Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung

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The Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung was an important left-Catholic newspaper in the Weimar Republic. It was also the first diocese newspaper of the Catholic diocese of Limburg . The Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung was founded by Friedrich Dessauer and first appeared in Frankfurt in 1923 . It had a meaning for the reform discussion in German Catholicism in the interwar period that went far beyond the diocese. It appeared in a local diocese and in a German edition.

staff

The sheet was looked after by a young editorial team. Most of the editors were 20 to 30 years old. Heinrich Scharp was the chief editor . Other important authors were Werner Thormann , Ernst Michel and the features editor Walter Dirks . The latter took an extremely left-wing political stance within the editorial team, while the editor Dessauer represented a more conservative current within reform Catholicism. The commercial director was Josef Knecht .

The newspaper's theater critic was Reinhold Lindemann , with whom the "anti-Semitic" historian Wilhelm Grau lived as a sublet. Through Lindemann, Grau received a traineeship in the editorial office.

Political orientation

In addition to its importance for the Diocese of Limburg, the RMV quickly became the organ of reform Catholicism throughout Germany in the interwar period. Above all young, church and politically committed lay people as well as young priests were among the readership. The older generation of priests tended more towards newspapers like " Germania " or the " Kölnische Volkszeitung ". Accordingly, topics related to the Catholic youth movement and social reform discussions also played a large part. Politically, the paper was close to the left wing of the Center Party, but remote from the conservative representatives of the party. The Frankfurt city association of the center, which was dominated by Dessauer, largely supported the RMV.

The Limburg diocese historian Klaus Schatz describes the political stance as follows: "They [the RMV] represented clear political options that were closest to those of the left-wing center politician Wirth: domestic policy was the integration of workers into society and the state, foreign policy reconciliation of the European peoples (especially the Franco-German reconciliation) as an urgent task; the editors were also leading members of the “Peace Association of German Catholics”, which was founded in 1923 and whose headquarters had been in the RMV publishing house since 1928. The RMV argued based on these content options consistently for a center-left coalition between the center and the social democrats and rejected the political alliance with the German nationalists that existed in 1925/26 and 1927/28. "

history

Friedrich Dessauer had amassed a fortune as an inventor and industrialist in the field of X-ray technology. In 1922 he invested part of his money in the Frankfurter Carolus-Druckerei and the associated Frankfurter Volkszeitung , the mouthpiece of Catholicism in the city. Both were on the verge of bankruptcy and were saved by Dessauer's investment. Dessauer, who was already involved in political Catholicism , from then on also influenced the content of the newspaper together with the parish priest Jakob Herr. Shortly thereafter, Dessauer summarized the paper with the remains of the bankrupt Offenbacher Volkszeitung . On October 1, 1923, the first edition appeared under the title Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung .

The first dispute with Bishop Augustinus Kilian came after Werner Thormann had criticized a Reich School Act in September 1925, with which the center wanted to enforce denominational schools. This question had been hotly controversial, especially in the Limburg diocese, since it was founded around a hundred years earlier. The criticism of the RMV triggered energetic opposition from the clergy, in particular from the Wiesbaden city pastor, who later became Bishop Antonius Hilfrich . Kilian issued a written complaint to the editors.

The tone became sharper in January 1926, when the bishop accused the RMV of modernism and even heresy. The occasion was a series of articles by Ernst Michels and Walter Dirks. Kilian threatened that the pastors would warn of the RMV from the pulpit. However, Friedrich Dessauer was able to get the bishop personally to prevent these sanctions from being implemented. In March, Kilian and Dessauer agreed that the local edition would in future take a less clear position on political and theological issues. In addition, the Frankfurt student pastor Josef Nielen was added to the editorial team, who should "defuse" future conflicts with the official church before publication. This was followed by further disputes about the RMV's attitude towards the expropriation of princes , about a blasphemy trial against George Grosz in 1930 and about the printing of a text by Martin Buber in 1928.

In the early 1930s, the RMV clearly positioned itself against National Socialism ; an attitude that was not shared by all currents of the church youth movement. On July 3, 1933, Friedrich Dessauer, Heinrich Scharp and Josef Knecht were arrested by the Gestapo as part of a campaign against political Catholicism , and shortly afterwards Walter Dirks as well. Scharp was released a few days later, Knecht in August. After Dirks was released in the autumn, Dessauer was tried for embezzlement in December 1933, which ended in an acquittal. He was released on Christmas Eve. On December 18, however, the regional council in Düsseldorf had already withdrawn its share in the Carolus printing company as "property against the people". On January 19, 1934, the entire printing works came under state trusteeship. Georg Schmidt acted as the new editor and ran the paper in accordance with Nazi ideology. As a result, the RMV lost almost all subscribers within a short period of time. Despite attempts by the official church to continue, the Rhein-Mainische Volkszeitung was discontinued in early 1935.

The Frankfurt pastor Alois Eckert openly contradicted both the method and the justification of the National Socialist Jewish policy in the Volkszeitung on April 4, 1933, after the nationwide boycott of Jews with several murders on April 1:

The solution to the German Jewish question cannot be sought and found on the basis of race . No human being may be inferior simply because of his race. ... German injustice is happening here.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Patricia von Papen-Bodek: Research on Jews and persecution of Jews. The habilitation of the director of the research department Jewish question, Wilhelm Grau, at the University of Munich 1937. In Elisabeth Kraus (Hrsg.): The University of Munich in the Third Reich. Essays. Volume 2. Utz, Munich 2008, pp. 209-264, ISBN 978-3-8316-0727-3 , p. 215.
  2. ↑ Dieter Schiefelbein: The " Institute for Research on the Jewish Question Frankfurt am Main". Prehistory and foundation 1935-1939. Frankfurt 1993 ISBN 3-88270-803-4 . P. 26
  3. ^ Konrad Repgen : Hitler's " seizure of power ", the Christian churches, the Jewish question and Edith Stein's petition to Pius XI. from (9) April 1933. in Edith Stein Jahrbuch 10, Echter, Würzburg 2004 Online ( Memento from 3 September 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 9.2 MB) p. 52