Urwähler newspaper

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Zero number of the Urwähler newspaper from March 29, 1849

The Urwähler newspaper was a German daily newspaper from 1849 to 1853 exclusively in the Kingdom of Prussia . With the term primary voter in relation to the three-class suffrage was meant the “original”, in the sense of “actual”, voter - the people. Accordingly, the subtitle read: “Organ for everyone from the people”. The paper contained radical democratic - communist tendencies and was directed at the Fourth Estate . The newspaper was of no importance outside of Prussia. It was made in Berlin , was published six times a week and cost 3 pfennigs .

Known

In response to the March events , the Bundestag at that time repealed the Karlovy Vary resolutions on April 2, 1848 , which contributed to the establishment of countless newspapers in the federal states . Most of these newspapers were politically one-sided and disappeared after a short time. Only those papers survived the era of reaction that could rely on a strong local following and predominantly regional reporting. With this in mind, the Urwähler newspaper was founded jointly by Franz Duncker and Aaron Bernstein . It appeared regularly from April 1, 1849. This was preceded by zero numbers on March 29, 30 and 31, 1849. The sheet was banned several times during its four-year existence and had a limited range .

In contrast, the Urwähler newspaper gained a certain degree of awareness within the Prussian administration. Today it is considered to be one of the best-documented examples of Prussian press policy during the introduction of the separation of powers . The Prussian Constitution (1848/1850), for the first time on German soil, defined a large number of basic and defense rights of the citizen against the state as well as the separation between legislative , judicial and executive branches . In particular, Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey , the General Police Director of Berlin, ignored this new formation and often deliberately bypassed the administrative administration. He repeatedly enforced bans on newspapers which, in his view, were “in principle in practical contradiction with the principles of the constitutional monarchy ”.

Hinckeldey accused the Interior Ministry of not taking preventive legal measures to take action against organs hostile to the state. As the "worst examples" he listed the Urwähler newspaper and the Kreuzzeitung newspaper . He had issues of these newspapers confiscated at regular intervals on his own initiative, and contrary to the legal requirements, the public prosecutor was only called in after days or weeks . A complaint from the Urwähler newspaper was unsuccessful. The Chief Public Prosecutor Christian Carl Theodor Ludwig Sethe pointed out in a letter to the General Police Director that, firstly, confiscation for more than 24 hours without the involvement of the public prosecutor's office would be unlawful and, secondly, that confiscation in front of the editorial staff was always with reference to the relevant criminal or press law norm must take place. However, he did not seek to lift the ban. Rather, the public prosecutor's office stipulated that the police officers' reasons for the prohibition against the Urwähler editors were not sufficient , "because the publisher of the Urwähler-Zeitung continually violated the legal requirements".

In his reply, Hinckeldey stated that he did not feel obliged to take orders from the public prosecutor's office, since this would only be an "coordinated authority" for the police headquarters. In addition, the Urwähler newspaper had repeatedly not given the specimen copy in time, for which he had to call it to order with the options available to him. As a result of this correspondence, a dispute broke out between the Prussian Ministry of Justice and the police headquarters, which, after a lengthy dispute, was decided in favor of Hinckeldey. He complained that he had, for example, had the Urwähler newspaper confiscated a total of fourteen times in the past year and a half, but that the prosecution only tried it twice in court. The Prussian Interior Minister Ferdinand von Westphalen then issued an unequivocal arrangement against the primary voters newspaper the concession withdrawal process due to begin "their tangled contents", which ultimately led to the discontinuation of the newspaper.

On March 27, 1853, the paper was finally banned. On April 9, 1853, Duncker took over the shares in Bernstein and continued the newspaper as the people's newspaper - organ for everyone from the people .

Editors (selection)

  • Aaron Bernstein
  • Hermann Holdheim

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Hauff : Morning paper for educated readers . Volume 45. JG Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1851. P. 232.
  2. ↑ Kurt Koszyk, Karl Hugo Pruys: Dictionary for journalism. Walter de Gruyter, 1970, p. 222.
  3. ^ Richard Kohnen: Press Policy of the German Confederation: Methods of State Press Policy after the Revolution of 1848. Kohnen-Vogell Verlag, 1995, pp. 128-136.

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