The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' () was a
German-language newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...
that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in
Frankfurt
Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , " Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on it ...
. In
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
, it was considered the only mass publication not completely controlled by the
Propagandaministerium under
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...
.
History
In 1856, German writer and politician
Leopold Sonnemann purchased a struggling market publication in Germany; the ''Frankfurter Geschäftsbericht'' (also known as ''Frankfurter Handelszeitung''). Sonnemann changed its name to ''Neue Frankfurter Zeitung'' (later simply ''Frankfurter Zeitung'') and assumed the duties of publisher, editor, and contributing writer.
The new title incorporated political news and commentary, and by the time of the foundation of the
German Empire
The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...
in 1871, the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' had become an important mouthpiece of the liberal bourgeois extra-parliamentary opposition. It advocated peace in Europe before 1914 and during
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
.
In
Constantinople
la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه
, alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya (Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis (" ...
, Paul Weitz, a strong critic of
German militarism and the German state's secret collaboration with the
genocidal politics of the
Young Turks, was the head of the ''Frankfurter Zeitungs news bureau. His close associates included
Max Rudolf Kaufmann
Max Rudolf Kaufmann (29 April 1886 in Basel, Switzerland – 1963 in Bonn, Germany), was a Swiss author, translator from Turkish, and journalist, who worked and published in Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and Germany.
Life
Kaufmann w ...
, a Swiss-born journalist, who was arrested and deported in 1916 for his criticism of German militarism and letters by him to
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...
which reported the deplorable state of the Ottoman army in the Caucasus, and Dr.
Friedrich Schrader
Friedrich Schrader (19 November 1865 – 28 August 1922) was a German philologist of oriental languages, orientalist, art historian, writer, social democrat, translator and journalist. He also used the pseudonym Ischtiraki (Arabic/ Ottoman f ...
, a journalist with (in 1914) more than two decades of experience in Constantinople who commanded all major languages of
Southeastern Europe
Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...
and the
Middle East
The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...
, and contributed much about modern
Turkish culture and literature.
During the period of the
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a Constitutional republic, constitutional federal republic for the first time in ...
, the paper was treated with hostility and derision by nationalist circles, due to its pronounced support of the Weimar Republic in 1919. At this time, it no longer stood in opposition to the government, and supported
Gustav Stresemann's policy of reconciliation during his time as Foreign Minister from 1923 to 1929. The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' was one of the few
democratic papers of the time. It was known in particular for its ''
Feuilleton'' section, edited by
Benno Reifenberg, in which works of most of the great minds of the Weimar Republic were published.
Nazi era
After the 1933
assumption of power by the
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
, several
Jewish contributors had to leave the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'', including
Siegfried Kracauer and
Walter Benjamin. The paper was finally sold in June 1934 to the chemical corporation
IG Farben
Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG (), commonly known as IG Farben (German for 'IG Dyestuffs'), was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate. Formed in 1925 from a merger of six chemical companies— BASF, Bayer, Hoechst, Agf ...
. The company's directors, particularly
Carl Bosch, were well-disposed toward the paper because of its place in traditional German life, and believed it could be useful in promoting favorable publicity for the company.
During the Nazi's early time in power, the paper was initially protected by
Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and
Joseph Goebbels
Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazi politician who was the '' Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief propagandist for the Nazi Party, and then Reich Minister of Propaganda from 1933 to ...
primarily for its convenient public relations appeal abroad, and retained more editorial independence than the rest of the press in the Third Reich.
[ However, within a few years IG Farben gave up on the newspaper; inexorably, it had become compromised by the increasing oversight of the Nazi Ministry of Propaganda and was quickly losing its journalistic reputation abroad. The company's directors realized it no longer needed to influence domestic public opinion, "since there was effectively no public opinion left in Germany".][Evans, p. 143.]
The paper was quietly sold and subsumed by a subsidiary of the Nazi publishing organ, '' Eher Verlag'', in 1938.[Evans, p. 143.] In late 1941, the paper was faced with scandal when Richard Sorge, the longtime Tokyo correspondent of the ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' and a Nazi party member, was arrested by the Japanese police under charges of espionage for the Soviet Union. Sorge was revealed to be the top Soviet spy in Japan, his allegiance to Nazism just a mere disguise for his real beliefs, and was executed in 1944. Faced with declining readership throughout the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, it was closed down entirely in August 1943.
Postwar era
The '' Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' does not consider itself a successor organisation to the original ''Zeitung'', even though many former journalists of the earlier paper helped launch it in 1949.
Notable contributors
* Theodor W. Adorno
* Leopold Weiss
* Walter Benjamin
*Franz Blei
Franz Blei (pseudonyms: Medardus, Dr. Peregrinus Steinhövel, Amadée de la Houlette, Franciscus Amadeus, Gussie Mc-Bill, Prokop Templin, Heliogabal, Nikodemus Schuster, L. O. G., Hans Adolar; January 18, 1871, ViennaJuly 10, 1942, Westbury, Lon ...
* Margret Boveri
*Alfred Döblin
Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel ''Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...
* Kurt Eisner
*Lion Feuchtwanger
Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht.
Feuchtwanger's Ju ...
* Erich Kästner
*Max Rudolf Kaufmann
Max Rudolf Kaufmann (29 April 1886 in Basel, Switzerland – 1963 in Bonn, Germany), was a Swiss author, translator from Turkish, and journalist, who worked and published in Switzerland, Turkey, the United States and Germany.
Life
Kaufmann w ...
, (correspondent in Constantinople before 1918)
* Editha Klipstein
*Annette Kolb
Annette Kolb (pseudonym of Anna Mathilde Kolb; born February 3, 1870 in Munich; died December 3, 1967 in Munich) was a German author and pacifist.
She became active in pacifist causes during World War I and this caused her political difficult ...
* Siegfried Kracauer
*Ernst Kreuder Ernst Kreuder (29 August 1903 – 24 December 1972) was a German writer. He was born in Zeitz
Zeitz ( hsb, Žič) is a town in the Burgenlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on the river White Elster, in the triangle o ...
* Heinrich Mann
*Thomas Mann
Paul Thomas Mann ( , ; ; 6 June 1875 – 12 August 1955) was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novell ...
* Sándor Márai
* Franz Mehring
*Soma Morgenstern
Soma Morgenstern (3 May 1890 – 17 April 1976) was a Jewish-Ukrainian writer and journalist.
Biography
Soma (real name Salomo) Morgenstern spent his childhood in various villages in Galicia. His father worked as a bailiff, but was also a Je ...
* Peretz Naftali
* Kurt Offenburg
* Alfred Polgar
* Joseph Roth
* Richard Sorge
*Friedrich Schrader
Friedrich Schrader (19 November 1865 – 28 August 1922) was a German philologist of oriental languages, orientalist, art historian, writer, social democrat, translator and journalist. He also used the pseudonym Ischtiraki (Arabic/ Ottoman f ...
, (correspondent in Constantinople before 1918)
*Anna Seghers
Anna Seghers (; born ''Anna Reiling,'' 19 November 1900 – 1 June 1983), is the pseudonym of a German writer notable for exploring and depicting the moral experience of the Second World War. Born into a Jewish family and married to a Hungarian ...
*Heinrich Schirmbeck Heinrich may refer to:
People
* Heinrich (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name)
* Heinrich (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name)
*Hetty (given name), a given name (including a list of peo ...
* Walter Schmiele
* Dolf Sternberger
*Max Weber
Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas p ...
*, (correspondent in Constantinople before 1918)
* Carl Zuckmayer
*Stefan Zweig
Stefan Zweig (; ; 28 November 1881 – 22 February 1942) was an Austrian novelist, playwright, journalist, and biographer. At the height of his literary career, in the 1920s and 1930s, he was one of the most widely translated and popular write ...
Sources
* Günther Gillessen: ''Auf verlorenem Posten. Die Frankfurter Zeitung im Dritten Reich.'' Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1986, 1987.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
1856 establishments in Germany
1943 disestablishments in Germany
Publications established in 1856
Publications disestablished in 1943
Defunct newspapers published in Germany
German-language newspapers
Liberalism in Germany
Mass media in Frankfurt