Public (weekly newspaper)

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Public

description progressive catholic
Area of ​​Expertise Catholic weekly newspaper
language German
publishing company Gesellschaft für Publizistik GmbH, Frankfurt (Germany (FRG))
First edition September 27, 1968
attitude 19th November 1971
Frequency of publication weekly
Sold edition 95009 copies
()
Editor-in-chief Alois Schardt
executive Director Wilhelm Huebner
ISSN (print)

The weekly newspaper Publik appeared with the subtitle: Information, opinions, analyzes and pictures of this week from 1968 to 1971, published by the Gesellschaft für Publizistik GmbH in Frankfurt am Main .

About history

With the spirit of optimism at the Second Vatican Council , the spring meeting of the German Bishops' Conference in Bad Honnef in 1967 decided to found a Catholic weekly newspaper. It should address the politically, culturally and economically interested reader and tell him - unlike the rather conservative Rheinische Merkur  - “about all processes in the Catholic area, about the Church in the world, about theological developments, about ecumenical questions and about all those border areas "Inform," in which church and theology meet science and technology ".

Public was intended as a communication platform for progressive Catholicism in the Federal Republic, which the then chairman of the Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Julius Döpfner , had given when it was founded, "to reflect the plurality of opinions in Catholicism and to be a forum for internal church discussion ...".

After the trial or zero number in April 1968,  the No. 1 of the 1st volume of the weekly Publik appeared on September 27, 1968 - almost as a successor to Echo der Zeit - under the direction of its managing director Wilhelm Hübner and its editor-in-chief Alois Schardt the broad spectrum of opinion that corresponded to its founding mission unfolded.

Despite the positive echo from culture and politics, the weekly newspaper, which was founded with church tax revenues, did not succeed in economically on its own two feet. In particular, there was a lack of income from the sale of advertising space because the publisher was unable to provide valid data on the readership. This was not enough to subscribe to the paper. On November 15, 1971, the German Bishops' Conference ended the " Publik" project, which, in the opinion of the majority of the Catholic German diocesan bishops, was already too critical of the church and politically too left-wing . The last issue of the weekly newspaper appeared on November 19, 1971 with No. 47 of the 4th volume.

Motivated by larger protest actions, the "Readers' Initiative Publik" was formed, which in 1972 set up a successor medium, the journal Publik-Forum , independent of the bishops .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Like the work of Satan . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1971, p. 60 ( online ).
  2. Quote from: New! Public! The Rheinische Merkur and its youngest competitor . In: Die Zeit , No. 16/1968
  3. Quote from: Like the work of Satans . In: Der Spiegel . No. 43 , 1971, p. 60 ( online ).
  4. statement of the Secretariat of the German Bishops Conference: Pubik is dead, in Publik, 19 November 1971 . Ed .: Gesellschaft für Publizistik GmbH. Frankfurt am Main, S. 1 .
  5. Florian Bock: The "Publik" case - Catholic press in the Federal Republic of Germany around 1968 . Ed .: Commission for Contemporary History by Wilhelm Damberg. Row B, volume 128 . Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2015, ISBN 978-3-506-76642-7 , pp. 316-319 .
  6. Peter Hertel / Ulrich Teiner: "Publik" is dead, long live the "Rheinische Merkur", in: In principle black. German Catholicism and Politics . Torch bearer, Hanover 1975, ISBN 3-7716-2096-1 , p. 134-137 .