The ''National-Zeitung'' (NZ, ''National Newspaper'') was a weekly,
extreme right
Far-right politics, also referred to as the extreme right or right-wing extremism, are political beliefs and actions further to the right of the left–right political spectrum than the standard political right, particularly in terms of being ...
newspaper, published by
Gerhard Frey
Gerhard Frey (; born 1 June 1944) is a German mathematician, known for his work in number theory. Following an original idea of Hellegouarch, he developed the notion of Frey–Hellegouarch curves, a construction of an elliptic curve from a pur ...
, who also founded the far right
Deutsche Volksunion (German People's Union) as an association in 1971, turning it into a political party in 1987. The party was merged with the
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany.
The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Party ...
(NPD). NZ was last published in December 2019.
The newspaper was first published in 1951 as the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung'', came under Frey's control in 1959, was renamed ''Deutsche National-Zeitung und Soldaten-Zeitung'' in 1960–61 and ''Deutsche National-Zeitung'' in 1963. In 1999 the newspaper was merged with another of Frey's publications, the ''Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung – Deutscher Anzeiger'', and became the ''National-Zeitung''. It lasted under this name for 20 years until December 2019 when it stopped publishing.
The
Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution
The Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BayLfV, "Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution") is the domestic intelligence agency of the Free State of Bavaria. Its main function is the observation and surveillance of anti-c ...
classified the ''National-Zeitung'' as propagating a xenophobic, nationalist and revisionist world view.
Overview
According to the
Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution
The Bayerisches Landesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BayLfV, "Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution") is the domestic intelligence agency of the Free State of Bavaria. Its main function is the observation and surveillance of anti-c ...
, the (Druckschriften- und Zeitungs-Verlag), publisher of the ''National-Zeitung'', was, for a long time, the most important publisher of far right propaganda in Germany. The Bavarian Office for the Protection of the Constitution classifies the ''National Zeitung'' as propagating a xenophobic, nationalist and revisionist world view.
Content
The newspaper was critical of the scale of immigration to Germany, was critical of German rapprochement with Poland and of Israel, accusing the German government of subservience to the latter. It frequently used inflammatory language and tried to deflect from the German crimes during World War II by instead reporting on real or alleged German victims of the war.
Despite the stereotypical far-right content, the newspaper frequently reiterated its commitment to the
German constitution
The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 and came in ...
.
The newspaper also contained a large amount of advertising for Frey's former businesses, like ''Deutsche Reisen'', a travel service, and the ''Deutsche Buchdienst'', which sold books, medals and flags.
History
An earlier, unrelated, ''National Zeitung'' had existed in Germany from 1848 onward, as a liberal newspaper, published in
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 constitue ...
.
A ''Deutsche National-Zeitung'' was also published in German language in the United States from 1838 to 1840, in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.
The ''National-Zeitung'' was first published as the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung'' (English: German Soldiers Newspaper) in 1951. The idea for a newspaper as an advocate for the rights of German soldiers originated in a
prisoner of war camp
A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war.
There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...
in
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...
and came from Nazi ''
Kreisleiter
''Kreisleiter'' (; "District Leader") was a Nazi Party political rank and title which existed as a political rank between 1930 and 1945 and as a Nazi Party title from as early as 1928. The position of ''Kreisleiter'' was first formed to provide ...
''
Helmut Damerau and the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
Colonel
Heinrich Detloff von Kalben. It was supported by
Waffen-SS
The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...
General
Felix Steiner
Felix Martin Julius Steiner (23 May 1896 – 12 May 1966) was a German SS commander during the Nazi era. During World War II, he served in the Waffen-SS, the combat branch of the SS, and commanded several SS divisions and corps. He was awarded t ...
and financed by
Leo Giess
Leo or Léo may refer to:
Acronyms
* Law enforcement officer
* Law enforcement organisation
* '' Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky
* Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity
Arts a ...
, a carpenter, as well as
German Americans
German Americans (german: Deutschamerikaner, ) are Americans who have full or partial German ancestry. With an estimated size of approximately 43 million in 2019, German Americans are the largest of the self-reported ancestry groups by the Unite ...
.
The ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung'' was an advocate of
German rearmament
German rearmament (''Aufrüstung'', ) was a policy and practice of rearmament carried out in Germany during the interwar period (1918–1939), in violation of the Treaty of Versailles which required German disarmament after WWI to prevent Germa ...
but found itself in financial trouble by 1953, when financial support from the US dried up. Damerau approached the West German government for financial support and the newspaper received a monthly subsidy of DM 11,000 from 1953 onward.
This however was not received well by the paper's readership, and the circulation of the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung'' dropped from 30,000 to 12,000. In 1954 the German government pushed for the sale of the paper, which Damerau refused and, consequently, the government dropped its financial support. The paper was subsequently only published fortnightly and, for a time in 1955, only monthly and shifted further to the right of the political spectrum.
The fifth anniversary of the first publication of the paper saw it print well-wishes from a number of high ranking former Wehrmacht Generals, among them the former ''
Generalfeldmarschall
''Generalfeldmarschall'' (from Old High German ''marahscalc'', "marshal, stable master, groom"; en, general field marshal, field marshal general, or field marshal; ; often abbreviated to ''Feldmarschall'') was a rank in the armies of several ...
s''
Erich von Manstein
Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Manstein (born Fritz Erich Georg Eduard von Lewinski; 24 November 1887 – 9 June 1973) was a German Field Marshal of the ''Wehrmacht'' during the Second World War, who was subsequently convicted of war crimes and ...
,
Wilhelm List
Wilhelm List (14 May 1880 – 17 August 1971) was a German field marshal during World War II who was convicted of war crimes by a US Army tribunal after the war. List commanded the 14th Army in the invasion of Poland and the 12th Army in the ...
and
Albert Kesselring
Albert Kesselring (30 November 1885 – 16 July 1960) was a German '' Generalfeldmarschall'' of the Luftwaffe during World War II who was subsequently convicted of war crimes. In a military career that spanned both world wars, Kesselring beca ...
.
It called for and organised protests, like when German
handball
Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...
club
THW Kiel
THW Kiel is a handball club from Kiel, Germany. Currently, they compete in the Handball-Bundesliga and are the record champion with 22 titles.
2007 and 2012 were the most successful years in the club's history, as THW completed the treble, win ...
hosted a team from
Wrocław
Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...
, Poland, because, in the paper's opinion Wrocław should be referred to by its former German name, Breslau. It protested against any form of recognition of the post-war Polish-German border, the
Oder–Neisse line
The Oder–Neisse line (german: Oder-Neiße-Grenze, pl, granica na Odrze i Nysie Łużyckiej) is the basis of most of the international border between Germany and Poland from 1990. It runs mainly along the Oder and Lusatian Neisse rivers an ...
and attacked prominent German scientists like
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker
Carl Friedrich Freiherr von Weizsäcker (; 28 June 1912 – 28 April 2007) was a German physicist and philosopher. He was the longest-living member of the team which performed nuclear research in Germany during the Second World War, under ...
for publishing the
Memorandum of Tübingen The Memorandum of Tübingen (German:''Tübinger Memorandum'') was a memorandum dealing with West German foreign policy, written by eight prominent German Protestant academics and scientists. It was sent to the German Bundestag in 1961. The memoran ...
(German:''Tübinger Memorandum'') in support of the border. The newspaper also supported the
wife
A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...
of
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess (Heß in German; 26 April 1894 – 17 August 1987) was a German politician and a leading member of the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Appointed Deputy Führer to Adolf Hitler in 1933, Hess held that position unt ...
in her attempts to free her husband.
The newspaper advocated a return to German military traditions after the formation of the
Bundeswehr
The ''Bundeswehr'' (, meaning literally: ''Federal Defence'') is the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. The ''Bundeswehr'' is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part con ...
and attempted to influence officers who had previously served in the Wehrmacht. It was critical of
Wolf Graf von Baudissin
Wolf Graf von Baudissin (8 May 1907 – 5 June 1993) was a German general, military planner and peace researcher. He was one of the developers of the concepts of ''Innere Führung'' (officially translated as "leadership development and civ ...
's concept of citizens in uniform, and the West German government became, in turn, critical of the newspaper.
German defence minister Franz-Josef Strauss
Franz Josef Strauss ( ; 6 September 1915 – 3 October 1988) was a German politician. He was the long-time chairman of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) from 1961 until 1988, member of the federal cabinet in different positions between ...
made unsuccessful attempts to purchase the newspaper, offering Damerau DM 150,000 for the financially troubled paper. Damerau instead asked right-wing journalist
Gerhard Frey
Gerhard Frey (; born 1 June 1944) is a German mathematician, known for his work in number theory. Following an original idea of Hellegouarch, he developed the notion of Frey–Hellegouarch curves, a construction of an elliptic curve from a pur ...
for a loan and the latter, independently wealthy, gradually gained a controlling interest in the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung''.
The newspaper continued to publish content with a
historical revisionist
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of a historical account. It usually involves challenging the orthodox (established, accepted or traditional) views held by professional scholars about a historical event or times ...
view, attempting to deflect Germany's responsibility for
World War II
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 opposin ...
and attacking members of the
German resistance German resistance can refer to:
* Freikorps, German nationalist paramilitary groups resisting German communist uprisings and the Weimar Republic government
* German resistance to Nazism
* Landsturm, German resistance groups fighting against France d ...
as traitors to the Fatherland.
Since 1959 under Frey's control, the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung'' was renamed ''Deutsche National-Zeitung und Soldaten-Zeitung'' in 1960–61. It raised its circulation from 27,500 in 1958 to 70,000 by 1963
and 131,000 by 1967.
Frey, while not
outrightly denying the
Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
,
illegal in Germany, stated that he considered the number of victims as exaggerated, and argued in the 1960s that Germany should pay less
compensation because of this.
Frey and his newspaper frequently published
anti-Israel
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestin ...
and pro-Arab content.
In 1963, the newspaper was renamed ''Deutsche National-Zeitung''. In 1987, Gerhard Frey founded the German far right party
Deutsche Volksunion.
Frey's aim had been to make the ''National-Zeitung'' the central national organ of all far right parties in Germany.
In 1971 Frey published a second paper, the ''
Deutscher Anzeiger''. In 1986, he purchased the revisionist ''
Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung
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 ...
'', which had originally been published by members of the far-right
National Democratic Party of Germany
The National Democratic Party of Germany (german: Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands or NPD) is a far-right Neo-Nazi and ultranationalist political party in Germany.
The party was founded in 1964 as successor to the German Reich Party ...
. In 1991, Frey merged the two newspapers into one, becoming the ''
Deutsche Wochen-Zeitung – Deutscher Anzeiger''. Content of this paper was almost identical to the ''Deutsche National-Zeitung'' and, in 1999, the two were merged into one, becoming the ''National-Zeitung''.
Despite all this and the fact that Germany grew in size and population after the
German reunion, the circulation of the newspaper had dropped to 38,000 by 2007.
The paper was shut down in December 2019.
In popular culture
The newspaper was featured in the West German movie ''
Roses for the Prosecutor
''Roses for the Prosecutor'' (german: Rosen für den Staatsanwalt) is a 1959 West German comedy film with tragical and critical elements, directed by Wolfgang Staudte and starring Martin Held, Walter Giller and Ingrid van Bergen. It was one of th ...
'', in which one of the main characters, the state prosecutor Dr. Wilhelm Schramm, a man with a secret Nazi past, purchases the ''Deutsche Soldaten-Zeitung''. The newspaper subsequently used this exposure for advertisement.
References
Bibliography
*
External links
Official SiteNational-Zeitung : Deutsche Wochenzeitungat the German Union Catalogue of Serials (ZDB)
{{Authority control
Weekly newspapers published in Germany
German-language newspapers
Newspapers published in Munich
Historical revisionism
Far-right politics in Germany
1951 establishments in West Germany
Publications established in 1951