Reich Press School

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The Reich Press School (RPS) in Berlin was an institution under public law during the Nazi era , a legally dependent institution of the Reich Association of the German Press (RDP), which was initiated by the Reich Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda (RMVP), Joseph Goebbels . It was based on the model of the fascist press school in Rome from 1930 to 1933 , which Goebbels had visited in 1933.

Legal basis

The interior of the non- academic educational institution based on the published on October 4, 1933 Editor Law , which provided in its paragraphs 5, paragraph 6, "editor may be only those who are trained professionally". In Paragraph 7, Paragraph 1, it was then explained that “professionally trained” is “anyone who has acquired the knowledge of an editor through at least one year of training with the editorial staff of a German newspaper […] and can prove this with a certificate from the editorial staff” . The course time at the Reich Press School should not be counted towards the one-year training period specified in the editors' law. The term editor stood for the editor .

By order of the Reich Association of the German Press (RDP) of July 23, 1936, published in the Periodikum Deutsche Presse , the head of the RDP, Wilhelm Weiß , stated: Attending the Reich Press School was "an essential part of professional training". Weiß claimed for himself to appoint the head of the Reich Press School. “In the new empire”, journalism is “no longer a civil affair, but a task for whole guys and people full of character”.

The Reich press school was only mentioned in the second edition of the official legal commentary in 1938: "Attending the Reich press school is a further prerequisite for proper training".

background

The editors' law led to a significant reduction in staff in the journalistic work areas, as it excluded Jews (exception: former combatants) and politically unpopular people. The Reich Press School was professionally trained and in the sense of NS - ideology to train reliable editor. The editors were obliged to “participate in the design of the intellectual content of German newspapers” and in future were no longer responsible for the publishers but for the “ people's body ”. For their admission the successfully completed editor's course at the Reich Press School was a prerequisite. The academically trained newspaper scholars at German universities therefore also had to complete a course at the Reich Press School in order to become editors . In contrast, a more recent research result says that attendance at the Reich Press School was never compulsory, as was the case with its Italian model, and at no point was it able to assert itself against academic journalistic training.

The newspaper scholars of that time viewed the Reichspresseschule with skepticism and even dismissive, as they recognized its non-academic training as a threat to their profession .

Newspapers, magazines and books were available to the course participants in an extensive library , the establishment and equipment of which cost around 15,000 Reichsmarks by 1939 .

requirements

Conditions for admission to the Reich Press School were the legal age of the respective applicant and the successful completion of a nine-month (from 1936: ten-month) traineeship with a German press organ . These media had to bear the costs of the course for their volunteers, which included pocket money for the participants.

The school fee was 50 Reichsmarks per month; Scholarships were not provided. As part of an entrance examination, 121 questions had to be answered in a questionnaire “in short telegram style” on world , domestic and cultural politics , the economy , socialism , nationality , racial theory and the Jewish question .

Courses

On January 9, 1935, under the director Wolf Meyer-Christian, the courses of the Reich Press School began, which had been settled in a villa in Berlin - Dahlem at Messelstrasse 5-11. The palatial property had previously the Jewish couple Hermann and Johanna "Hansi" Ploschitzki heard that in Potsdam , the department store F. Schwarz (later renamed: Warehouse Lindemann) had operated. Various photos from a commercial photo agency can be found on the Reichspresseschule using search engines.

As a makeshift, the course participants were housed in a boarding school, initially on the first floor of an apartment building in Berlin- Tiergarten , Klopstockstrasse 52. In advance, they were given precise instructions regarding items to be brought with them, such as items of clothing, cutlery, passport photo and typewriter. At the beginning, all participants were ordered to the Gütergotz training camp in the southeast of Berlin for two weeks , where they expected "not a snappy, but a hard-working life". Reich trainer Hans Schwarz van Berk had already announced at the end of 1934: “We are now at the beginning of a class formation that corresponds to that of the Prussian officer corps. We are linked to the state in our service. That is why the upbringing of the next generation must tie in with the best traditions of the Prussian army and its training must correspond to that of the cadet corps. "

The graduates of the courses of the Reich Press School received no certificates. Instead, an expert opinion was drawn up that contained an assessment. Course participants who were expelled from school in the meantime had a chance of repetition, provided they had not been banned from working.

Thirteen courses were held in total, the fourteenth was planned to begin at the end of September 1939. The candidates for this had already passed their preliminary examination on July 20, 1939. On August 14, 1939, your formal call-up for this course was sent. The beginning of the war on September 1, 1939 changed the conditions, however, and the Reich Press School was closed. The Wehrmacht's need for soldiers was given priority.

Management functions

  • Hans Schwarz van Berk (1902–1973), journalist, Reich trainer for the German press; Member of the Presidential Council of the Reich Press Chamber, member of the Press Court
  • Károly Kampmann (1902–1945), journalist, politician, civil servant, chairman of the training management and member of the board of directors of the Reich Press School

Graduates (selection)

literature

  • Contemporary exile press
  • Retrospective research results
    • Walter Hagemann: Journalism in the Third Reich - A contribution to the methodology of mass leadership . Hansischer Gildenverlag, Hamburg 1948.
    • Joseph Wulf: Press and Radio in the Third Reich - A Documentation . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek 1966.
    • Eugenio Gallavotti: La scuola fascista di giornalismo (1930-1933) . SugarCo, Milano 1982.
    • Hans Bohrmann: NS press instructions of the pre-war period . Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1987. ISBN 978-3-11-097752-3 (Reprint 2015), p. 34.
    • Wolfgang Müsse: The Reich Press School - Journalists for the dictatorship? A contribution to the history of journalism in the Third Reich . Phil. Diss. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. KG Saur, Munich a. a. 1995. ISBN 3-598-21316-6 .
    • Björn Hoffmann: The daily press and the radio in National Socialism and Italian fascism in comparison . Diplom.de 2000. ISBN 978-3-8324-3180-8 .
    • Christoph Studt (Ed.): "Servant of the State" or "Resistance Between the Lines" ?: the role of the press in the "Third Reich" (XVIII. Königswinter Conference February 2005) . (= Series of publications by the Research Association July 20, 1944 eV, Vol. 8) LIT Verlag, Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-9781-9 .
    • Eva Züchner: The missing journalist - A German story . Berlin-Verlag, Berlin 2010. ISBN 978-3-8270-0896-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eugenio Gallavotti: La scuola fascista di giornalismo (1930-1933) . SugarCo, Milano 1982, p. 41ff. OCLC 11085918
  2. ↑ Editor's Act October 4, 1933 , at: dpmu.de, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  3. ^ Deutsche Presse, 19 (1935), May 11, 1935, p. 233.
  4. ↑ Announcement on the recruitment and training of editors i. A. (i.A. = in training), in: Deutsche Presse, 48 (1936), p. 584.
  5. ^ Deutsche Presse, 37 (1935), September 14, 1935, p. 453.
  6. ^ Wilhelm Weiß: Press and National Socialism , in: Deutsche Presse, 29 (1935), July 20, 1935, pp. 347-350.
  7. ↑ Christoph Studt (Ed.): "Servant of the State" or "Resistance Between the Lines" ?: the role of the press in the "Third Reich" (XVIII. Königswinter Conference February 2005) . (= Series of publications of the research community July 20, 1944 eV, vol. 8) LIT Verlag, Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-9781-9 , p. 90.
  8. ↑ a b c Eva Züchner: The missing journalist . eBook Verlag, Berlin 2010.
  9. ^ Walter Hagemann: Journalism in the Third Reich - A contribution to the methodology of mass leadership . Hansischer Gildenverlag, Hamburg 1948. S. 38f.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Müsse: The Reich Press School - Journalists for the dictatorship? A contribution to the history of journalism in the Third Reich . Phil. Diss. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. KG Saur, Munich a. a. 1995. ISBN 3-598-21316-6 , pp. 88ff.
  11. ↑ a b c Christoph Studt (Hrsg.): "Diener des Staats" or "Resistance between the lines" ?: the role of the press in the "Third Reich" (XVIII. Königswinter Conference February 2005) . (= Publication series of the research community July 20, 1944 eV, vol. 8) LIT Verlag, Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-9781-9 , p. 99.
  12. ↑ Legal age = 21st year of age according to § 2 BGB since January 1st, 1900 resp. German Reich Law Gazette (RGBl.) Volume 1875, No. 8, Page 71 of February 17, 1875.
  13. ↑ Wolfgang Müsse: The Reich Press School - Journalists for the dictatorship? A contribution to the history of journalism in the Third Reich . Phil. Diss. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster. KG Saur, Munich a. a. 1995. ISBN 3-598-21316-6 .
  14. ^ The inauguration of the Reich Press School, in: Deutsche Presse, 18 (1936), p. 206.
  15. ↑ Photo 1: Opening of the Reich Press School in Berlin, 1935 , from: alamy.com, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  16. ↑ Photo 2: Opening of the Reichspresseschule in Berlin, 1935 , from: alamy.com, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  17. ↑ Photo 3: Opening of the Reich Press School in Berlin, 1935 , from: alamy.com, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  18. ↑ Photo 4: Course participants at the Reich Press School in Berlin, 1936 , from: alamy.com, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  19. ↑ Photo 5: Course participants at the Reich Press School in Berlin, 1936 , from: alamy.com, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  20. ^ Special issue Reichspresseschule, German Press, August 10, 1935.
  21. ^ German press, December 1, 1934.
  22. ↑ Christoph Studt (Ed.): "Servant of the State" or "Resistance Between the Lines" ?: the role of the press in the "Third Reich" (XVIII. Königswinter Conference February 2005) . (= Series of publications of the research community July 20, 1944 eV, vol. 8) LIT Verlag, Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-9781-9 , p. 100.
  23. ↑ Christoph Studt (Ed.): "Servant of the State" or "Resistance Between the Lines" ?: the role of the press in the "Third Reich" (XVIII. Königswinter Conference February 2005) . (= Series of publications by the Research Association July 20, 1944 eV, Vol. 8) LIT Verlag, Münster 2007. ISBN 978-3-8258-9781-9 , pp. 102-103.
  24. ↑ Rudolf Stöber: Review of the dissertation The Reich Press School - Journalists for the dictatorship? A contribution to the history of journalism in the Third Reich by Wolfgang Müsse, in: Medienwissenschaft 4 (1995), III book, press and other print media, pp. 441–442. (PDF file; 556 KB), from: uni-marburg.de, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  25. ↑ Jochen Lehnhardt: The Waffen SS - Birth of a Legend. Himmler's warriors in Nazi propaganda . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2017. ISBN 978-3-657-78688-6 , pp. 166-167.
  26. ↑ Press Office: Große Lage , in: Der Spiegel 42 (1968), October 14, 1968, on: spiegel.de, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  27. ↑ Writing for Nazis , from: deutschlandfunk.de, accessed on December 2, 2017.
  28. ↑ Friedrich Wolff's biography , at: parlamentarischerrat.de, accessed on December 2, 2017.