Type Daily | ||
Editor-in-chief Paul WandelSepp Schwab Founded June 13, 1945 (1945-06-13) Ceased publication April 21, 1946 (1946-04-21) | ||
Deutsche Volkszeitung ('German People's Newspaper', abbreviated DVZ) was a newspaper published daily from Berlin, Germany 1945-1946. It was the organ of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
Contents
Foundation
The first issue was published on June 13, 1945. Deutsche Volkszeitung was the first working class-newspaper to emerge in Berlin after the Second World War. The circulation at this point was 100,000 copies.
Wandel's editorship
Paul Wandel, who had returned from exile in Moscow on June 10, 1945, was named editor-in-chief of the newspaper. According to a 1989 interview with Wandel, the decision to launch Deutsche Volkszeitung had been taken during a conversation between Joseph Stalin and German communist leaders just a few days earlier. Wandel had been proposed by Walter Ulbricht as the editor-in-chief of the new publication. During this period Deutsche Volkszeitung was the sole newspaper published in the Soviet occupation zone not subject to SMAD censorship. Wandel withdrew from the post on July 24, 1945. Sepp Schwab became the new editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
Siemens controversy
In the summer of 1945 Deutsche Volkszeitung ran a number of articles about anti-fascist resistance in the concentration camps during the war. An article in the August 5, 1945 issue of the newspaper claimed that Siemens had produced and installed the crematoria and gas chambers at Auschwitz. Siemens denied the claim, contracted a lawyer and threatened legal actions against the newspaper. Deutsche Volkszeitung repeated the claim in its August 22, 1945 issue. The Siemens chairman Wolf-Dietrich von Witzleben then responded by writing to Lewis Lyne, Commandant of the British Sector in Berlin, asking him to take action against the newspaper. Witzleben was arrested twice by Allied troops following the Deutsche Volkszeitung articles.
Merger with Das Volk
By October 1946 the newspaper reached a daily circulation of 350,000 copies. The final issue of Deutsche Volkszeitung was published on April 21, 1946. On April 23, 1946 the newspaper was replaced by Neues Deutschland (organ of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, SED), founded as a result of the merger of Deutsche Volkszeitung and the SPD organ Das Volk. During the merger talks between SPD and KPD the idea of making Deutsche Volkszeitung as the 'national organ' of SED had been discussed (whilst making Das Volk the Berlin local organ of the party). On April 25, 1946 the SED leadership named Sepp Schwab co-editor-in-chief of Neues Deutschland.