Newspaper Service Graf Reischach

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The newspaper service Graf Reischach was a German news agency based in Berlin . It came into being in the last years of the Weimar Republic and was run by Hans Joachim Graf von Reischach , an early supporter of National Socialism (participation in the Hitler putsch of 1923) and (chief) editor of various Nazi newspapers. From the beginning, close to the NSDAP and designed for their Gaupresse, the company was acquired for the party a few years after it was founded and remained under their control until 1945. At the end of the Second World War , operations ceased.

history

Development phase

In 1931 the National Socialist Newspaper Service was founded by Robert Ley , who in September of that year commissioned Reischach to set up an office in Berlin. The complete move to the capital followed at the end of the year. On December 1, 1932, Reischach took over the service now named after him, to which additional interested parties were added in the course of the conversion of the Nazi newspapers from weekly to daily publication. (In the literature and the newspaper scientific journals, the founding history of the service is usually only presented in partial aspects and sometimes with the takeover as a new establishment.) According to an article on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the service, the neutral-looking name was a "camouflage", In reality, the service committed itself in its self-image to a fight with (as also a previous anniversary article) initially extremely modest means against the "system press", which was described as apparently overpowering at the time.

At the time of the takeover by Reischach, the service provided news for six newspapers ( Bayerische Ostmark , Rote Erde , Schlesische Tageszeitung , Niedersächsische Tageszeitung , Westdeutscher Beobachter and Schleswig-Holsteinische Tageszeitung ). In April 1933 the first telex connection was established with the General-Anzeiger for Dortmund , and in 1934 the establishment of a foreign service began, for which correspondents were ultimately active in all European capitals. For the non-European area it is known that there was at least one representative in Iran . The Germany service followed in 1937. The rapid expansion led to the fact that after the above-mentioned anniversary article, 40 Gau newspapers were finally supplied and 150 permanent employees and numerous freelance workers were employed.

Established pre-war agency

Around 15 to 20 editors worked within the headquarters, who in addition to the foreign and German service, published a cultural and political service. The Berliner Musik- und Theaterbriefe as well as a cable service with “Interesting things from all over the world” appeared as regular supplements.

According to Fritz Schmidt, a former employee of the administration office of the Reichsleiter for the press ( Max Amann ) of the NSDAP under Rolf Rienhardt , the service became “young, linguistically gifted and particularly capable” journalists who had already gained experience in the party newspapers and who appeared ideologically stable , posted abroad for study purposes and for reporting. For Rienhardt, the model for this approach was the British newspapers, of which the Times in particular relied on such a constantly refreshed staff of specialists for foreign countries. In addition, there were also full-time correspondents whose reports were divided up by the service together with the editorial staff of the administrative office for those party newspapers whose areas of distribution did not touch. For the newspapers, behind which the NSDAP's own Franz-Eher-Verlag should not be visible as the publisher, other services with their own correspondents have been set up (Schmidt's report, written shortly after the Second World War, is generally only due to numerous errors and apologetic tendency to be used critically), but at least some of the above statements can be confirmed).

The news was spread by telex, telephone and letter. For the former transmission route, 17 devices were available for the most important customers. Although the service was originally supposed to only supply the Gau press, the bourgeois media soon resorted to it, as it offered topics that were not covered by the German News Office and the National Socialist party correspondence . In April 1937 the company was taken over by Max Amann, which made it part of the property of the NSDAP. Initially housed in one house with the Telegraph Union , it moved to Charlottenstrasse with its successor, the Deutsches Nachrichtenbüro, until the service was finally on the same street in the house of the Nazi press , which was inaugurated in 1936 and which was responsible for the Berlin editors of the most important Nazi Newspapers in a central location, was housed.

Correspondents for the agency were expelled several times, from Rome in 1935 , from London in 1937 and from Warsaw in 1939 . The Italy correspondent was accused of fabricating fictitious news about the mood in Italy about the Abyssinian War. In the deportation of the correspondent in London, his past as the local group leader of the NSDAP in Rome played a role; in this function, according to a report, he acted repressively and threatened to denounce the German ambassador, he also spied on the German ambassador and carried out military espionage (there is also already too many German journalists in the country). The German side confirmed that the Poland correspondent had not given rise to any complaint and that the alleged pretexts were not explained.

Second World War

In National Socialist Germany, there was a sideline from various news agencies, some of which had overlapping work areas. This displeased Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels , who, according to his diaries, pushed for a reorganization in February 1942. According to his ideas, Transocean should only work overseas and Europapress only in Europe, while the German news office should not be subject to any restrictions. The Reischach service was supposed to take over the evaluation of Transocean and Europapress in the German Reich, while it had to hand over all internal German items to these foreign services. In the course of this reorganization, he was also to be transferred from party to state ownership, because in Goebbels' view, news policy was the sovereign function of the state. Here Goebbels was unable to assert himself, the Reischach service remained under the control of the NSDAP. Nevertheless, he still belonged to the agencies and newspapers, on whose representatives he tried to influence fundamental issues.

During the Second World War, the service occasionally supplied the front newspapers in addition to the domestic press . The war reports also came from Reischach itself, this also applied to the chief editor Karl Türk, who was described by Werner Stephan in his memoirs as a leading foreign politician in the party press, who was caught up in National Socialism at an early age and joined Reischach at a young age. Turk, according to Stephan, without illusions and critical, died according to the report of a field newspaper in 1941 as an editor-soldier on the Eastern Front . He seems to have shared this fate with some of his colleagues, the anniversary article reports, that almost all of the editors became or were soldiers and mostly were deployed as war correspondents. Up to that point in time, five editors (according to the wording of the article) had died a “heroic death”. Towards the end of the war, the service ceased operations along with the rest of the Amann press empire.

Employees (selection)

  • Harald Böckmann, previously a. a. Chief editor of the Hamburger Tageblatt and department head of the German news office
  • Cornelia "Lia" Clarke, Irish pro-Nazi writer and journalist, married to Austin Clarke . She came to the Reischach service as compensation for a vacated position at the German news office.
  • Willi Janke, correspondent in Brussels and The Hague , previously in Amsterdam for Wolff's Telegraphic Bureau and the German News Office. Later worked in the Reich Commissioner of the Netherlands as head of press, then in Zurich as vice consul.
  • Wilhelm Jung, previously head of the information service of the Reich press office of the NSDAP and head of the party press service in the press policy office of the NSDAP (became a party member by falsifying the date of birth in 1925 at the age of 13)
  • Wolfdieter von Langen, correspondent in Rome (also local group leader of the NSDAP), residence permit not extended, then in London (expelled from there in 1937, see history section)
  • Rudolf Pörtner , journalist and writer
  • Kurt Teege , expelled from Warsaw in 1939 (see history section), later first chief editor of the occupation newspaper Deutsche Zeitung in Norway
  • Ludwig Vogl, later for a short time chief editor of the Krakauer Zeitung

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Five years of existence of the Graf Reischach newspaper service. In: German press. (Vol. 28), edition 2, 1938, p. 33.
    Werner Loesch: Essence and meaning of correspondence in journalism. Dissertation. Dresden 1939, p. 59.
    Isabell Voigt: Correspondence offices as helpers of the press. In: Jürgen Wilke (Ed.): Put under pressure. Four chapters of German press history. (= Media in the past and present. 17). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-412-10506-6 , p. 122.
  2. ↑ The prehistory is not dealt with in the following works / articles:
    Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (Ed.): Nazi press instructions from the pre-war period. Volume 4 / III, Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , p. 1150 (taken from Jürgen Wilke : Press instructions in the twentieth century. First World War, Third Reich, GDR. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-10506-8 , p. 121).
    Ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), edition 6/7, 1943, pp. 273-274.
    André Uzulis writes in his dissertation that the service was created by the Reichsleiter for the press of the NSDAP, Max Amann. It seems here that he interpreted the following sentences from Fritz Schmidt as follows: “There were also special facilities for the large regional party newspapers' own foreign reporting created by Amann's staff. They were summarized in the 'Graf Reischach Service', Berlin [...] “Anonymous (Fritz Schmidt): Press in fetters. A description of the Nazi press trust. Verlag Archiv und Kartei, Berlin 1947, p. 230 and André Uzulis: News agencies in National Socialism. Propaganda Instruments and Means of Press Control. (= European university publications, series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 636). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-631-48061-X , p. 174 (also dissertation Hanover 1994).
  3. ↑ Five years of existence of the Graf Reischach newspaper service. In: German press. 1938 (vol. 28), issue 2, p. 33 and ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), edition 6/7, 1943, pp. 273-274.
  4. ^ Ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), edition 6/7, 1943, pp. 273-274. Elsewhere, on the other hand, the people 's slogan is listed as one of the newspapers (Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (Ed.): NS press instructions of the pre-war period. Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , Volume 4 / III, p. 1150 (taken from Jürgen Wilke: Press instructions in the twentieth century. First World War, Third Reich, GDR. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007, ISBN 978-3-412-10506-8 , p. 121)), this is mentioned in another place as one of the newspapers that belonged to Ley's service before Reischach took over ( five-year existence of the Graf Reischach newspaper service . In: Deutsche Presse. (vol. 28), edition 2, 1938, p. 33).
  5. ^ Telegraph connection: Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (Ed.): NS press instructions of the pre-war period. Volume 4 / III, Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , p. 1150.
    Foreign service: Five years of existence of the Graf Reischach newspaper service. In: German press. (Vol. 28), edition 2, 1938, p. 33 and Werner Loesch: Essence and meaning of correspondence in journalism. Dissertation. Dresden 1939, p. 59 (taken from Isabell Voigt: Korrespondenzbüros als Helfer der Presse. In: Jürgen Wilke (Hrsg.): Under pressure. Four chapters of German press history. (= Media in past and present. 17). Böhlau, Vienna / Köln / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-412-10506-6 , p. 122). Further mention by Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (Ed.): Nazi press instructions from the pre-war period. Volume 4 / III, Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , p. 1150.
  6. ↑ André Uzulis: news agencies in National Socialism. Propaganda Instruments and Means of Press Control. (= European university publications, series 3: History and its auxiliary sciences. 636). Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / Berlin / Bern / New York / Paris / Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-631-48061-X , p. 249. (Also dissertation Hanover 1994)
  7. ↑ Five years of existence of the Graf Reischach newspaper service. In: German press. (Vol. 28), Issue 2, 1938, pp. 33-34.
  8. ^ Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (ed.): NS press instructions of the pre-war period. Volume 4 / III, Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , p. 1150 and ten years of newspaper service Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), edition 6/7, 1943, pp. 273-274.
  9. ↑ a b c d Isabell Voigt: Correspondence offices as helpers of the press. In: Jürgen Wilke (Ed.): Put under pressure. Four chapters of German press history. (= Media in the past and present. 17). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-412-10506-6 , p. 122.
  10. ^ Institute for Newspaper Studies at the University of Berlin (ed.): Handbook of the German daily press. Armanen, Leipzig / Frankfurt am Main 1937, p. 334.
  11. ↑ Oron J. Hale : Press in the straitjacket 1933-45. Droste, Düsseldorf 1965, German translation of The captive press in the Third Reich. , University Press, Princeton 1964, pp. 332-335 and Hans Dieter Müller (ed.): Facsimile cross section through the Reich . Scherz, Bern / Munich 1964, p. 29.
  12. ↑ There are some examples of the young age and / or a solid ideology of the editors sent abroad (see section "Employees (selection)" and the individual references there). It is also correct that, for example, the occupation newspapers were officially published by their own publishers during the Second World War and had their own correspondents. More on this in the following papers on occupation newspapers :
    Rolf Falter: De Brussels newspaper (1940–1944) In: Historica Lovaniensia. 137, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Faculty of History), Löwen 1982, pp. 41–83.
    Excursus: The German newspaper in the Netherlands. In: Gabriele Hoffmann: Nazi propaganda in the Netherlands: Organization and control of journalism. (= Communication and politics. 5). Verlag Documentation Saur, Munich-Pullach / Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-7940-4021-X , pp. 78-93. (Dissertation. Munich 1972)
  13. ↑ Anonymous (Fritz Schmidt): Press in fetters. a description of the Nazi press trust. Verlag Archiv und Kartei, Berlin 1947, pp. 230–231.
  14. ^ Josef March: The modern newspaper. Their facilities and how they operate. Agathon, Munich 1951, p. 69.
  15. ^ Ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), Edition 6/7, 1943, p. 274 and Hans Bohrmann, Institute for Newspaper Research of the City of Dortmund (Ed.): Nazi press instructions from the pre-war period. Volume 4 / III, Saur, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-598-11004-9 , p. 1150 (both taken up by Jürgen Wilke : Press instructions in the twentieth century. First World War, Third Reich, GDR. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2007 , ISBN 978-3-412-10506-8 , p. 121).
  16. ^ Address from the time together with the Telegraphen-Union: Ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), edition 6/7, 1943, p. 274.
    Address from the time together with the DNB: residents by name> Reischach, Graf> NS newspaper service . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1934, 1, p. 2019.
    Headquarters of the DNB: News and information offices     > German news office . In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1934, 2, p. 372.
    Address from the time in the house of the Nazi press : Michael Buddrus: Total education for total war. Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy. (= Texts and materials on contemporary history. 13). Volume 2, Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11615-2 , p. 1160 and Sperlings Zeitschriften u. Newspaper address book. Börsenverein Deutscher Buchhandler, Leipzig 1937, pp. 736, 737 and 764 (each entry for “article service / article series”, “foreign service, political” or “broadcasting issues”).
    Summary of the editors: Adolf Dresler: The Reich Press Office of the NSDAP. De Gruyter, Berlin 1937, p. 10.
  17. ↑ Dziennikarz hitlerowski aresztowany w Niemczech. In: Republika. , March 5, 1935, p. 2 ( digital library for the Łódź region ) and Un journalist allemand expulsé d'Italie, pour avoir donné des nouvelles sur les manifestations populaires contre la guerre. In: L'Humanité . , March 8, 1935, p. 3 ( Gallica ).
  18. ↑ James J. Barnes, Patience P. Barnes: Nazis in pre-war London, 1930-1939. The fate and role of German party members and British sympathizers. Sussex Academic Press, Brighton 2005, ISBN 1-84519-053-X , pp. 193-195. Name of the correspondent here Wolfgang Dietrich von Langen (in other works also Wolfdieter or Wolfdietrich ).
  19. ↑ German editor expelled from Poland. German news agency, May 30, 1939 no. 826 (Second Morning Edition) ( newspaper Information System of the Berlin State Library ).
  20. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Part II, Volume 3, Saur, Munich 1994, ISBN 3-598-21923-7 , p. 273 (entry from February 8, 1942).
  21. ^ Isabell Voigt: Correspondence offices as helpers of the press. In: Jürgen Wilke (Ed.): Put under pressure. Four chapters of German press history. (= Media in the past and present. 17). Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2002, ISBN 3-412-10506-6 , p. 122.
  22. ↑ Elke Fröhlich (ed.): The diaries of Joseph Goebbels. Part II, Volume 5, Saur, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-598-22136-3 , p. 267 (entry from August 7, 1942).
  23. ↑ Heinz-Werner Eckhardt: The front newspapers of the German army 1939-1945. (= Series of publications by the Institute for Journalism at the University of Vienna. 1). Wilhelm Braumüller Universitäts-Verlagbuchhandlung, Vienna / Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-7003-0080-8 , p. 107.
  24. ^ Reports from Reischach in the Deutsche Zeitung in the Netherlands : "Der Schicksalssucht", June 25, 1940, p. 5 and "Schwarze 'Husaren' vor!", October 21, 1940, p. 5 ( digitized inventory of the Royal Library of the Netherlands ).
    Türk as war correspondent according to “The Eternal Face”, Feldzeitung (Riga), November 1, 1941, p. 1 ( Latvian National Digital Library ).
    Turk's career after Werner Stephan : Germany experienced eight decades. A liberal in four eras. Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-7700-0632-1 , p. 227.
  25. ^ Characterization of Türks after Werner Stephan : Germany experienced eight decades. A liberal in four eras. Droste, Düsseldorf 1983, ISBN 3-7700-0632-1 , p. 227. Report on Turk's death in “Das ewige Antlitz”, Feldzeitung (Riga), November 1, 1941, p. 1 ( Latvian National Digital Library ).
  26. ^ Ten years of newspaper service in Graf Reischach. In: newspaper science. (Vol. 18), issue 6/7, 1943, p. 274.
  27. ↑ Heribert Schwan : The radio as an instrument of politics in the Saarland 1945–1955. V. Spiess, Berlin 1974, ISBN 3-920889-21-5 , p. 215, footnote 589.
  28. ^ Mark M. Hull: Irish Secrets: German Espionage in Ireland, 1939-45. Irish Academic Press, Dublin 2004, ISBN 0-7165-2807-X , p. 35 and WJ Mc Cormack: Blood Kindred: The Politics of WB Yeats and his Death. Pimlico, 2005, ISBN 0-7126-6514-5 , p. 107.
  29. ^ Foreign Office - Historical Service (ed.): Biographical manual of the German foreign service. Volume 2: G-K. Schöningh, Paderborn 2005, ISBN 3-506-71841-X , p. 424 and Gerhard Hirschfeld : Foreign rule and collaboration. The Netherlands under German occupation 1940–1945. (= Studies on Contemporary History. 25). Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-421-06192-0 , p. 79. (Dissertation Düsseldorf 1980)
  30. ↑ Michael Buddrus: Total education for total war. Hitler Youth and National Socialist Youth Policy. (= Texts and materials on contemporary history. 13). Volume 2, Saur, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-598-11615-2 , p. 1160.
  31. ^ Andreas Burtscheidt: Edmund Freiherr Raitz von Frentz. Rome correspondent for the German-speaking Catholic press 1924–1964. Schöningh, Paderborn 2008, ISBN 978-3-506-76472-0 , p. 350. (Dissertation Cologne 2006). Here as Wolfdietrich von Langen (in other works also Wolfdieter or Wolfgang Dietrich ).
  32. ^ Entry "Pörtner, Rudolf". In: Munzinger Online / People - International Biographical Archive . December 31, 2001, accessed August 26, 2018 .
  33. ↑ Aviation death of the PK man. In: Kösliner Zeitung. 10/11 October 1942, p. 5 ( Digital Baltic Sea Library ).
  34. ↑ Lars Jockheck: Propaganda in the General Government. The Nazi occupation press for Germans and Poles 1939–1945. (= Individual publications of the German Historical Institute Warsaw. 15). Fiber, Osnabrück 2006, ISBN 3-938400-08-0 , p. 101. ( Also dissertation Hamburg 2004)

Remarks

  1. ↑ First name in the literature not clear, also listed as Wolfdietrich or Wolfgang Dietrich.