Editor's Law
The editors' law (passed on October 4, 1933 , entered into force on January 1, 1934 ) was one of the most important instruments for bringing the press into line in the National Socialist German Reich . In it, the permission to practice the profession and the duties of the editor ( editor , journalist ) were laid down.
The law created the legal basis for controlling press content and regulated the personal and political requirements that an editor had to meet in order to be allowed to exercise the profession.
For the exercise of the profession of editor, the entry in the professional list of the Reich Press Chamber , a department of the Reich Chamber of Culture , was binding. For its part, the Reich Chamber of Culture was subject to the instructions of the Propaganda Ministry (RMVP) headed by Goebbels . One year of vocational training had to be presented to be included in the list. An activity was only possible after a course lasting several months with a final examination to become an editor. Thus every editor possessed a status similar to an official, which required him to be loyal to the (National Socialist) state and therefore, like all officials during the time of National Socialism , he also needed an Aryan certificate . Due to the necessary Aryan certificate , Jews were basically excluded from practicing the profession, with some exceptions going back to the front-line combatant privilege introduced by Hindenburg . In addition, the journalist had to be at least 21 years old.
The chief editor was in charge of the editor . He was given responsibility for compliance with the law and responsibility for the content of a newspaper. On the other hand, since the (main) editor-in-chief was subject to the guidelines and instructions of the Reich Press Chamber and thus to the RMVP's superior, the publisher was often no longer able to influence the content of the newspaper. The publisher could not terminate or hire the editor without the permission of the Reich Press Chamber.
The Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote on the adoption of the editors' law:
“As a result, the role of the press is radically changed. It essentially consists in no longer discussing but interpreting and helping the government to support the decisions of the government with the arguments it is able to provide. "
About 1,300 journalists lost their jobs when the law came into force . Many liberal newspapers such as B. the Vossische Zeitung in Berlin, had to stop its publication.
literature
- Manfred Pohl : M. DuMont Schauberg : The struggle for the independence of the newspaper publisher under the Nazi dictatorship . Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-593-38919-6 .
- Katrin Diehl: The Jewish press in the Third Reich: between self-assertion and outside determination . Niemeyer, Tübingen 1997, ISBN 3-484-65117-2 (Zugl .: Munich, Univ., Diss.).
Web links
- Editor's Law of October 4, 1933 , published in the Reichsgesetzblatt of October 7, 1933.
- For historical orientation: The editors' law from historian Bernd Sösemann .
- Exemplary "deletion" from the professional list in the case of Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt :Wikisource: Stuckenschmidt professional ban - sources and full texts
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://pressechronik1933.dpmu.de/zur-historischen-orientierung-das-schriftleitergesetz/
- ↑ § 20, 2 of the editors law
- ↑ see Oron J. Hale : Press in the straitjacket. 1933-1945. Droste, Düsseldorf 1965, p. 93 f.
- ↑ Max Ruchner: Comments on the German editors law . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Zurich October 10, 1933