Volksstimme (Cologne)

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People's Voice

language German
First edition 1946
attitude 1956
Sold edition 46,600 copies

The Volksstimme (subtitle: "Newspaper for Peace, Unity and Democracy") was the most effective publicity tool of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in the Cologne and Aachen area from 1946 to 1956 .

history

It first appeared on March 4, 1946 with an initial print run of 146,000 copies. In order for a newspaper to appear at all in 1946, it required approval (license) from the respective Allied military authorities. In March 1946 the KPD received the license for the newspapers Freiheit in Düsseldorf and the Volksstimme in Cologne. The license meant that each newspaper was bound by certain licensing provisions prescribed by the military authorities. The British military government respected z. B. strictly on the fact that the KPD newspapers do not document their party affiliation too clearly. Even if it corresponded exactly to the licensing regulations, this did not prevent the occupation authorities from drastically reducing the circulation of the Kölner Volksstimme and three other KPD newspapers in North Rhine-Westphalia with effect from August 1, 1946 . The British press control department wrote to the Westdeutsche Volks-Echo (Dortmund) in August 1946 : “We have noticed the tendency to bring too much party news by publishing political propaganda on the first page.” An article in the Volksstimme from April 1948 only criticized the new electoral code introduced by the DGB in the British zone. As a result, the Volksstimme was banned by the military government from May 2, 1948 to June 2, 1948. In August 1950, the following communist daily newspapers were banned for three months in one fell swoop : The Central Organ Free People (Düsseldorf), the Hamburger Volkszeitung , the Neue Volkszeitung (Dortmund), the Lower Saxony Volksstimme (Hanover), the Südbayerische Volkszeitung (Munich), Unser Tag (Freiburg), the Volksecho (Detmold), and the Volksstimme (Cologne). The newspaper appeared until it was banned on August 17, 1956.

The newspaper had a local section for the Aachen area with the headline “Aachen, Wurm, Rur”. The articles below document the activities of the KPD in the Aachen , Düren and Jülich districts .

editorial staff

Kurt Bachmann (later DKP chairman) and the first editor-in-chief, Ismar Heilborn, had been licensed by the Volksstimme since the spring of 1946 . Heilborn had already been editor from 1931 to the end of February 1933, then the last editor-in-chief of the KPD daily newspaper Sozialistische Republik in Cologne.

In 1956, there was a local editorial office in Aachen, Horngasse 11. Otto Mark, Düren, Uhlandstrasse was responsible for the content of the local site.

publishing company

The Volksstimme was initially printed as a licensed newspaper by M. DuMont Schauberg in Cologne; its editorial office was located in the badly damaged DuMont Schaubergschen press building on Breite Strasse. In 1956 the Volksstimme was published by COLONIA-Verlag GmbH Cologne, Friesenwall 29. The printing took place in 1956 in the Rheinisch-Westphalian Volksdruckerei in Düsseldorf .

Employee

Kurt Kühn was responsible for the content (except for local items) in 1956.

Archives

Copies of the Volksstimme are completely available in the Eschweiler City Archives (born 1946 to 1956), beginning with the edition of March 4, 1946 and ending with the edition of August 17, 1956. The years 1946 to 1951 of the Volksstimme are available in digitized form. The newspaper holdings of the district archive in the Rhein-Erft district contain copies of the Cologne edition of the Volksstimme from 1946–1955.

literature

  • Christa Hempel-Küter: The KPD press in the western zones from 1945 to 1956: historical introduction, bibliography and directory of locations, Verlag P. Lang, 1993, 466 pages, ISBN 9783631463116 , pp. 439, 444, 460
  • Jost Dülffer: Cologne in the 50s: between tradition and modernization, SH-Verlag, 2001, 461 pages, ISBN 9783894981020 , p. 380
  • Reinhold Billstein: The other Cologne: democracy. Traditions since d. Franz. Revolution, Pahl-Rugenstein, 1979, 510 pages, ISBN 9783760904672 , p. 440
  • Günter Bers: A regional structure of the KPD: The Middle Rhine District and its party congresses in the years 1927/1929, Einhorn Presse Verlag, 1981, 247 pages, ISBN 3-887560-21-3 , page 194

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Otto Dann: Cologne after National Socialism, Verlag Hammer, 1981, 260 pages, ISBN 9783872941770 , p. 181
  2. ^ Willy Perk: Occupying power against freedom of the press: History of the newspaper "Westdeutsches Volksecho" May 7, 1946-4. May 1948, Verlag Marxistische Blätter, 1979, 84 pages, ISBN 9783880125551 , p. 8