Provincial Correspondence

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The Provinzial-Correspondenz was a semi-official Prussian press organ that appeared from 1863 to 1884. As it was published in close connection with the Prussian government, it was, like the latest communications , which appeared from 1882 to 1894, as the mouthpiece of Otto von Bismarck .

The Provincial Correspondence

The Provinzial-Correspondenz, like the literary office (government press agency) and the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, was Bismarck's attempt to break the opinion leadership of the influential liberal press at the time of the Prussian army conflict . The Provinzial-Correspondenz, like a news agency, delivered official advertisements, documents such as pronouncements and parliamentary speeches, as well as political reports, and formed a weekly supplement in the circular gazettes, which were mainly distributed in the rural parts of Prussia. The small provincial papers were largely dependent on the provincial correspondence and mostly took over the political articles in full.

The Provinzial-Correspondenz was one of the largest weekly newspapers of its time with a circulation of up to 150,000 copies in some cases, but it achieved only a comparatively low overall circulation. This was between a fifth and a third of the entire Prussian press.

As a semi-official publication organ, it received attention beyond Prussia in the other German states and abroad. The Provincial Correspondence openly sided with Bismarck and helped disseminate his views. Responsible was the secret councilor Ludwig Ernst Hahn ("Preß-Hahn"). After this kind of open propaganda became less effective, the provincial correspondence was discontinued.

Latest news

The indirect successor with a completely different concept started with the latest communications. It was founded in response to the severe defeat of the government and conservatives in the Reichstag elections of 1881 . The organ was financed with money from Bismarck's secret reptile fund . However, this funding as well as the position close to the government were concealed, so that the support for Bismarck's policy was not so obvious.

digitalization

The Berlin State Library has made an online edition of the Provincial Correspondenz and the latest communications available for free use as part of the project “Digitization of the Prussian Official Press”. The main articles of all editions are fully indexed as short registers in a structured subject and geographic index. The original texts are supplemented by short biographies of the persons mentioned and explanations of the place names.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Stöber, Rudolf: Bismarck's secret press organization from 1882, in: Historische Zeitschrift, 262/1996, no. 2, pp. 423–451.
  2. ^ Stöber, Rudolf: The "Provinzial-Correspondenz" 1863-1884. The largest political "Wochenblatt" of its time, in: Publizistik, 44/1999, No. 2, pp. 165-184.
  3. ↑ Albrecht Hoppe, Rudolf Stöber: DFG project digitization of the Prussian official press in the second half of the 19th century and preparation of a factual commentary, in: Yearbook for Communication History 8 (2006), pp. 220–246.

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