Helmut Rosenberg

Helmut Rosenberg 1969

Helmut Rosenberg (* 1936 ; † December 3, 1985 in Hamburg ) was a German rarities dealer and publisher . He became known as a co-founder of the St. Pauli-Nachrichten .

First years

Helmut Rosenberg, son of a coal merchant, was a trained motor vehicle fitter. He worked in various professions. Around 1955 he came to Hamburg, where his older brother Harry already lived, owner of Harry's harbor bazaar and a recognized expert on paper money. At the Hamburg fish market , Helmut Rosenberg used an old hand press to print the names of visitors as headlines in ready-made newspaper pages with more or less disreputable content. In the heart of St. Pauli , on Hans Albers-Platz , he ran a rarity shop in nine vaulted cellars of an old tube bunker. His advertisement promised: “Native arts and crafts from all continents” and “collectibles of all kinds”. Newspapers and regional television reported on the opening in 1967, for which Rosenberg had hired “real hippies” for a “love in”. In a brightly painted open jeep, he transported heavier purchases home to preferred customers. Discarded pornographic magazines turned out to be the biggest hit in his curiosity shop.

Foundation of the men's magazine

In 1968 he and the photographer Günter Zint conceived the St. Pauli-Nachrichten, a politically left-wing men's and erotic magazine. On the advice of attorney Gisela Wild , it appeared as a daily newspaper because, according to the legal situation, such a newspaper could not be easily confiscated. The editors in the early days included the political journalists Henryk M. Broder , Stefan Aust and Michel Roger Lang. Rosenberg put the first editions of around 6,000 by hand. The paper was successful: in 1970 it reached over half a million circulation per issue. At the height of the success it was 1.2 million. In 1970 Rosenberg also founded the gay magazine him , which appeared every two months. At Rosenberg's request, the satirist Henning Venske took over the moderation of a corresponding long-playing record. "It was yawning boring," says Venske in his memories. An investigation by the public prosecutor's office at the Hamburg Regional Court against him because of the " lewd sound carrier" was finally set.

trouble

With the success began the trouble. The permissive publisher received various criminal charges, including from the German Child Protection Association for "inciting lewd traffic" and "producing writings that are harmful to minors". The publisher had to pay fines. The Hamburg public prosecutor's office confiscated the list of advertisers for the largely taboo-free personals with the title Be nice to each other . Lawyer Gisela Wild won a fundamental judgment according to which the right to refuse to testify under the Hamburg Press Act (which, among other things, gives a responsible editor the right not to reveal informants) also extends to the advertisers' list . The card index had to be returned and advertisers could not be prosecuted.

There was also anger within the editorial staff about the political orientation of the paper. Three years after the founding, Günter Zint left the company because, in his opinion, the newspaper was less and less true to the original political claim and was becoming more of a pure pornography sheet. Rosenberg headed the magazine until 1981.

The end

The constant anger with the federal inspection agency for media harmful to minors and the relaxation of the legal prohibitions on pornography by the social-liberal coalition in 1975 heralded the decline of the St. Pauli-Nachrichten. The costly legal disputes with the federal inspection agency drained profits and the relaxation of the pornography bans resulted in the appearance of a number of rival newspapers. In 1981, the St. Pauli-Nachrichten filed for bankruptcy and - like him - were hired.

Helmut Rosenberg died in 1985 of stomach cancer.

literature

• Rosenberg Helmut. In: Hamburgische Biografie , Volume 5 ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , pp. 310-311
• Died: Helmut Rosenberg . In: Der Spiegel . No. 51 , 1985, pp. 188 ( online ).
• How Henryk M. Broder looked for sex on the St. Pauli-Nachrichten and found paradise. In: Potsdam Latest News from June 15, 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Günter Zint: Harry Rosenberg, his seaman's thread remains. In: Hamburger Abendblatt, November 11, 2000. [1]
2. ^ Article in the NDR 3 television program Peng from October 1, 1967.
3. ↑ to be seen in the semi-documentary by Jürgen Möller: Hanseatischer Frühling of the State Image Office Hamburg
4. ^ Henning Venske: It was a pleasure for me , Westend Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2014. ISBN 978-3-86489-051-2 , p. 286 f.
5. ^ Report in the newspaper DIE WELT from July 6, 1971