Die Neue Zeitung

Die Neue Zeitung was a newspaper published in the American Occupation Zone of Germany after the Second World War. It was comparable to the daily newspaper Die Welt in the British Occupation Zone and was considered the most important newspaper in post-war Germany.

History

Die Neue Zeitung was first published on 17 October 1945 in Munich and continued publication until 30 January 1955. The paper was initially published twice weekly, later increasing to six times a week.

American-controlled media outlet

The Information Control Division of the American Occupation Authority acted as publisher of the newspaper. Although the Division allowed German editors and journalists to write, it never gave up ultimate editorial control of the publication. This was made clear in the newspaper's title bar: "Die Neue Zeitung – An American newspaper for the German people".
Die Neue Zeitung was considered a means of political re-education for the German population by its American publishers, who hoped that other newspapers would emulate it. MAJ Hans Habe and MAJ, who had edited newspapers in Germany and Austria before the war, supervised the staff which was all-American at first, but later included Germans to train them. From November 1945 American news and opinion was half of the content, a quarter was world news, and a quarter was national German news.
Demand was very strong, circulation rising from 500,000 to 1,500,000 in two months; 3,000,000 copies could have been sold had enough newsprint been available. One survey found that half of readers preferred Die Neue Zeitung to any German newspaper the military government licensed, but after 1949 could not keep up with competition amid the rapid re-growth of the newspaper industry in Germany.

Berlin edition

Starting in early 1947, the American Sector of Berlin had its own separate edition of the NZ. This Berlin edition made sense because in Berlin, the former German capital, the Allied Control Council had strong influence and the interests of the Soviet Union and United States were increasingly at odds. Publication of the NZ in Berlin was seen as necessary to prevent the Sovietization of the Germans there. The NZ in Berlin operated autonomously under the editorship of Marcel Fodor.
The feature section of the Berlin NZ – the so-called Feuilleton, covering literature, art, and culture – was under the direction of Friedrich Luft, long known for his theater reviews in the RIAS. Hans Schwab-Felisch was another prominent contributor to the Berlin edition's Feuilleton. Schwab-Felisch later worked at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and became editor of Merkur, Germany's leading intellectual review. Other contributors to the Feuilleton included freelancers Will Grohmann and Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt.

Later developments and end of publication

Starting in June 1949 a Frankfurt edition of Die Neue Zeitung was established. In 1951, the Munich and Frankfurt editions were merged into a single Frankfurt edition. After September 1953, the Neue Zeitung appeared only in Berlin. In March 1955, the paper ceased operations entirely.

Contributors

The following are some of the contributors to Die ''Neue Zeitung''.
The author Erich Kästner was senior editor of the feature section. Robert Lembke, later a television personality, directed the section on domestic politics.
Other prominent contributors include:

The political cartoonist was Paul Flora.