New Zurich news

Appearance of the Neue Zürcher Nachrichten in the 1980s.

In recent years the NZN has appeared in a new layout.

The Neue Zürcher Nachrichten (NZN) was a Catholic daily newspaper that appeared in the city of Zurich from 1904 to 1991 . The newspaper was close to the Christian Social Party founded in Zurich in 1896 (today's Christian Democratic People's Party , CVP) and supported the establishment and consolidation of Catholic associations and Christian social party work around Zurich.

history

From the weekly newspaper to the daily newspaper

From 1896 the Zürcher Nachrichten appeared twice a week . It was the voice of the diaspora Catholics in the then heavily Zwinglian embossed Zurich . At a meeting of the Catholic-Conservative People's Party in Lucerne, it was found that a large increase in the proportion of votes in the Catholic cantons was no longer possible. In order to advance to Zurich, the small Catholic newspaper was to be expanded into a first-class daily newspaper including a business association. The Neue Zürcher Nachrichten was created on the initiative of the printer Theodat Bucher and the editor-in-chief of Eastern Switzerland, Georg Baumberger, who moved to Zurich .

Upswing and Consolidation

In contrast to many smaller Catholic newspapers, the NZN always had a national focus. This was also shown by the fact that in 1929 around half of the circulation was read outside the canton of Zurich . The easily readable, smug, sometimes slightly polemical style was appreciated. In the struggle of the Zurich Catholics for public recognition, the NZN were their mouthpiece. On the occasion of the newspaper's 50th anniversary, the Globus department store advertised : "We have been advertising regularly for years in the 'Neue Zürcher Nachrichten' because we know that the purchasing power of around 200,000 Catholics in the Canton of Zurich is a significant economic factor!" At the height of the Catholic integration efforts, Urs Bürgi was elected as the first Catholic to the government council of the Canton of Zurich in 1963 , the Roman Catholic Church recognized under constitutional law, and the CSP sent five national councilors to Bern, more than ever before.

In addition to the Fatherland and Eastern Switzerland , the NZN became an important partner in the 1960s for the small CVP newspapers, which had come under severe financial pressure and economic hardship. The following Catholic or CVP-related newspapers appeared as headers of the NZN, especially in the diaspora cantons: Neue Berner Nachrichten , Basler Volksblatt , Aargauer Volksblatt (Baden), Schwyzer Nachrichten (until 1975), Hochwacht (Winterthur) . After the fatherland had also courted some of these papers, talks were held from 1969 onwards in order to bundle forces and create a large Catholic newspaper with regional editions in the long term. For fear of an excessive loss of autonomy, an advertisement combination “Katholischer Pressering” was created in parallel with the Basler Volksblatt , the Aargauer Volksblatt and the Solothurner Nachrichten in secret negotiations .

Long suffering from 1972

The NZN itself and also the support of its smaller partner newspapers could only be financed from the profits of the printing company in Zurich's Seefeld. When this was no longer possible in the early 1970s due to overcapacity in the printing industry, the progressive Catholic NZN themselves became the headers of the more conservative Eastern Switzerland. In 1972 the Börsig and Bucher families sold their shares in Neue Zürcher Nachrichten to Orell Füssli Ad . The newspaper was now without a printer. In return for the income from subscriptions and advertisements, Eastern Switzerland took on the delivery of the cover pages, production, shipping, collection and accounting. The costs of the editorial office in Zurich were borne by the church. In 1980, however, the central commission (the executive branch of the cantonal church) decided to cancel the subsidies and to use the money to expand the parish gazette.

NZN press club

There have been various fundraising campaigns to strengthen the newspaper's structures. In recent years, the publishing house has been brought back from St. Gallen to Zurich and the editorial staff has been equipped with computers so that the manuscripts no longer have to be sent by express to St. Gallen and retyped there. This was financed by the NZN Press Club, an association whose membership cost CHF 1,000. Every year 150,000 francs were invested in setting up the structures.

The End

With the recognition of the Catholic Church and the integration of Catholics in public life, cohesion and struggle were no longer necessary to the same extent as before. At the same time, around 1968 a social change set in that hit both the churches and the opinion press hard. While the inner-Catholic bonding forces became weaker, for financial reasons it was not possible to expand the product in such a way that it was also convincing outside of the own milieu. In the dispute over the diocese of Chur , the newspaper got between the fronts and lost many subscribers. After the circulation fell from 12,000 (1985) to 5000 (1991), the financial base was too narrow and the newspaper was discontinued at the end of April.

The NZN Buchverlag, founded in 1946, published collections of articles and essays in the daily newspaper and quickly developed into an internationally renowned art book publisher. In 1972 he moved into the hands of the Roman Catholic Church of the Canton of Zurich, which ceded him to the Reformed sister church in 2005 as the Catholic line of the Protestant theological publishing house in Zurich .

Editors

Writer Heinrich Federer was editor of the Neue Zürcher Nachrichten from 1899 to 1902 .

One of the most renowned Catholic journalists, Carl Doka (1896–1980), was an editor for the Neue Zürcher Nachrichten from 1946–1952 , having previously headed the editorial team for Eastern Switzerland from 1932 onwards . When the daily newspaper was founded, Georg Baumberger took over the management. From the end of 1899 to 1902, the writer Heinrich Federer was editor-in-chief, and in the 1920s and 1930s Emil Buomberger , who later became CSP city councilor, headed the editorial team. Hermann Odermatt later took over this position for many years .

Side dishes

The Neue Zürcher Nachrichten appeared seven times a week: on Monday with an additional morning paper. Later they went over to the six-time publication. In addition to a trading section edited by the publisher (Wirtschaftsbund), there were a number of weekly supplements: Catholic culture, science and technology, literary waiting, Die Welt der Frau, Die Scholle and Der Narrer, as a Sunday supplement. The Catholic culture later became Christian and Kultur und Religion aktuell , after the NZN central editorial office was dissolved, it was edited by the fatherland , which appeared in all Catholic newspapers in Switzerland.

literature

• Neue Zürcher Nachrichten (Ed.): 50 Years ... (1904–1954) . Zurich, 1954.
• Urs Altermatt: The Path of Swiss Catholics into the Ghetto: The Origin of National Popular Organizations in Swiss Catholicism, 1848-1919 . Freiburg i. Ü., 1995: Saint-Paul.
• Paul F. Bütler: The discomfort with modernity: Basic features of Catholic newspaper theory in German-speaking Switzerland during the challenge of modernism around 1900/1914 . 2002: Schwabe (Chapter 7).
• Franco Luzzatto: Public Deficit of the Catholic Church: Organizational Communication and Communication Structure of the Catholic Church Switzerland - Conditions for an End to the Stagnation Crisis . Freiburg i. Ü., 2002: Saint-Paul.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Albert Fischer: Outline of the history of the Diocese of Chur from the beginning until today. ( Memento of the original from May 27, 2011 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. (PDF file; 10.08 MB) 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} René Seeholzer: “Neue Zürcher Nachrichten” and Katholisch-Zürich, two things that cannot and can never be separated . In: Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , 99/1991.
3. ↑ Annetta Bundi: The Swiss Republican Papers of the conservative journalist JB Rusch: a rebellious voice in the Swiss forest of papers (1918–1945) . Freiburg i. Ü., 1999: Saint-Paul.
4. ↑ ^{a b} David Luginbühl: From the “central organ” to an independent daily newspaper? : The "Fatherland" and the CVP 1955–1991. Freiburg i. Ü., 2007: Saint-Paul.
5. ^ Schaller: Church and Press. Pp. 71-77.
6. ^ Hartmann: Possibilities and Limits in the Swiss Press. Working Group of the Catholic Press, 1967.
7. ^ Kurt Sintzel: From NZN-Verlags AG to NZN AG. In: Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , 99/1991.
8. ↑ ^{a b} Ernst Zehnder: Why did the Catholic NZN die? In: Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , 99/1991.
9. ↑ cf. also: Urs Altermatt: The Path of the Swiss Catholics into the Ghetto: The History of the Origin of National Popular Organizations in Swiss Catholicism, 1848–1919. Freiburg i. Ü., 1995: Saint-Paul.
10. ^ Leo Lorenzo Fosco: NZN and CVP - parallelism of upheaval. In: Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , 99/1991.
11. ↑ Hugo Camenzind: A voice that will be missing. In: Neue Zürcher Nachrichten , 99/1991.