Publishing license

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Publishing license was a permit to found a book, sheet music and calendar (book) publisher and thus to be allowed to publish documents. It was granted by the Allied occupying powers in the four German occupation zones after the end of World War II . It was often preceded by a distribution permit, which initially allowed stocks from the pre-war and wartime periods to be sold. After the occupying powers closed all media companies in Germany on May 12, 1945, publishing activities could only be resumed with a publishing license. Due to the difficult paper situation in post-war Germany, the number of copies was limited, mostly to 5,000 for individual titles.

The publishing license was basically tied to the person to whom it was granted. It assumed that its owner had not been actively involved in National Socialist politics during the Third Reich . In the Soviet occupation zone , licenses were first given to the newly founded anti-fascist parties and organizations and only later to individuals.

The publishing license was z. Partly apparent from the imprint of the publisher's products. It also bore the designation approval and was assigned to the individual publishers with a numbering system separated by occupation zones. It was initially linked to the condition that a short biography of the author had to be included in each of the printed works : this was intended to prevent authors who were close to the National Socialist system from further publication.

Issuing of publishing licenses according to occupation zones with examples

American zone of occupation

The American military authorities were in parts of Saxony under occupation until July 4, 1945, after which the area was controlled by the Soviets. Shortly before their departure, the American military authorities organized the relocation of several leading Leipzig publishers (including owners of the Georg Thieme, Dieterich, Insel and FA Brockhaus publishers) to Frankfurt and Wiesbaden. The publishers there quickly obtained publishing licenses. They were issued by Intelligence Control, a division of the United States Army . However, all publishers were required to provide reports on individual authors prior to publication.

British zone of occupation

In the British zone of occupation and in the British sector of Berlin , a total of 242 publishing licenses had been issued by 1949. Once licensed, all manuscripts had to be submitted to the British Military Agency for preliminary censorship.

French zone of occupation

Around 200 publishers were granted licenses in the French occupation zone . The censorship procedure was stricter than in the American and British occupation zones, so that even politically completely harmless titles such as Heinrich Heine's “Book of Songs” and Immanuel Kant's “For Eternal Peace” were not allowed to be published.

  • Rainer Wunderlich Verlag (1945, Hermann Leins ), No. 1
  • Hatje Cantz Verlag (1945, Gerd Hatje), no. NN

Soviet occupation zone

Licensing policy

In all occupation zones, the issuing of publishing licenses was intended to prevent fascist and militarist literature from entering the book market. While in the old Federal Republic, as a result of the entry into force of the Basic Law on May 24, 1949, all censorship was formally abolished (Article 5, Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 of the Basic Law), developments in the Soviet zone of occupation went in a different direction.

As in the western zones of occupation, the publishing licenses were initially issued exclusively by the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SMAD). From June 3, 1946, however, the private publishers were subordinate to the Cultural Advisory Board , which was active in East Berlin and consisted of representatives of the state governments, political parties, mass organizations, universities and churches. He decided on printing permits and paper allotments. The manuscripts had to be presented to him for review before publication. This ensured a preliminary censorship.

With the establishment of the Cultural Advisory Council, the initially aimed step-by-step elimination of all private publishers was given up in favor of the now large number of state- owned publishers and those owned by parties and institutions that conform to the system. However, in 1951, due to government pressure, only 20 of 120 private publishers remained. The successor to the Cultural Advisory Board was the Office for Literature and Publishing (ALV) in 1951 with the rank of State Secretariat . It was finally dissolved in 1956, its tasks and the main administration for literature and books (from 1963 main administration for publishers and bookshops ) were taken over.

Thus, after the occupation statute was repealed, the GDR stuck to the licensing of the publisher's products. This ensured that the censorship of all publications, which was not formally envisaged under Article 27 (2) of the GDR constitutional text, and the selection of private publishers that were still permitted in accordance with political opportunity until the end of statehood in the GDR was guaranteed.

literature

  • Thomas Kay: Master's thesis: The publishing house "Neues Leben" Berlin in the period from its foundation in 1946 to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. University of Leipzig; Institute for Communication and Media Studies; Media Studies Department; therein: Buchwissenschaft, Leipzig 2001, 190 pp.
  • Sabine Knopf, Volker Title: The Leipziger Gutenbergweg. History and topography of a book city . Sax-Verlag, Beucha 2001, 200 pages, ISBN 3-934544-04-5
  • Thomas Keiderling: FA Brockhaus 1905-2005 . Leipzig, Mannheim 2005

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