Introducing Die Woche, the German Weekly, and the 1916‐44 Machinations of the German Media by James A
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Introducing Die Woche, the German Weekly, and the 1916‐44 Machinations of the German Media By James A. Elliott, Ph.D. and Sam Ginsburg Contents Page 1‐4. This introductory text 5. Front cover of Die Woche Vol. 17, issue 43 (23 October 1915) 6. Inside front cover of the same issue, advertising some August Scherl Verlag publi‐ cations 7. Table of contents page from the same issue. 8. Back cover of Die Woche 1914 issue 39, listing all the August Scherl Verlag periodi‐ cals (from Wikicommons) 9‐10. Additional notes and comments (The original copy of issue 43, held in a university library, is quite fragile and tattered, and the scans reflect that. While many digital copies of Die Woche (“The Week”) can be found online at the Hathi Trust digital archive, www.hathitrust.org, the archive doesn’t have this particular issue.) Dr. H. Roesing’s article, “Bilder und Typen aus Russisch=Polen” was published in Vol. 17, issue 43 (23 October 1915) of Die Woche, a Berlin weekly news magazine reminiscent of Life Magazine. A little research into Die Woche and its publishers opens a fascinating window into German indus‐ try, especially the publishing and film empires of (say) 1883‐1933+, as well as the rise of the Nazi Party and Hitler’s consolidation of power. (Thanks to Kayla Ginsburg for pointing out the original article was part of something else, a weekly magazine in this case.) I. August Scherl (1849 to 1921) August Scherl started his publishing business in October 1883. Die Woche was started in 1889. In 1900 he changed the company name to August Scherl Verlag G.m.b.H. (Verlag means publishing company or publishers.) By the early 1900’s his publishing group had the largest circulation of any publishing group in Germany. There is very little written in English about August Scherl or August Scherl Verlag, so there is some uncertainty about his political views. David Welch is unequivocal: “The Berliner Lokalan‐ zieger ...” [sic.] (another of Scherl’s papers) “claimed political neutrality but was blatantly conser‐ vative in outlook.” (pg. 29) Mildred Wertheimer, writing in 1924 about the nationalist Pan‐German League (a discussion of which is beyond the scope of this note), is less definite. She divides the press into liberal and na‐ tionalist, with Der Tag, the Scherl Berlin morning daily as a nationalist paper “with emor or less of a Pan‐German reputation.” Der Tag’s masthead was “serving no party; a free organ for all par‐ ties.” (pg. 189) [To be fair, we must note that one could be very conservative while being also being wishy‐washy about the Pan‐German League, one of many conservative institutions.] Wertheimer goes on to list some more strongly nationalist (right‐wing, non‐Scherl) papers: The Tägliche Rundschau (Daily Roundtable) was “an independent newspaper for national politics ...” whose editor was on the executive board of the Pan‐German League”, so he was a strong nation‐ alist. The editor of the Deutsche Zeitung was “well‐known for his super‐nationalist ideals.” Die Post had “a notorious Pan‐German reputation.” She lists several other papers which she consid‐ 1 ered much more nationalist than Scherl’s Der Tag. It makes one speculate that Scherl himself was less than a “mover and shaker” among German Nationalists. But the situation changed in 1916, as will be seen below. II. Alfred Hugenberg (1865‐1951) Alfred Hugenberg was a giant of German industry from 1909 to 1933, when he fell out of grace with Hitler’s regime. While he’s mentioned in many books, including Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, much of the following sketch is from Alfred Hugenberg: the radical nationalist cam‐ paign against the Weimar Republic, by John A. Leopold. Hugenberg was an early believer in what’s known as radical German nationalism, believing in anti ‐socialism, anti‐democracy, and German expansionism. In 1890 he helped start the Pan‐German League, an organization which included among its goals a) advancing the interests of German speakers everywhere, and b) eventual unification of all German speakers under one political gov‐ ernment, i.e. some sort of Greater Germany. In 1891 he received a doctorate in political econ‐ omy, and after a series of (mostly quite successful) activities, was invited in 1909 to become the chair of the Board of Directors of Krupp Armaments Company in Essen, marking the start of his tenure as a “giant of German Industry,” often holding a number of major board positions at the same time. Much of his power was based on forming and chairing trade groups, especially in German heavy industry such as steel‐making and coal‐mining. By the end of 1914, he was advocating the need for a propaganda system to promote the views of German industry. The natural choice was to own a publishing company. As it turned out, Au‐ gust Scherl Verlag had gotten into financial difficulties, and was targeted as a strategic acquisition for the right. (Scherl invested in a variety of money‐losing ventures outside the publishing com‐ pany and those might have been the cause of the “financial difficulties.”) The other major Berlin publishers were Jewish‐owned, too democratic, and needed a conservative counterweight. It took Hugenberg until 1916 to put together the coalition and money to buy the Scherl firm. By July the new owners were working on moving its publications further to the political right. Hugenberg immediately started working on purchasing other news and advertising agencies and publications, as well as starting new ones from scratch. After the war, he left Krupp to concen‐ trate on publishing and politics, which naturally went together. (He kept and expanded his activi‐ ties in other industries, however.) While some of his news acquisitions were kept separate, by 1926 the Scherl firm had greatly expanded. III. Hugenberg and the Nazis Hugenberg was not a member of the Nazi party. In 1920, he had been elected to the Reichstag as a delegate of the German National People's Party (Deutschnationale Volkspartei, DNVP), a right‐wing coalition of groups which supported Hitler, but had their own somewhat different, pro ‐industry agenda. In 1928, he became party chair. When Hitler rose to power in 1933, Hugen‐ berg became Agricultural Minister and Economy Minister. But he was no one’s “yes man”, argu‐ ing against Hitler’s positions on several occasions. Within a few months he deviated from some official Nazi lines, and was forced to resign his cabinet positions on June 27. About the same time, as chairman of the DNVP, Hugenberg had to sign a letter of “voluntary dissolution”, ending organized right‐wing dissent with the Nazis. (All non‐Nazi political parties were dissolved be‐ tween mid‐May and mid‐July, 1933.) Part of Hugenberg’s problem was that he was more of a capitalist and free‐market person than the official Nazi position and had spoke out at the 1933 London conference with comments that 2 had not been approved in advance. (Shirer has no respect for Hugenberg, calling him “thickheaded” and “of wooden mind,” as if Hugenberg was over his head at the top level of na‐ tional politics.) Shortly thereafter, he was forced to sell part of his publishing empire to Franz Eher Nachfolger GmbH , one of the main publishing subsidiaries of the Nazi party. (Most of the German inde‐ pendent press was either shut down or forced to sell during this period. Two‐thirds of the daily circulation was in papers owned by the Nazi party or by individual party members at the start of WWII, according to Shirer. [pg. 246] The radio system was always government‐owned, so the Nazis automatically controlled it.) By the end of 1935, Hugenberg owned only Scherl and UFA (Universum Film AG), the major German film company. He was forced to sell UFA to the Nazis in March 1937; Scherl in 1943‐44. It wasn’t a bad life: Hugenberg earned an estimated 500,000 Marks annually from his holdings, and was allowed to keep his seat as one of the 22 non‐Party members in the Reichstag which he was given in the fall of 1933. In 1944, the Nazis shut down Die Woche, ending that part of the saga. But one wonders how Hugenberg came to own UFA? IV. Hugenberg and the German Film Industry The following is mostly based on The UFA Story, by Klaus Kreimeier, translated by Robert and Rita Kimber. In November 1916, under Hugenberg’s leadership, the Deutsche Lichtbild‐Gesellschaft (German Motion Picture Company, or DLG) was formed, continuing his push for a “full‐service” right‐wing propaganda machine. (Think of Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin and Alexander Nevsky, or Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur and Foreign Correspondent, for example, and remember that silent newsreels with subtitles could be very effective propaganda tools.) Soon thereafter, in 1917, the German military formed its own film company, Bild und Filmamt (The Photography and Film Bureau, or BUFA), which was opposed to DLG in several ways: First, BUFA was a government arm, but DLG was an agent of heavy industry, loyal, but not overly sup‐ portive of the Weimar government. Second, BUFA was backed by a number of industries such as banking and shipping which perceived their interests to conflict with those backing DLG. Third, the military’s goal was to centralize all German film‐making, and DLG was an obstacle. In any event, General Erich Ludendorff, Quartermaster General of the entire German military, and effectively co‐head with Chief of Staff Field Marshall Paul von Hindenberg, decided that a new film company was needed, one that would be above the DLG‐BUFA fray, and be able to pro‐ ject German propaganda more effectively.