NachDenkSeiten

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NachDenkSeiten
The critical website
Political watch blog
languages German
operator Albrecht Mueller
editorial staff Albrecht Müller, editor
Registration No
On-line November 30, 2003 (currently active)
https://www.nachdenkseiten.de/

NachDenkSeiten with the subtitle The Critical Website is a German watch blog on which political and social issues are commented on. The editor is the former SPD politician Albrecht Müller , who also provides numerous articles. The blog was initially praised as an important part of a counter- public, but in recent years has increasingly been accused of spreading conspiracy theories .

history

The immediate reason for founding the NachDenkSeiten was the establishment of the New Social Market Economy initiative in October 2000. Albrecht Müller initially tried, according to his own account, between March 2001 and 2003 with the help of IG Metall , the German Federation of Trade Unions and the Otto Brenner Foundation to launch a website that was supposed to critically examine the points of view that were brought into the socio-political discussion by the metalworkers at the time. The talks failed, however. That is why he founded the NachDenkSeiten with Wolfgang Lieb as co-editor without union support. The first blog post in the NachDenkSeiten was published by Albrecht Müller on November 30, 2003. In March 2011 Jens Berger , who ran the now closed blog Der Spiegelfechter , was added to the group of authors.

On October 23, 2015, Wolfgang Lieb stopped working for NachDenkSeiten. He described that the NachDenkSeiten had gradually changed and narrowed with an increasing proportion of articles by his co-editor Albrecht Müller, both thematically and in terms of the method of criticism and the type of discussion. Müller only calls for the “'fight' against 'the rulers' and 'the media'” instead of thinking.

Form and content

In the form of a watch blog , the authors comment on politics and society and critically examine neoliberal (in the sense of economically liberal ) and conservative thought patterns. The website offers a daily media review on political and social issues (Notes of the Day) ; the contributions are often suggested by readers. The media itself is also being critically observed. The blog also paid special attention to the financial crisis from 2007 , the euro crisis and the German government's euro rescue policy.

The blog sees itself as a counter-public that wants to enlighten and stimulate political discussions. The articles on the website are also regularly published in book form at the end of the year (The Critical Yearbook - Reflecting on Germany) .

Well-known guest authors of the blog are Christoph Butterwegge , Heiner Flassbeck , Oskar Lafontaine and Gerd Bosbach . Some articles on the NachDenkSeiten are also set to music and offered for download as audio podcasts.

reception

Early years

According to an assessment by Spiegel Online from 2008, the NachDenkSeiten were one of the few German political websites that was even noticed. The technical platform, however, works “against [American] political sites […] like from the Web Stone Age.” The topics dealt with were limited to a criticism of neoliberalism , so that the site no longer “ acts as an Internet community for disappointed social democrats " be. In addition, one uses a remarkably sharp and dashing language: “David has no stone in the sling. So he throws dirt. "

FAZ. -Editor Frank Schirrmacher classified the NachDenkSeiten in a series of blogs in which “ old European discourses in the best sense of the word ” were taking place, and in 2009 he asked himself whether these were “only so effective at the moment” “because politics has the influence and manipulation possibilities of digital communication have not yet understood ”. In the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in August 2011, Schirrmacher described Albrecht Müller's critical contributions to the financial crisis and how it was dealt with as “indispensable” in retrospect.

Against the background of dogmatic economic thinking he has observed in public, the economist Peter Bofinger writes in the foreword to the NachDenkSeiten 2011/2012 yearbook : "In contrast to the established media, the NachDenkSeiten offer impulses and suggestions for alternative approaches."

In 2012 Deutschlandfunk described the NachDenkSeiten as “probably the most widely read political blog in Germany”.

Later development

Jakob Augstein asked in 2012: “Albrecht Müller's reflection pages enjoy a good reputation. Why actually? Because its founder follows his own prejudices more than a serious interest in knowledge. ”() Nonetheless, in a congratulatory letter in 2013 Augstein described the reflection pages as“ the clever, strict and above all left-wing conscience of German journalism ”.

In October 2015, the co-founder of NachDenkSeiten Wolfgang Lieb criticized the fact that Müller “morally divides the world into friend and foe” and as “the cause of almost all evil in the world,“ influential forces ”(often in the USA) or opaque“ financially strong groups ”or overall 'the elites' ”see. Instead of thinking, Müller only calls for a “'fight' against 'the rulers' and 'the media'” in the NachDenkSeiten . Martin Reeh of the daily newspaper wrote on the occasion of Lieb's farewell from the website that the NachDenkSeiten and Müller have approached dubious people and conspiracy theories since the Ukraine war . For example, Müller lets himself be interviewed by Ken Jebsen . Müller explains the attack on Charlie Hebdo by referring to Andreas von Bülow , who believes in a conspiracy by the secret services. On the NachDenkSeiten, for example, Daniele Ganser was also allowed to spread his views without critical inquiries that there was a “ NATO network in the media” and that the West was solely to blame for the war in Ukraine. Müller himself believes in “opinion making” of the media controlled from above and is not far removed from the accusation of “ lying press ”. Steven Geyer from the Frankfurter Rundschau counted the NachDenkSeiten in November 2015 as one of the creators of a new counter-public who wrote against the alleged conformity of the German media and suspected the CIA and NATO behind all bad developments and had no fear of contact with right-wing people, positions and conspiracy theories . Rudolf Stumberger defended Müller from Geyer's cross-front accusation , but admitted that he “indeed [...] likes to see coordinated media actions at work, he simply cannot imagine journalists and editors-in-chief just being stupid or can be customized. "

In autumn 2015 there was a conflict between the NachDenkSeiten and Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR). After an NDR contribution to a media-critical book by the NachDenkSeiten operators, they obtained a temporary injunction against the NDR in October because, in the opinion of the site operator, the station had tried to present the NachDenkSeiten as a right-wing extremist medium. In a subsequent article entitled “Lügenpresse”: Media criticism of concerned citizens in the television magazine Zapp , the NDR counted NachDenkSeiten in November 2015, alongside PI News , Compact and Kopp Online, among the best-known “alternative media”. The NachDenkSeiten then criticized the NDR using "justified criticism of PEGIDA and the AfD" to defame critical media such as the NachDenkSeiten . The Zapp editorial team responded with a statement. At the relevant point in the film, the NDR did not want to give the impression that the NachDenkSeiten were to be equated politically with the aforementioned pages. "However," according to the editors, "with growing reach, the NDS under the editorship of Albrecht Müller have actually developed from a thoughtful online portal to a platform that, in our opinion, often overshoots the mark with its media criticism."

Stefan Niggemeier accused a NachDenkSeiten article by Müller of “being an example of a method of criticizing journalism”, “replacing research with whispering”, and practicing a “demagogic form of defamation”. Müller provides "the readers of his 'critical website' with the ingredients with which they can tinker a pocket conspiracy theory". He does not rely on the “power of enlightenment”, but uses the “power of whispering”. As a result, Müller devalued his criticism of journalists and their often campaign-like reporting, with which he was "right on many points". In his contribution, Müller had sharply criticized the award of the investigative journalist Anja Reschke as Journalist of the Year as well as Niggemeier's reporting on it, which allegedly withheld important information.

Thomas Gesterkamp found in New Germany in 2019 that the NachDenkSeiten "with their counter-grained, non-streamlined contributions [...] as an important source of information [profiled]" and "a critical counter-public" had formed. Later, however, they “unfortunately developed into an example of how scolding journalists from the left should not take place. Because some of the argumentation patterns used are all too similar to their counterparts from the right: clumsy attacks on the 'system media' garnished with conspiracy-theoretical constructs. "

In September 2019, the told Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) in raking light the name NachDenkSeiten fact that Miller "since the government Kohl [thinking] [...] about why no one listens to him, and he can not do it himself and his followers to explain". Müller then assumed that the SZ wanted to influence the deliberations of editors on his announced media-critical book Glaube little, question everything, think for yourself .

The Americanist Michael Butter puts the NachDenkSeiten in the alternative media like KenFM , Telepolis , or Rubikon , which would all form a counter- public to the traditional quality media and public broadcasting . They used conspiracy theories like that of the "lying press" and sold them as serious news.

Award

In 2009, Sven Mainka said in his laudation on the alternative media award for the NachDenkSeiten : “ Political education is necessary. Links to other critical sites create connections and help to better recognize lobbyism and manipulation of opinion . "

Traffic and distribution

According to Spiegel Online, the site had up to 25,000 visitors a day in 2008. According to its own information, the blog counted around 60,000 readers a day in 2012.

public events

Together with the Friends' Association, the Pleisweiler Talks are organized in which politicians and journalists publicly discuss topics that have been taken up in the blog. The events are recorded on video and documented in a channel on YouTube. So far guests have been among others Hans-Ulrich Jörges , Heiner Flassbeck , Sahra Wagenknecht , Werner Rügemer , Rainer Mausfeld and Willy Wimmer as well as the Rhineland-Palatinate Prime Minister Malu Dreyer .

Critical yearbook

Selected contributions from the reflection pages are published in the “Critical Yearbook”. The yearbooks are available for the years since 2007. In 2016/17, alongside Albrecht Müller, Wolfgang Lieb was no longer co-editor, but Jens Berger.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Imprint. In: NachDenkSeiten. June 29, 2011. Retrieved November 12, 2017 .
  2. ^ A b Albrecht Müller: Bottom drawer - a so-called study by the Otto Brenner Foundation on the alleged network "Querfront". In: NachDenkSeiten. August 31, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 .
  3. ^ Albrecht Müller: INSM broadens public relations. In: NachDenkSeiten. November 30, 2003, accessed July 13, 2011 .
  4. ↑ Wolfgang Lieb: Jens Berger participates in the NachDenkSeiten. In: NachDenkSeiten. March 4, 2011, accessed July 13, 2011 .
  5. ^ A b Martin Reeh: online magazine "Nachdenkseiten". Thought and got out . Wolfgang Lieb ends with the "reflection pages". His co-editor Albrecht Müller is too fond of believing in conspiracy theories. In: The daily newspaper . October 28, 2015 ( taz.de [accessed April 2, 2017]).
  6. ↑ Wolfgang Lieb on his own behalf: With a heavy heart I decided not to work for the NachDenkSeiten on the NachDenkSeiten from October 23, 2015
  7. ↑ Steven Geyer: The questionable anti-lying press front , Berliner Zeitung, November 3, 2015
  8. ↑ a b Stephan Hebel: There is no alternative at all , Berliner Zeitung , December 9, 2011
  9. ↑ a b c Melanie Longerich: A question of honor , DLF magazine from April 19, 2012, accessed on September 28, 2012.
  10. ↑ a b c Markus Brauck, Frank Hornig and Isabell Hülsen : Die Beta-Blogger (2) . Spiegel Online , July 21, 2008
  11. ↑ a b Stephan Hebel: The European Project as an exciting episode film , Berliner Zeitung , December 21, 2012
  12. ^ Nils Minkmar: In conversation: Political blogger Albrecht Müller. A perfect opinion machine , FAZ , August 16, 2009
  13. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: Payback. Why we are forced to do what we don't want to do in the information age and how we regain control of our thinking . Karl Blessing Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-89667-336-7 , pp. 200 .
  14. ↑ Frank Schirrmacher: Bourgeois values: "I am beginning to believe that the left is right". In: FAZ. August 15, 2011, accessed July 6, 2015 .
  15. ↑ Peter Bofinger: Foreword to Reflections on Germany. The critical yearbook 2011/2012.
  16. ↑ Jakob Augstein: Open letter to Albrecht Müller . In: Friday . June 26, 2012
  17. ↑ Birthday greetings on the back cover, November 30, 2013
  18. ^ A b Steven Geyer: Nachdenkseiten: Die Anti-Lügenpresse-Front . In: Frankfurter Rundschau , November 2, 2015.
  19. ^ Rudolf Stumberger : The cross and queer front . In: Telepolis , February 16, 2016.
  20. ^ Albrecht Müller: Provisional injunction against the NDR. In: NachDenkSeiten. October 22, 2015, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  21. ↑ Albrecht Müller: The defamation of the NachDenkSeiten continues. Only education with your support will help. We ask for that. In: NachDenkSeiten. November 12, 2015, accessed October 27, 2019 .
  22. ↑ Statement by the editor. (No longer available online.) In: Zapp. Norddeutscher Rundfunk, November 13, 2015, archived from the original on October 11, 2016 ; accessed on September 24, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Stefan Niggemeier: The power of whispering. In: AboutMedia. February 25, 2016, accessed May 9, 2019 .
  24. ↑ Thomas Gesterkamp: Media criticism for know-it-alls. In: New Germany. October 26, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 .
  25. ↑ Albrecht Müller: Die Süddeutsche polemizes against the NachDenkSeiten and their publisher. In: NachDenkSeiten. September 16, 2019, accessed December 31, 2019 .
  26. ↑ Michael Butter: Conspiracy (theory) panik. “Filter Clash” of two publics . In: Heiner Hastedt (ed.): Power of interpretation of diagnoses of the time. Interdisciplinary perspectives . transcript Verlag, Bielefeld 2019, ISBN 978-3-8376-4592-7 , pp. 197–211, here p. 205 (accessed from De Gruyter Online).
  27. ↑ Sven Mainka: Alternative Media Prize 2009 - Laudation Internet at www.nachdenkseiten.de (PDF; 42 kB) . 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2011.
  28. ↑ In detail:
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The Critical Yearbook 2007 - Reflecting on Germany . Verlag Helmut Schmidt Medien, Kirchsahr 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-023733-1 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2008/2009 - thinking about Germany . Verlag Helmut Schmidt Medien, Kirchsahr 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-026393-4 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2009/2010 - thinking about Germany . Verlag Helmut Schmidt Medien, Kirchsahr 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-029424-2 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2010/2011 - thinking about Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2010, ISBN 978-3-938060-56-8 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2011/2012 - thinking about Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-938060-62-9 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2012/2013 - thinking about Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-86489-030-7 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The Critical Yearbook 2013/2014 - Reflecting on Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2013, ISBN 978-3-86489-046-8 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2014/2015 - thinking about Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2014, ISBN 978-3-86489-075-8 .
    • Wolfgang Lieb, Albrecht Müller: The critical yearbook 2015/2016 - thinking about Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-86489-105-2 .
    • Jens Berger, Albrecht Müller: The Critical Yearbook 2016/2017 - Reflecting on Germany . Westend, Frankfurt am Main 2016, ISBN 978-3-86489-154-0 .