Neckar echo
The Neckar-Echo was a regional daily newspaper of the SPD , which appeared in Heilbronn from 1908 to 1933 and was then banned at the instigation of the Heilbronn National Socialists around district leader Richard Drauz . After the end of the war, the Neckar-Echo appeared again from 1949, but was finally discontinued in 1967.
The newspaper was created after the in the general election defeated on January 25, 1907 Heilbronner SPD candidate Franz Feuerstein lamented the lack of a social democratic newspaper in the city, which could support the SPD candidate in a similar manner, such as the liberal Neckar-Zeitung liberal Candidates. At Feuerstein's suggestion, the Produktiv-Genossenschaft Vereinsdruckerei was founded in June 1907, the aim of which was to publish an SPD newspaper. Within two years 1430 members joined with shares of 10 marks each (later 20 marks), who paid 50 pfennigs a week. By 1908, around 20,000 marks were raised, and on February 27, 1908 the first edition of the Neckar-Echoes appeared as a daily newspaper for the working people (so the subtitle) with a printed edition of 3,000 copies. Gotthilf Hitzler (1882–1933) became the first editor .
The newspaper was successful, the circulation increased, and new printing and typesetting machines could be purchased. With the support of the Neckar echo, the SPD candidate Feuerstein was elected to the Reichstag as the first Social Democrat from Heilbronn in the next Reichstag election on January 12, 1912. In September 1912 Fritz Ulrich , who later became a member of the state parliament (from 1919) and Minister of the Interior (from 1945) , took over the chief editor, which he held until 1933. In 1925, the success of the newspaper enabled the club's printing company to purchase a plot of land (No. 40) on the Allee in Heilbronn, on which a new building was built, in which the printing and editorial offices moved from the previously rented premises. The circulation of the Neckar-Echoes rose to 15,000 copies by 1929, and in 1933 the newspaper was the leader among the SPD publications in terms of circulation and reader density.
Because of an article published on March 4, 1933, the Württemberg Ministry of the Interior banned the Neckar Echo on March 7 with immediate effect, initially until March 17, because its reporting endangered “public safety and order”. On the same March 7th, the Neckar-Echo appeared for the last time with a one-page edition and the big headline “Verboten!”. On March 12th, a group of around 70 armed SA men occupied the club's printing plant, and Ulrich's editor-in-chief was arrested on March 15th in the Stuttgart state parliament. All accounts of the association's printing company were blocked and the property was confiscated. The Nazi newspaper Heilbronner Tagblatt subsequently used the buildings and machines of the Neckar Echoes . The ban on the Neckar echo, which was actually limited to March 17, became permanent. After the other Heilbronner newspapers were switched off, only the Heilbronner Tagblatt soon existed.
After the end of the Nazi dictatorship, only licensed newspapers could initially appear in Germany with the approval of the military government. In Heilbronn this was the Heilbronn voice from 1946 . Party newspapers such as the Neckar-Echo had no chance of admission; they could only appear again after the license requirement was lifted in 1949. The Neckar-Echo appeared again for the first time on July 30, 1949. Both newspapers were set and printed on the same machines in the club's printing house until October 1950. Until 1952 the Neckar-Echo had a full editorial office , after that only a Heilbronn local editorial office. Despite an increase in circulation to 32,000 copies, the Neckar-Echo could not keep up with the Heilbronn voice and incurred losses. The 1962 merger with the AZ-Pressegemeinschaft Mannheim, Karlsruhe, Freiburg, Heilbronn and the associated renaming to AZ Allgemeine Zeitung with the subtitle Neckar-Echo for the Württemberg lowlands could only delay the setting, which was ultimately due to the "unbearable cost pressure “With the last edition dated June 30, 1967.
literature
- Uwe Jacobi: 250 years of Heilbronn press. History of the media in the Unterland and Hohenlohe 1744–1994 . Verlag Heilbronner Voice, Heilbronn am Neckar 1993, ISBN 3-921923-11-5 ( Heilbronner Voice: book series. Volume 5)
- Susanne Schlösser: Chronicle of the city of Heilbronn . Volume IV: 1933-1938. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 2001, ISBN 3-928990-77-2 , p. 9-10 ( Publications of the City of Heilbronn Archives. Volume 39).
- The voice of the region. Heilbronn voice today; a journey through 60 years of Heilbronn Voice; Press history 1744–1945 in the Unterland, in Hohenlohe and in Kraichgau. Verlag Heilbronner Voice, Heilbronn 2006, ISBN 3-921923-24-7