In November 1946, people hold the news magazine "This Week" from Hanover in their hands for the first time. One of the brains behind it is Rudolf Augstein, who soon after renames the paper "Der Spiegel".
by Felix Klabe
November 16, 1946 - Not much is left of Hanover after the Allied bombing raids. While a large part of the city center was practically wiped out by the attacks, the indicator high-rise with its massive, round dome survived almost 100 Allied bomber raids on Hanover largely unscathed. Inside the brick building on the Goseriede, young editors are sitting on old garden chairs - they've been working on a new news magazine right up to the proof:It's called "This Week", on the cover:UN Chief Interpreter André Kaminker with outstretched arms. On this Saturday in November 1946, readers hold it in their hands for the first time - for one Reichsmark. There were six issues before the newspaper, under the constant censorship of the British occupying power, got a German publisher:Rudolf Augstein, who renamed "Dieses Woche" to "Der Spiegel" a few weeks later.
Augstein's job is the "political headline"
Augstein was 22 years old in 1945 when the former head of the arts section of the newspaper, where the young journalist trained as an editor before his deployment in World War II, contacted him. He was looking for a sub-editor "because he couldn't do a political headline," Augstein recalled in an interview in 1993, nine years before his death. Born in Hanover, he went to school in what was then the working-class district of Linden
Three Brits on building free media
A little later Augstein meets the sergeant major and Czech-British journalist Harry Bohrer, who later becomes a friend. Bohrer is entrusted with the task of developing a German news magazine in the style of "Time Magazine". But he is not alone. At his side are Henry Ormond and John Seymour Chaloner, "the blond daredevil who drives the requisitioned roadster of Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and is looking for unencumbered journalists to build up a free media," as his obituary later says. They recruit Augstein. A "British paper"? "I didn't believe in it, but I also thought:Why not?" Augstein said later.
15,000 copies will be printed
The Anzeiger high-rise in Hanover:This is where Rudolf Augstein founded the "Spiegel"."That's how we started, that's how we were started," Augstein once wrote in an article about the early days after the end of the war. The edition of "This Week" is 15,000 copies, 70,000 Reichsmarks are available to the creators. At the request of the British occupying forces, the young writers followed the Anglo-American style, Augstein recalls decades later:"The magazine style demands a certain brevity and we stuck to that at first. That was new in Germany." How it works? For example:First, Bohrer, Ormond, and Chaloner translate "Time" articles and submit them to journalists.
Criticism of the occupiers
What is also new, however, is the disrespect brought to paper. Augstein's editorial team clearly names the conditions in post-war Germany, and in their articles does not shy away from criticizing the occupiers. And they keep an eye on what the men in the Anzeiger high-rise pull out of the typewriters. Chaloner always allows Augstein to hand out with words. Nevertheless:The censorship by the British always lasted for days, according to Augstein. "The French complained, the Russians anyway, the English too."
"The sheet must be in German hands"
Augstein irritates the British - when he writes, for example, that the Germans in the Ruhr area are starving. At some point the occupiers had enough:"Augstein's political attacks quickly led to the following:Either the paper will be discontinued or it will be published under a new name and with a new publisher," as Augstein's comrade-in-arms Leo Brawand, who died in 2009, said while the "Spiegel "-Affair editor-in-chief of the paper, told. "I did everything to ensure that the complaints were justified," Augstein recalled in an interview years later. "The thing could not be held," said the journalist, "and so it was decided:'The paper must be in German hands immediately'." And within 24 hours.
Augstein removes right to British censorship
Like its predecessor, the first "Spiegel" costs one Reichsmark. The layout of the title is also almost identical.And Augstein is there, gets a temporary license as a publisher together with Chaloner and two others - for 10,000 Reichsmarks. Augstein himself had a military officer remove the remarks made about further censorship by the British occupying forces - according to his own accounts, he thanked him with a simple "Thank you, sir". When choosing a name, the publisher and head of the new, old magazine tried his father's opinion. "Die Woche", "Der Spiegel", "Das Echo" are available. Augstein's father rules out "The Echo". It will be "Der Spiegel," writes Augstein, who relocates from Hanover to Hamburg together with his editorial team seven years later. In the first issue of "Spiegel" the predecessor is commemorated in a message:
"Six weeks ago a new magazine came out called 'This Week'. Its attempt to reflect current affairs around the world was well received by the public. The British publishing authorities have decided that the magazine can now come out under independent German management. 'DieseWoche' is therefore discontinued and instead of it 'Der Spiegel' is presenting itself today.The publishing and editorial directors of the magazine 'DieseWoche' say goodbye to their previous employees and thank them for the work they have done work and wish you great success for the new magazine 'Der Spiegel'." Published in "Der Spiegel", Issue 1
Both magazines sold like hot cakes - why?
"Der Spiegel" will have the desired success in the young German media landscape. However, "This Week" had previously sold like hot cakes, even if the scarcity of printable paper at this time put a limit to the print run. Throughout his life, Rudolf Augstein does not only attribute this to the journalistic quality:"I think you should consider that every sheet of paper was ripped out of your hands back then. People needed paper and they needed something to read. So you could actually couldn't go wrong. You would always sell what little paper you had."
"The political conviction in the foreground"
Nevertheless:According to Augstein, the following sentence always applied to the young editors:"We want to write what we would have wanted to read elsewhere if we hadn't had this paper." Their political convictions have always been in the foreground. "It naturally fanned out over the years. But the principle of not bowing to any authority, not even to a friend, remained ironclad."