Format Berliner Publisher LPG junge Welt e. G. | Owner(s) 8. Mai GmbH Editor Stefan Huth | |
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Type Daily newspaper (except unsere Zeit on Sunday) Founded Berlin 1947; 70 years ago (1947) | ||
junge Welt (meaning "Young World" in English) is a German daily newspaper, published in Berlin. The jW describes itself as a left and Marxist newspaper. German authorities categorize it as a far-left medium hostile to the constitutional order.
History and profile
junge Welt was first published on 12 February 1947 in the Soviet Sector of Berlin. The paper became the official newspaper of the Central Council (Zentralrat) of the Free German Youth (FDJ), the communist youth organisation, on 12 November 1947. With a daily circulation of 1.4 million, junge Welt had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the German Democratic Republic, even higher than the official Communist party organ Neues Deutschland.
It was relaunched in 1994, after German reunification and the effective dissolution of the FDJ, as Germany's most left-wing daily newspaper. The new editorial team included both East and West German authors of different left factions. In 1997, a schism between these two camps led to the eventual foundation of the weekly Jungle World, which since strongly denounced anti-Zionist views upheld by their former colleagues. The newspaper has been criticized for uncritically reporting on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Today, Junge Welt is the smallest nationwide daily newspaper in Germany with a claimed readership of approximately 50,000; the print run has been estimated at 17,000.
According to the Annual Report of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, "the national daily newspaper junge Welt is the most important printed medium in the left-wing extremist scene" in Germany. Arnold Schölzel, editor-in-chief of the newspaper since 2000, has admitted to being a Stasi informant.