General Prussian State Newspaper

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Deed of foundation November 1818

The Allgemeine Preussische Staatszeitung was the announcement sheet of the Prussian government to inform the subjects about the politics of the state. It appeared for the first time on January 2, 1819 and followed an idea of ​​the State of Prussia from 1810 to set up a government-friendly medium "whose purpose would be to prepare the subjects of the Prussian state for the new regulations, measures and laws of the government, or to explain these ordinances after the publication and to show their expediency ”. From July 1, 1843, the newspaper was called Allgemeine Preußische Zeitung, from May 1, 1848, the Prussian State Gazette . On July 1, 1851, it became the Königlich Prussischer Staats-Anzeiger . After the establishment of the empire , the Deutsche Reichsanzeiger took over the duties of the Allgemeine Preußische Staats-Zeitung on May 4, 1871 , initially as the Deutscher Reichs-Anzeiger and Königlich Prussischer Staats-Anzeiger, from November 12, 1918 as the German Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette .

First page of the edition dated January 2, 1819

founding

The first ideas for founding a government gazette came from the beginning of the 19th century. At the time, Prussia was still struggling with the costly legacy of the Frederician era. Reforms were passed that meant cuts for the people. That is why the Prussian government had to make concessions to the people in a different way. Part of this was that Prussian press policy became more liberal and censorship was thereby loosened. The Napoleonic occupation in the Prussian-German Empire led to the promotion of the idea of ​​a state press. With Le Moniteur , Napoleonic France already had its own state press, which was supposed to explain and justify the plans of the rulers to the people. Above all, however, wild defamations against the Prussian royal house were uttered in the paper of the French. These insults had an effect everywhere in the area of ​​distribution. The Moniteur proved itself to be an effective propaganda instrument for the French. Not least impressed by this effect, high Prussian officials repeatedly made their king an offer to found their own state press to counter the French defamation. A propaganda instrument was also needed to justify upcoming reforms against rebellious liberalism. Officials like Karl August von Hardenberg or Karl August Varnhagen von Ense campaigned for the establishment of an official state press. At the end of 1818 the time had come, and with the cabinet order of November 19, the Prussian king approved the plan for the new newspaper:

"I fully agree with the plan that you have presented to me, which is going backwards, for the publication of a new newspaper that is to appear under a special management of the government, and I also authorize the upper editorship to the Privy Councilor of Staegemann, as the advice presented to you , will be transferred and leave you to arrange the further execution. Achen, November 19, 1818. Friedrich Wilhelm. "

- Deed of foundation November 1818

At the end of many discussions there was the draft of the General Prussian State Newspaper . As announced, the civil servant Friedrich August von Staegemann became the first editor-in-chief.

Issues by year (1819-1945)

Structure and course of publication of the state newspaper

The Allgemeine Preußische Staatszeitung consisted of two separate parts. The first part, also called the official part, contained reports about the events at the Prussian royal court, promotions, declarations of honor and the announcement of official celebrations. The most important thing about the official part of the newspaper, however, was the announcement of laws and ordinances by higher authorities that were of public interest. The unofficial part consisted of articles about the most important events at home and abroad. While the foreign articles only reproduced pure facts, articles on domestic events could certainly be reasoning. Articles on interesting art and scientific treatises should round off the offer of the Allgemeine Preußische Staatszeitung.

While at the beginning mostly only two issues per week were published, soon there was a change to daily issues (also on Sundays). With 413 issues in the war year 1870, there were also morning and evening issues on the same day.

management

The civil servant Friedrich August von Staegemann (1763-1840) was initially entrusted with the management of the General Prussian State Newspaper. However, he was not convinced by the project and expressed his lack of motivation to work in a managerial position in a letter to Rahel Varnhagen von Ense : “The State Chancellor decided to publish a general Prussian state newspaper on January 1st, and at the same time decided that I should the upper management should take over. I wouldn't mind if I understood any of these things. Since the C.-O. ( Cabinets-Ordre ) but there is, so I have to submit, and for now just see that I don't prostitute myself too badly ”. In the summer of 1820, von Staegemann was able to relinquish the management of the state newspaper at his own initiative. The secret councilor Karl Heun was won over for the purposes of the newspaper. Heun had previously published some works of fiction under the pseudonym Heinrich Clauren . Heun was both a man of letters and a civil servant. During the whole time there was no permanent editorial office. Rather, the responsible managers have tried to win freelancers from the civil service or from literary circles. Karl Heun was released from running the state newspaper at the end of 1823. The editor-in-chief was handed over to Karl Ernst John, which turned out to be negative for the development of the newspaper. John had no experience in a journalistic company. On the contrary: up until then he had worked as a censor. Even from his time as Goethe's secretary, he had a bad reputation, as he is said to have carried out his activities there only very unreliably. With it the circulation of the paper steadily decreased. In the years 1830/31, however, the tide turned. The Minister for Foreign Affairs responsible for the state newspaper, Christian Günther von Bernstorff , put the curator Johann Karl Heinrich Philipsborn at the side of the indisposed editor-in-chief John. With him, the Allgemeine Preussische Staatszeitung grew into a respected, sought-after reading object.

The Heun era and the averted end of the state newspaper

Under the direction of Karl Heun, the newspaper only experienced an upswing in terms of activity and commitment. However, Heun's efforts were quickly accompanied by a budget overrun. The Prussian king granted the state newspaper only very limited financial leeway. Overall, one could argue that the king attached little importance to his organ of government. In comparison, the French counterpart Moniteur enjoyed a very high priority. Napoleon himself proved to be an avid contributor here. Under Heun's direction, the state newspaper had made two major mistakes in its already less popular location. Embarrassingly, in October 1820 the state newspaper published information on smuggling across the Prussian-Russian border in a trade overview. A little later the state newspaper published a reprint from the Mainzer Zeitung against the will of the censor . In this the appearance of the Greek fleet in front of Constantinople was discussed, with the comment that one had the right as well as other papers to spread lies about the Greco-Turkish war. The state newspaper became the mockery of the people. The newspaper's reputation suffered severely during this period. State Chancellor Hardenberg felt compelled to formulate the concept of the government paper emphatically. The only thing that matters is correcting wrong judgments about Prussia and rejecting attacks from outside. After the death of State Chancellor Hardenberg, the paper also lost its last advocate at the king's court. The Prussian ministers suggested that the king stop the publication of the paper. The reason was as follows: The state newspaper had "caused complaints from foreign courts through careless and inappropriate statements!" In addition, the newspaper had the "tendency to tell, adventurous stories, outrage and crimes, without mentioning the consequences thereof." Journalism was considered inappropriate for a government body. The Carlsbad resolutions and the Prussian censorship dictated further problems for the publication of the newspaper . They worsened working conditions. However, the decision of the ministers to discontinue the state newspaper in January 1832 was not implemented. Ultimately, King Friedrich Wilhelm III decided. to keep the newspaper. Exact reasons for this are not documented. It can be assumed that the king recognized the advantages of the newspaper in the propagation of customs and trade policy and not least voted against the decision of his ministers. In addition, the king and government increasingly recognized the importance of public opinion and endeavored to guide it as possible.

Failure of the Prussian press policy

The Prussian government's top priority seemed to be to control and direct the newly recognized power of public opinion. Emerging liberal ideas in the 1810s were put to a halt by the Karlovy Vary resolutions . In terms of press policy, this resulted in a strict censorship dictation. For fear of major upheavals (like the previous French Revolution ), the Prussian government wanted to prevent the dissemination of critical writings. This led to the intelligentsia distancing itself more and more from the state. The politician Friedrich von Raumer stated: “Instead of […] educating the world of writing and reading for greater, real freedom and I would like to say to bring literary age closer and closer, the strictness and fearfulness of supervision has gradually increased, so that Prussia (once in this respect the most free-minded and the most loyal state, as well as the state most trusting in the understanding of its subjects) is now almost behind all others. "If the Prussian government wanted to guide public opinion, it was faced with the obstacle that its instruments (such as the Allgemeine Preussische Staatszeitung) only reached a small social class. The majority of the population in the empire lacked the opportunity to take part in political life. The old values, such as local ties, church ties and worship of kings were only slowly questioned. The Prussian government was opposed to these changes. There were hardly any open-minded politicians who could have pushed ahead with a press policy that was adapted to the new circumstances. Due to their socialization, they lacked the imagination to be able to imagine the consequences of a freedom of the press. With the Allgemeine Preußische Staatszeitung, an instrument was to be created to preserve the old values ​​of the government-oriented Prussia. However, the state newspaper lacked conception and editorial policy, so that it was unable to fully achieve its goals. The state newspaper was a failure financially as well as journalistically, because in the end, as a universally unpopular medium, it had first and foremost contributed to the alienation between government and people. Its handling as the exclusive instrument of the government and the extent of the gagging of the press shows the form of authoritarian-bureaucratic rule in Prussia. With the way out of the political immaturity of the Prussian population and the emergence of bourgeois self-confidence, the Prussian press policy and with it the Allgemeine Prussische Staatszeitung were overrun. Towards the end of the 1830s, the press became livelier and more diverse.

literature

  • Johann Caspar Struckmann: State servant as newspaper maker. The history of the Allgemeine Preußische Staatszeitung (=  small contributions to the history of Prussia . Volume 1 ). Haude and Spener, Berlin 1981, ISBN 3-7759-0240-6 .
  • Rudolf Lantzsch: To the history of the German Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette. A look back at its 120th anniversary . In: German Reichs- und Prussischer Staatsanzeiger . 1939, vol. 1, supplement 1. Verlag Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette, Berlin 1939 ( Mannheim University Library ).
  • Rudolf Lantzsch: A Berlin and German newspaper anniversary. For 125 years Anniversary of the German Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette . In: The German printing industry . 1944, Vol. 2., No. 1, pp. 12, 14, 16; No. 2, pp. 42, 44. Berlin, Frankfurt / M. 1944 ( Mannheim University Library ).

Web links

Commons : Deutscher Reichsanzeiger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Die Preußische Staatszeitung on preussen-chronik.de
  2. ^ Struckmann: State servant as newspaper maker. 1981, p. 96 ff.
  3. ^ Struckmann: State servant as newspaper maker. 1981, p. 88.
  4. a b Rudolf Lantzsch: History of the German Reichsanzeiger. 1939.
  5. ^ Struckmann: State servant as newspaper maker. 1981, p. 95 ff.
  6. ^ Friedrich von Raumer : Memoirs and Correspondence. Volume 1. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1861, p. 115.
  7. ^ Struckmann: State servant as newspaper maker. 1981, p. 118.