''Freies Wort'' is the largest regional newspaper in southern

Thuringia Thuringia (; german: Thüringen ), officially the Free State of Thuringia ( ), is a state of central Germany, covering , the sixth smallest of the sixteen German states. It has a population of about 2.1 million. Erfurt is the capital and larg ...

. Including ''Meininger Tageblatt'', ''Freies Wort'' has a circulation of 80,000.

History and profile

The newspaper was founded as an organ of the

Suhl Suhl () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located SW of Erfurt, NE of Würzburg and N of Nuremberg. With its 37,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest of the six urban districts within Thuringia. Together with its northern neighbour-town Zella- ...

sector of the

SED sed ("stream editor") is a Unix utility that parses and transforms text, using a simple, compact programming language. It was developed from 1973 to 1974 by Lee E. McMahon of Bell Labs, and is available today for most operating systems. sed wa ...

. It was first published as ''Das Freie Wort'' on 15 August 1952 with a circulation of 157,400 and was the smallest SED-controlled newspaper at the time and eight city desks. The newspaper was renamed to ''Freies Wort'' on 9 March 1956. After

German reunification German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...

, the newspaper was privatised in 1991 and sold to

Süddeutscher Verlag The Süddeutscher Verlag (SV) is a corporate group that has emerged from the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Founded as a newspaper publisher, Süddeutscher Verlag developed into one of Germany's largest media companies, providing to Germany and abroad. Th ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

(which now holds 70%) and

Deutsche Druck- und Verlagsgesellschaft Deutsch or Deutsche may refer to: *''Deutsch'' or ''(das) Deutsche'': the German language, in Germany and other places *''Deutsche'': Germans, as a weak masculine, feminine or plural demonym *Deutsch (word), originally referring to the Germanic ve ...

(owned by the

SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

political party, holding 30%). The chief editor is Herbert Wessels (since 2009), second editor is Markus Ermert (since 2002).

Local news desks

''Freies Wort'' has seven local news desks: #

Zella-Mehlis Zella-Mehlis is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated in the Thuringian Forest, 5 km north of Suhl, and 20 km east of Meiningen. The town of Zella-Mehlis is the site of the original Walthe ...

Ilmenau Ilmenau () is a town in Thuringia, central Germany. It is the largest town within the Ilm district with a population of 38,600, while the district capital is Arnstadt. Ilmenau is located approximately south of Erfurt and north of Nuremberg w ...

Sonneberg Sonneberg in Thuringia, Germany, is the seat of the Sonneberg district. It is in the Franconian south of Thuringia, neighboring its Upper Franconian twin town Neustadt bei Coburg. Sonneberg became known as the "world toy city", and is home to ...

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen (IPA adapted from: ) is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra river ...

Schmalkalden Schmalkalden () is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district, in the southwest of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is on the southern slope of the Thuringian Forest at the Schmalkalde river, a tributary to the Werra. , the town had a popula ...

Bad Salzungen Bad Salzungen () is a town in Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Wartburgkreis district. Geography Location Bad Salzungen is situated on the river Werra, east of Tiefenort and south of Eisenach. Divisions In July 2018 the former m ...

Shared content

''Freies Wort'' cooperates with the Meininger Mediengesellschaft mbH which issues the ''FW Meininger Tageblatt'', the two newspapers share articles and sometimes whole pages. Together with the newspapers ''Neue Presse'' (

Coburg Coburg () is a town located on the Itz river in the Upper Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. Long part of one of the Thuringian states of the Wettin line, it joined Bavaria by popular vote only in 1920. Until the revolution of 1918, it was ...

), ''Südthüringer Zeitung'' (

) and ''Frankenpost'' ( Hof) ''Freies Wort'' forms the "Regionalzeitungsgruppe Hof/Coburg/Suhl" operated by Süddeutscher Verlag. The four newspapers share a common national and international section.

References

External links

Official website (German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freies Wort 1952 establishments in East Germany German-language communist newspapers Daily newspapers published in Germany Mass media in East Germany Former state media Newspapers established in 1952 South Thuringia Suhl