opposition more particularly applied the term “Reptile Press.”
Later this practice of wholesale inspiration was abandoned, but
there remained many channels, public and private, through which
almost every department of the government could communicate
information and guidance to newspapers in all parts of Germany.
The Prussian Ministry of the Interior distributed to all and sundry
a news-letter known as the Berliner Korrespondenz, professing only
to give statistics and information, and to correct erroneous statements,
but also frequently containing articles advocating some proposal of
the government or combating the arguments of its opponents.
The Süd-Deutsche Reichs-Korrespondenz had a similar character, and
in 1902 served as an exponent of the policy and tactics of the imperial
Chancellor, count von Bülow. Almost every one of the political
parties has its Korrespondenz (or news-letter) supplying views rather
than news. These circular letters deal, in fact, with the policy of the
party with which they are associated, although they occasionally
also embody information which the party leaders in the Reichstag or
in the Prussian Diet have received from representatives of the
government for their own guidance. They form the means of holding
the parties together, and of inspiring them with common aims, as
they are reproduced throughout the country by all the party organs.
It was in the press of Berlin that the greatest changes took place towards the end of the 19th century. During the regime of Prince Bismarck the North German Gazette, and occasionally the Post, used to keep Europe in a state of nervous tension by fulminant communiqués which the great Chancellor himself often dictated, or by what he used to call “jets of cold water” (Kaltwasserstrahl), which were mostly directed against France or Russia. So far as France and Russia are concerned, a much more pacific tone prevailed in Berlin after the conclusion of the Dual Alliance, and it was upon England that the press mainly concentrated its attacks. The North German Gazette, which was originally established by a private individual, in order “to place a blank sheet of paper at the disposal of Prince Bismarck,” became on the whole, a mere record of home news and a summary of foreign intelligence bearing the semi-official stamp of Wolff’s Telegraph Agency. It had doubtless been found that the constant employment of an organ so distinctly official as the Norddeutsche Allgemeine as a medium of expression for the views of the government was apt to lead to indiscretions which committed the authorities too deeply. Indeed, immediately before Prince Bismarck’s fall he had actually employed this journal in order to attack the labour policy of the emperor. Official communications still continued to appear in the North German Gazette, but mostly characterized by a vagueness and awkwardness of style in striking contrast to the force and point of Prince Bismarck’s polemics. The Imperial Gazette (Reichsanzeiger), corresponding to the London Gazette, is purely a record of official intelligence, though on rare occasions it publishes in the section marked Nicht Amtlich (non-official), some démenti, some statement of policy or some official document—a proceeding which always requires the express sanction of the emperor.
The journals which in 1880 were most widely read in Berlin, and which were best known abroad as the exponents of Berlin opinion. were the Liberal or Radical Vossische Zeitung and Berliner Tageblatt, and the National Liberal National Zeitung. The Vossische Zeitung, the oldest of all the Berlin newspapers, written with a degree of literary ability which justified its real title, Königlich privilegierte Berlinische Zeitung für Staats- und Gelehrtensachen, held its place. The National Zeitung, however (founded in 1848 by Bernhard Wolff, the originator of Wolff’s news agency), which represented as long as it could those vestiges of old German Liberalism which survived in the National Liberal party, was compelled to come to an end on January 1st, 1905. The Kreuz Zeitung represented the “small but mighty party” of the reactionary Conservatives and Agrarians in the state, and of the orthodox (Lutheran) Protestants in the Church. It was the favourite journal of officers in the army, of the Conservative gentry (Junker), as well as the medium through which people of social standing preferred to announce births, marriages and deaths. The Post continued to be subsidized by a small number of industrial and rural magnates in the interests of the Reichspartei, or Free Conservative party, which for the most part subordinated its views to those of the government. The Berliner Neueste Nachrichten, like the Post, was a consistent advocate of the development of the German navy and of a vigorous Welt-politik. The Boersen Zeitung and the Boersen-Courier were organs of the Berlin Stock Exchange; the first of a National Liberal colour, and the other expressing the views of the Moderate Radicals (Freisinnige Vereinigung) and of opponents of extreme protection. The Vörwarts was the central organ of the German Social-Democrats, who had established a considerable number of other journals throughout Germany. The clericals or Centre party were represented by the Germania, less influential than the other leading organ of the Roman Catholic “governing party,” the Kölnische Volks-zeitung. The Deutsche Tageszeitung made itself a name by its advocacy of the agrarian movement, while the Freisinnige Zeitung (founded, and to a great extent edited, by the Radical leader Eugen Richter) represented the Radical point of view. Among the provincial papers the Frankfurter Zeitung (Radical) was distinguished by the excellence of its news, especially on commercial subjects. The Schlesische Zeitung (1752) a leading Conservative organ, had continued to appear in Breslau since the days of Frederick the Great. The Magdeburger Zeitung and the Hannoversche Courier gave an independent or National Liberal support to the government. The Weser Zeitung, published at Bremen, was an exponent of the Liberalism of the commercial classes, while the Strassburger Post was one of the journals which enjoyed government inspiration, and helped to maintain die Wacht am Rhein. A considerable number of journals, published in the Polish language, advocated the Polish cause in the eastern provinces of Prussia.
Great success attended a new departure in German journalism, represented by newspapers like the Berlin Lokal-Anzeiger, describing themselves as non-political. The Lokal-Anzeiger, founded by August Scherl, who had gained his journalistic experience in America, had a circulation in Germany comparable with that of the Petit Journal in France, and it exercised a very marked influence upon public opinion in Berlin.
The external form and arrangement of German newspapers is often puzzling at first sight to an English reader. There is an absence of the striking headlines, which in English journals direct attention to news of importance, and which in America almost swamp the text. The outside page generally contains the editorial articles and the news of most importance, while the intelligence received immediately before going to press is placed in the last column of the last sheet. The bulk of the paper can apparently be increased indefinitely in accordance with the supply of news or literary matter, or with the number of advertisements. The Vossische Zeitung on a Sunday morning assumes, with its numerous supplementary sheets, the dimensions of a thick Blue-book. The quantity of extraneous matter, such as articles on literary, social and technical subjects, is enormous, and even the most serious political journals invariably publish a novel in serial form, as well as numerous novelettes and sketches. The local news in Berlin and other large cities is written with the minuteness and the familiarity of style of a village chronicle, and gives the impression that every one is occupied in observing the doings of his neighbour. The signed article is very much in vogue, and most writers and salaried correspondents have at least a cypher or initial by which they are distinguished. The greatest licence prevails in reporting and discussing the affairs of other countries, combined with the keenest sensitiveness to foreign criticism of anything that concerns Germany. The example of the government is followed in advertising the products of German industry, while those of foreigners are studiously depreciated.
6. Other European Countries
Austria-Hungary.—At the beginning of 1840 the whole number of Austro-German and Hungarian periodicals, of all sorts, was less than 100, only 22 being (after a fashion) political newspapers; and of these nearly all drew their materials and their inspiration from the official papers of Vienna (Wiener Zeitung and Oesterreichischer Beobachter). These two were all that appeared in the capital. Agram, Pesth, Pressburg, Lemberg and Prague had also two each; but no other city had more than a single journal. In 1846 the aggregate number of periodicals had grown to 155, of which 46 were political, but political only in the character of mere conduit pipes for intelligence “approved of” by the government. In 1855 the number of political papers published throughout the entire territory under Austrian government, the Italian provinces excepted, was 60. The Neue Freie Presse, the chief Vienna daily, was founded in 1864. In 1873, ten years after the virtual cessation of a very strict censorship, the number of political journals, including all the specifically administrative organs, as well local as general, was 267, and that of mere advertising papers 42; in 1883 the former number had increased to about 280, the latter to about 60. Vienna had in 1883 in all 18 daily newspapers, ten of which ranged in average circulation from 14,000 to 54,000 copies.
In the period from 1880 to 1888 the only notable paper founded in Austria, was the Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung (1880). It appeared three times daily, but in spite of the impetus communicated to its start by the well-known “Freilands” Apostle Theodor Hertzka, it soon fell away, and eventually became simply a late evening paper, known as the 6 Uhr Abendblatt. It was with the rise of the anti-Semitic and Socialistic movements of 1888 onwards that the Vienna daily press first began a fresh increase. The Deutsche Volksblatt (anti-Semitic) was founded in 1888, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau (Radical) in 1893, and the Reichspost (the organ of the Catholic section of the Christian Socialist party) in 1894. The Labour movement led to the development of the Arbeiterzeitung from a weekly, when it succeeded the Gleichheit in 1889, to a daily in 1895. It was therefore the first Social Democratic daily of Austria. In 1893 the Neues Wiener Journal was founded as a political neutral, and the old Presse disappeared in 1894, its place being filled by the weekly Reichswehr (military), established in 1888. The French daily paper, Le Petit Journal de Vienne, was founded in May 1899. In 1902 nineteen political dailies were published in Vienna.
In 1883 the Hungarian journals numbered 170; in 1899 they were returned as 764. Budapest, which in 1890 had 14 dailies and 10 weeklies, in 1900 had 21 and 3 respectively. The leading papers are the Budapest Kögtöng, the Pester Lloyd and the Budapeste Hirlap. Of the German provincial press the most highly developed is in the German towns of Bohemia and in Prague, and the foundation of the
Deutsche Volkszeitung at Reichenberg in 1885 marks the date of
