authors, publishers and booksellers by the Paris police. In the Jacobin reign of terror, the publication of books becomes dangerous: it is often enough to simply denounce it by paid informers to convict a bookseller of "royalist activities" and to bring them under the guillotine using a fast-track procedure .

Under Napoleon, freedom of the press with numerous restrictions was introduced in the directorate constitution of 1796 (Article 355). There is no more pre-censorship; rather, booksellers and authors are prosecuted after publication. For this purpose, an imprint obligation with details of the real name of the publisher and author serves. The Napoleonic period was generally characterized by increasing tightening and censorship. There are major raids and deportations, exiles, arrests, the withdrawal of printing licenses and economic resources, but far fewer executions. Napoleon - as his advisor Joseph Fiévée reports - shied away from comparison with the censorship practice of the ancien regime and the Jacobins.

In 1810/11, after numerous experiments and relocations of responsibilities between the Ministry of the Interior and the police, the censorship system was reorganized: there was a "voluntary" preliminary censorship, with which booksellers, publishers and authors were forced to obtain legal security from subsequent persecution by the police censorship (per Report, denunciation or suspicion). So there was de jure freedom of the press, in fact it meant a high personal risk to publish or sell a book without the permission of the "Bureau de la liberté [sic!] De la presse".

The most famous victims of the French Revolution's book censorship are Donatien Alphonse François de Sade , François-René de Chateaubriand and Anne Louise Germaine de Staël .

Great Britain

As in other early modern states, pre-censorship of manuscripts was introduced soon after the spread of the printing press. One of the censors in the 17th century was the poet John Milton , who is also printed with his 1644, to the English Parliament directed treatise Areopagitica ; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicens'd Printing made one of the most powerful arguments for freedom of speech and press.

In the 18th century, censorship was gradually relaxed. Due to a law passed in 1713 and narrowed down in 1737, all plays intended for public performance had to be submitted to the "Lord Chamberlain" for approval until the 1930s . In 1968 theater censorship in Great Britain was abolished by a parliamentary resolution. Most of the submitted items remained in the property of the institution, which also gave rise to archival significance. The sharp political censorship could be avoided by registering as a theater club, which meant that only club members and friends accompanying them were allowed to see the performances. In order to still find a large audience, the form of an inexpensive "associate membership" was set up, in which, in contrast to "full membership", there was no active and passive right to vote for club offices.

Austria

While Joseph II was more of a liberal stance, later rulers tightened the censorship regulations more and more. The General Censorship Ordinance of February 22, 1795 contains an exhaustive list of all censorship regulations of the time and was the basis for later censorship practice.

The strict censorship (pre-censorship) in the Habsburg Empire during the Biedermeier period fell victim not only to works by Nikolaus Lenau , Franz Grillparzer or Johann Nestroy ; a total of around 40,000 titles were on the Austrian prohibited lists. Every imported book, every article, every new publication was checked and rated (the "damnatur" of the censors for banned works). These were works from all areas of life and knowledge.

When at the turn of the century there were voices calling for the abolition of theater censorship or at least loosening it, Prime Minister Dr. v. Koerber considered the request for the complete elimination of censorship to be impossible, but promised to eliminate the "most glaring evils". In a decree that was issued to all regional leaders in April 1903, he ordered that in future a censorship council, consisting of an administrative officer, a judicial officer and a playwright, theater critic or members of the apprenticeship, be formed at every regional office, the one before the decree of the prohibition the piece was to be submitted for assessment. In future, the heads of state should only make their decision after this report has been submitted. An appeal to the Ministry of the Interior against a performance ban was permissible. To ensure that the procedure is as uniform as possible, it was stipulated that in future the decisions of the censorship offices should be published in the ordinance sheet of the Ministry of the Interior. In addition, the order was issued that in future all stage works that have already been approved for performance on a stage in a state capital may be performed on all other stages in the administrative area concerned without obtaining a further performance permit.

In the present decree, the Prime Minister also expressed what he expected from the censors:

“.... I consider it a serious duty of the censors to ensure that frivolous provocations, usually lacking internal justification, are avoided from the stage. ... It goes without saying that the official control of the stage must not allow anything that is frowned upon by the criminal law, especially no insult to the members of the Supreme Imperial House or religion, that it must continue to respect international considerations, and that finally serious, violations of good morals that provoke general indignation are to be prevented. In principle, the stage should not be closed to the discussion of any conflict if only the ethical basis of the problem is recognizable; only the pure sensuality has to put up with keeping away from the stage just as it has always been excluded from social intercourse. In the discussion of social issues, the censorship has to keep the changing times in mind. ... If I summarize what has been said, I consider it the duty of the censorship to grant the great and difficult tasks of dramatic literature free leeway within the law, without prejudice, but also to allow any excess beyond this framework without regard to any one that may be concerned To counter agitation forcefully. "

Russian Empire, Soviet Union and Russia

In the Russian Empire there has been an uninterrupted censorship of literary works since the 17th century, which, depending on the epoch, was carried out with greater or lesser intensity. After the Russian Revolution , the system of censorship in the Soviet Union grew into one of the most extensive and efficient in history. In the final phase of the existence of the Soviet Union, this system was suspended. In post-Soviet Russia there is much less censorship of the media, which, although more subtle than Soviet censorship, is still very effective.

Switzerland

In 1915, the Federal Council issued an ordinance on “insulting foreign peoples, heads of state or governments” and set up a five-person press control commission that could prohibit the distribution of foreign publications that “could affect Switzerland's relationship with other countries”. The commission was also authorized to apply to the Federal Council for a ban on domestic publication. The commission issued a total of 2,674 rulings, requested sixteen warnings and three times the suspension of a publication. On February 1, 1919, the censorship ended again.

During the Second World War, the Press and Radio Message Department (APF) acted as the Swiss censorship authority. With the basic decree of September 8, 1939, the possibility was created to censor press products, letters or other communications, should these be classified as a threat to independence, the preservation of internal security or the maintenance of neutrality. From then on, statements that could impair military discipline, reputation or the clout of the army were prohibited. To maintain military secrecy, it was forbidden to distribute military messages or other militarily relevant statements. It was forbidden to report detailed information on the entry and exit conditions. It was also forbidden to start rumors or spread rumors.

United States

John Cleland's 1821 Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, also known as Fanny Hill , is believed to be the first case of a book being banned in the United States on the grounds of profanity . The book was reprinted in 1963, condemned again as obscene and only released for publication on March 21, 1966 by a ruling by the Supreme Court.

James Joyce ' Ulysses was confiscated by the US Post Office in 1918. Another seizure of the plant took place in 1930. The seizure was officially lifted in 1933. Henry Miller's Tropic of Cancer was banned from imports in 1938. The ban was lifted in 1961.

The American Library Association hosted the first annual "Banned Books Week" in 1982.

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Fuld: The book of forbidden books. Universal history of the persecuted and ostracized from antiquity to the present day . Berlin, Galiani 2012, p. 119.
  2. ^ Censorship of DEFA films in the Federal Republic , BpB, December 18, 2008
  3. ↑ Otto, Ulla: The literary censorship as a problem of the sociology of politics, 1, 52-53, 60-61.
  4. ↑ Werner Fuld: The book of forbidden books. Universal history of the persecuted and ostracized from antiquity to today . Berlin, Galiani 2012, Chapter stake for progress: The French Revolution .
  5. ↑ Benedikt Erenz: The laurel of the censorship . In: Die Zeit from August 16, 1991, p. 48.
  6. ↑ Kenneth O. Morgan: Britain Since 1945. The People's Peace , Oxford University Press, 3rd ed. Oxford et al. 2001, p. 259
  7. ↑ Reiner Lehberger : The socialist theater in England from 1934 to the outbreak of the Second World War. Studies on the history and the program activities of the "Left Theater", "Unity Theater" and the "Left Book Club Theater Guild" , Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1977, p. 18 u. 89
  8. ↑ General Censorship Ordinance
  9. ↑ Innsbrucker Nachrichten of April 16, 1903, p. 6 Digitized online at ANNO / Austrian National Library
  10. ^ Christoph Graf: Censorship files from the time of the Second World War. An analysis of the inventory E4450, press and radio message 1939-1945. Bern 1979, p. 14-15 .
  11. ^ Thomas Schmidlin: The pre-censorship of the press as a punitive measure against Swiss newspapers and magazines during the Second World War . Zurich 1993, p. 152-153 .
  12. ↑ ALA President Jim Rettig releases statement on censorship ( Memento of the original from September 7, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Sep. 3, 2008, American Library Association.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ala.org

Remarks

  1. ↑ There is detailed information on this in the project "Censorship in Austria" and in the AEIOU lexicon .

literature

  • Werner Fuld: The book of forbidden books. Universal history of the persecuted and ostracized from antiquity to today. Berlin, Galiani 2012, ISBN 978-3-86971-043-3 .
  • Herbert G [eorg] Göpfert, Erdmann Weyrauch (ed.): “Immoral in itself”. Censorship in the 18th and 19th centuries . (= Wolfenbüttel writings on the history of the book industry; 13). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1988, ISBN 3-447-02810-6 . - Cf. especially pp. 177-230: Reinhard Aulich: Elements of a functional differentiation of literary censorship. Reflections on the form and effectiveness of censorship as an intentionally adequate response to literary communication.
  • Wilhelm Haefs, York-Gothart Mix (Hrsg.): Censorship in the century of the Enlightenment. History - theory - practice . (= The eighteenth century: Supplementa; Vol. 12). Wallstein, Göttingen 2006, ISBN 3-89244-809-4 .
  • Jyri Hasecker: Sources on papal press control in modern times (1487-1966) (=  Roman Inquisition and Index Congregation . Volume 19 ). Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017, ISBN 978-3-506-78566-4 .
  • Günter Helmes : Literature and censorship at the beginning of the "modern age". The Leipzig "Realist Trial" 1890. In: Helga Andresen , Matthias Bauer (Ed.): Sprachkultur. Carl Böschen Verlag, Siegen 2009, pp. 171–179, ISBN 978-3-932212-75-8 .
  • Hans-Jörg Neuschäfer : Power and impotence of censorship. Literature, theater and film in Spain (1933-1976). Metzler, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 978-3-476007-39-1 .
  • Beate Müller (Ed.): Censorship in the modern German cultural area . (= Studies and texts on the social history of literature; Vol. 94). Niemeyer, Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-484-35094-6 .
  • Bodo Plachta: Censorship . Reclam, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-15-017660-3 .
  • Roland Seim : Between media freedom and censorship . Telos, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-933060-00-1 .
  • Roland Seim, Josef Spiegel: “From 18” - censored, discussed, suppressed . 3. Edition. Telos, Münster 1995, ISBN 3-933060-01-X .
  • Roland Seim, Josef Spiegel: The commented illustrated book on “From 18”. Telos, Münster 1999, ISBN 3-933060-02-8 .
  • Wolfgang Wüst : Censorship as a support for state and church in the early modern era. Augsburg, Bavaria, Kurmainz and Württemberg in comparison. Introduction - Timeline - Documents . (= Writings of the Philosophical Faculties of the University of Augsburg; 57). Vögel, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-89650-052-X .
  • Ernst Bollinger, Georg Kreis : Censorship. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland . January 25, 2015 .
  • Reinhard Eisendle: The lonely censor. On the state control of the theater under Maria Theresia and Joseph II. Hollitzer Verlag, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-99012-585-4 (Specula Spectacula 8).

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