Telegraph (newspaper)
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The Telegraf was a daily newspaper close to the SPD in Berlin in the post-war years . It was founded in 1946 by Arno Scholz . Its circulation grew to 550,000 copies in the first year of publication and the number of employees at Telegraf-Verlagsgesellschaft mbH (later renamed Arani-Verlag GmbH ) rose to over 700. The newspaper was just able to celebrate its 25th anniversary when, in the course of the changing Ostpolitik, its former ideological basis ceased and it had to be discontinued in 1972.
On March 15, 1946, the former Vorwärts reporter, editor of the Hanoverian SPD newspaper Volkswille until 1933 and recognized resistance fighter Arno Scholz received the license to found this daily newspaper from the British military administration in Berlin - without the territorial restriction that was customary at the time. He was able to win over the former President of the Reichstag, Paul Löbe, and Annedore Leber , the widow of Julius Leber , who was executed in the so-called Third Reich, as co-license holder . In addition, he was able to take over the printing company of the British daily Der Berliner , where he was previously the managing director. Over the years, a whole media group grew out of it with three other newspapers and a magazine ( Mosaik , Blickpunkt , Puck and Illus ), the editions of which were also sold in East Berlin . From 1949 the weekly edition Der kleine Telegraf (in DIN A5 format ) was also published with its own illegal correspondents in East Berlin and the Soviet zone , the circulation of which (around 100,000 copies) was secretly distributed in the East. The militant telegraph had set itself the goal of preventing the compulsory unification of the SPD and KPD to form the SED , which was also reflected in numbers in the election for the city council of Greater Berlin in 1946 : Almost 50 percent of all Berliners decided for the SPD - for the SED less than 20 percent.
In addition to the strong competition from the Berliner Morgenpost and the BZ , the Telegraf then lost many readers who saw dangers to the security of West Berlin precisely because of its unreserved support for the social-liberal Ostpolitik . Added to this were the losses caused by the construction of the wall - East Berliners could no longer buy the newspaper. In 1971 the founder, publisher, publisher and editorialist Arno Scholz also died. The newspaper was finally shut down after an unsuccessful last rescue attempt by the SPD's own German printing and publishing company .
The last publication took place on Friday, June 30, 1972 with no. 146, volume 27 at the price of 30 Pfennig with the title “Aus! Condemned to be silent ”. Further contents of the last newspaper publication were the topics: "A wave of indignation - So monopoly for Springer", "A political scandal - Turbulent works meeting of Telegraf and Nacht-depesche ". The extensive photo archive with around 130,000 photos became the property of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation .
literature
- Susanne Grebner: The telegraph. Creation of a licensed newspaper close to the SPD in Berlin 1946–1950 , Lit-Verlag, Berlin 2002. ISBN 978-3-8258-4540-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Dietrich Oppenberg : Handbuch Deutsche Presse 1947. Reprint of the newspaper section . Econ Verlag, Düsseldorf 1996, ISBN 3-430-17288-8 (p. 271).
- ↑ The small telegraph : ZEFYS research in the Berlin State Library (accessed on April 11, 2012)
- ^ Report Was a barrel . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1972, p. 55 ( online ).