''Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung'' (often abbreviated to DAZ) was a German newspaper that appeared between 1861 and 1945. Until 1918 the title of the paper was ''Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung''. Although

Wilhelm Liebknecht Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).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 ...

and close associate of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, was member of the founding editorial board in 1861, the paper became soon a

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

flagship of the German press ("Bismarcks Hauspostille"). At the end of the First World War, the name was changed to "Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung", under the intention to form a conservative and democratic equivalent to the British newspaper '' The Times'' in Germany and give the Reich a more democratic image. Various liberal and conservative writers worked for DAZ at that time,

Otto Flake Otto Flake (29 October 1880, Metz – 10 November 1963) was a German writer. Early life Flake was born on 29 October 1880 in Metz. He attended high school in Colmar and studied German philology, philosophy and art history at the University of St ...

was head of the Cultural Section ( called "Feuilleton" in German newspapers ), people like the historian Egmont Zechlin, the journalist 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 ...

and his Swiss colleague from Constantinople

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 ...

worked for the paper. In the early 1920s,

Hans Humann Hans Humann (born 1878 in Smyrna; died 7 October 1933) was an officer in the Imperial German Navy, diplomat (Naval Attaché) and businessman. Humann became famous as one of the main representatives of the German Reich in the Ottoman Empire during ...

controlled the newspaper, which repeatedly denied and justified the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily through th ...

. Following the

assassination of Talat Pasha On 15 March 1921, Armenian student Soghomon Tehlirian assassinated Talaat Pasha—former grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire and the main architect of the Armenian genocide—in Berlin. At his trial, Tehlirian argued, "I have killed a man, but ...

in March 1921 the newspaper launched an aggressive

anti-Armenian Anti-Armenian sentiment, also known as anti-Armenianism and Armenophobia, is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against towards Armenians, Armenia, and Armenian culture. Historically, anti-Armenianism has manifested in several w ...

campaign, claiming in one article that murder and backstabbing was "the true Armenian manner". Hugo Stinnes took over the DAZ in 1920 in an effort to secure industrialist influence. Stinnes invested in the newspaper, and it enjoyed a short period of financial success. The DAZ became increasingly conservative.

Paul Lensch Paul Lensch (31 March 1873 in Potsdam, Province of Brandenburg – 18 November 1926 in Berlin) was a war journalist, editor, author of several books and politician in the SPD. From 1912, Lensch was a member of the German Reichstag for the SPD, ...

, a former left-wing socialist associated with

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialist, Marxist philosopher and anti-war activist. Successively, she was a member of the Proletariat part ...

, later during the war part of the right wing "Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch-Gruppe" within the SPD (itself associated with and financed by the German-Russian-Jewish socialist

Alexander Parvus Alexander Lvovich Parvus, born Israel Lazarevich Gelfand (8 September 1867 – 12 December 1924) and sometimes called Helphand in the literature on the Russian Revolution, was a Marxist theoretician, publicist, and controversial activist in the ...

), became foreign policy editor, and later editor in chief of DAZ, which he edited until his death in 1926. After the death of Lensch, until when the paper was a conservative supporter of the Weimar coalition (Stinnes was associated with Gustav Stresemann and his DVP), the paper became, like the DVP itself, increasingly right wing and closer to the Hugenberg press and anti-democratic right-wing circles. After Stinnes' (and Lensch's) death, the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n government secretly bought the DAZ in 1925. Less than a year later, the Reich government took it over, but it was sold again when the affair came to light. By 1930, the DAZ had declined and was suffering large losses.Fulda, Bernhard (2009). ''Press and Politics in the Weimar Republic'', pp. 22, 43. Oxford University Press.

References

External links

*Access t
NAZ
an
DAZ
on Hypress.
DAZ in digital form, years 1918-1931
Newspapers established in 1861 Publications disestablished in 1945 Newspapers published in Berlin 1861 establishments in Germany Armenian genocide denial Anti-Armenianism in Europe 1945 disestablishments in Germany German nationalism {{Germany-newspaper-stub