Enemy of the 1968ers and power man, fighter for reunification and friend of Israel:Axel Springer has polarized. And hardly any other publisher shaped the media landscape in post-war Germany like he did.
by Irene Altenmüller
The Hamburg newspaper publisher Axel Caesar Springer created one of the largest media empires in Europe with the Axel-Springer-Verlag. His papers from the "Bild" newspaper to the "Welt" are still opinion-forming in the German public today.
Springer's beginnings in Hamburg-Altona
Axel Springer, the patriarch:This is how his son, who worked as a photographer under the pseudonym Sven Simon, saw him.Springer was born on May 2, 1912 in Altona, which at that time still belonged to Schleswig-Holstein. His father, Hinrich Springer, is the owner of the Hammerich und Lesser publishing house and also the editor of the daily newspaper "Altonaer Nachrichten". After school, Axel Springer first did a printer's apprenticeship at his father's publishing house, later he did a traineeship at a news agency and at the "Bergedorfer Zeitung". In 1934, Springer joined his father's "Altonaer Nachrichten" as a sports and business editor and soon became deputy editor-in-chief.
Divorce for "career reasons"?
But when Hitler came to power, the political landscape changed radically. In 1941 the "Altonaer Nachrichten" was discontinued, Springer continued to work as an editor with limited admission and as a publishing house bookseller. A medical certificate saved him from military service in 1939. Although biographers today largely agree that Axel Springer and his family were in internal opposition to the new rulers, the family did not openly oppose the Nazi regime:by his wife Martha, a half-Jew, with whom they had a daughter , Springer divorced - "for career reasons", as his biographer Hans Peter Schwarz suspects. Marriage to a half-Jewish woman was professionally disadvantageous, and the marriage also failed - Springer had numerous affairs with other women. In 1939 he married his second wife Erna Frieda Holm, with whom he had their son Axel in 1944.
Rise in post-war Germany
Axel Springer in the 1940s:With the "Hör Zu!" the rise of the publisher's son to media tsar began.After the end of the Second World War, Springer began as a book publisher. From 1946 he published the "Nordwestdeutsche Hefte":a newspaper with radio reports from the Northwest German Broadcasting Corporation, the predecessor of the North German and West German Broadcasting Corporations. Because the British occupiers wanted to broadcast selected articles in writing in addition to the radio.
Also designed as a radio-related project, the program guide "Hör Zu!" appears for the first time at the end of the same year. The magazine develops extremely successfully:At the end of the 1960s, the "Hör zu!" with a circulation of around four million copies, it is the magazine with the highest circulation in Europe. In the meantime, the program sheet, renamed "Hörzu" in 1972, has been published by the Funke Mediengruppe.
1952:"Bild" becomes Germany's first tabloid
In 1948, Springer also received the license to publish its own daily newspaper, the "Hamburger Abendblatt". Springer's biggest coup followed in 1952:on June 24, he launched the "Bild" newspaper, the first German tabloid newspaper with an initial circulation of 250,000 copies. To this day, the "Bild" newspaper has the highest circulation in Germany and is regularly criticized for the content and form of its reporting.
Reunification goal:Springer travels to Moscow
The publishing house continued to expand:in 1953 "Die Welt" was added as the future journalistic flagship, followed in 1956 by a stake in Ullstein-Verlag. In his mid-40s, Axel Springer is the most important man in the German press landscape. But that's not enough for the ambitious CEO:In 1958, Springer tries to influence politics not only indirectly through its newspapers, but also directly. He travels to Moscow to explain his concept for German reunification to Nikita Khrushchev, then head of state and government of the Soviet Union - without success. In the years that followed, Springer urged its editors-in-chief to take an uncompromising position against the Soviet Union and the GDR. The Springer-Blätter also repeatedly address the ongoing mass exodus from the GDR. The previously relatively non-political "Bild" newspaper becomes a political battle sheet.
Springer's psychological crises remain hidden
In the 1950s, Springer fell into a mental crisis and developed a penchant for esoteric teachings.While Springer-Verlag knew only one way in the 1950s and early 1960s - the way up - the private life of the publisher was turbulent. In 1953 he married his third wife Rosemarie, from whom he separated in 1961 in order to marry his fourth wife in 1962, with whom he had their son Raimund Nicolaus in the same year. At the same time, Springer's health increased:He was mentally unstable and suffered from psychosomatic illnesses, which culminated in a serious mental crisis in 1957. The figure of the unprecedentedly successful, worldly and hands-on publisher is opposed to a mystical-religious and esoteric, astrology-believing seeker of meaning.
Springer-Verlag moves to Berlin
Axel Springer around 1966 in West Berlin, which he sees as a "frontline city to socialism".The public does not learn anything about these mental crises. Springer continues to expand its media empire, founds the magazine "Eltern" and in 1966 buys the majority of the Ullstein Group, which also includes the Berlin daily newspapers "B.Z." and "Berliner Morgenpost" belong. With a market share of 70 percent, the Springer publishing house in West Berlin has almost a media monopoly. At the beginning of 1967 the headquarters of the publishing house moved from Hamburg to West Berlin. The publishing house is within sight of the Berlin Wall - a clear political signal that the publisher and his empire do not accept the division of Germany.
"Image" campaign against student movement
Silent march for Benno Ohnesorg 1967:After the student's death, the conflict between Springer-Presse and APO escalated.However, it is not only the GDR and the so-called Eastern bloc that are in the line of fire of the Springer newspapers. From 1966, the politically left-wing student body was also targeted. With a verbal hate campaign, the "Bild" newspaper stirs up the mood against the protesting students.
Their spokesman, the self-proclaimed "Extra-parliamentary Opposition" (APO), reacted with a "expropriated Springer" campaign and openly demanded that the company be broken up. The conflict escalated when the student Benno Ohnesorg was shot dead by a police officer on June 2, 1967 and the "Bild" newspaper blamed the students for the violence. Now many well-known German writers, such as Günter Grass and Peter Rühmkorf, are turning against the publisher:They start the campaign "We don't work for Springer newspapers".
Springer establishes binding principles
Axel Springer does not leave the criticism of the concentrated media power of the publishing house, of the type of reporting in the newspapers and, last but not least, of his person indifferent. In October 1967, he published four principles that are binding for all editors of the publishing house:standing up for the reunification of Germany, reconciliation between Germans and Jews, rejecting any kind of political totalitarianism and defending the social market economy.
These principles also reflect the publisher's pronounced conservative sense of mission. In the meantime, they have been adapted and expanded several times in line with the times, but all employees are still committed to them today.
Assassination attempt on Dutschke - did "Bild" shoot too?
After the assassination of Rudi Dutschke in 1968, there were unrest in many cities, which were also directed against the "Bild" newspaper.Despite these principles, the "Bild" newspaper has not given up its defamatory, polemical style and has stirred up a mood against the student leader Rudi Dutschke. Shortly afterwards, on April 11, 1968, he was shot in Berlin. Many then blame the "Bild" newspaper for the assassination:"Bild shot with them," is their accusation. Serious unrest breaks out in West Berlin and other cities. Criticism is also being voiced at the highest level. A commission set up by the federal government criticizes the publisher's handling of press freedom.
The 1970s:attacks and awards
On May 19, 1972, several bombs explode in the Springer publishing house in Hamburg. At least 17 people are injured in the attack carried out by the Red Army Faction (RAF). There were also arson attacks in two of Axel Springer's private houses in Kampen on Sylt and in Gstaad, Switzerland. The attacks fueled the public discussion about the power and influence of the Springer press again.
A special relationship:Springer and the Jews
While Axel Springer continued to be caught in the crossfire of left-wing criticism in Germany, two Israeli universities - Bar Ilan University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem - awarded him honorary doctorates in 1974 and 1976. In 1983 he received the honorary title of "Preserver of Israel". For Springer, reconciliation with the Jews is a lifelong theme to which he dedicates himself financially and personally. The publisher travels to Israel around 30 times.
The 80s - Springer retires
With the suicide of his son Axel, the publisher's hope of a family successor also dies.The 1980s began for Axel Springer with a severe personal stroke of fate:his eldest son Axel, an internationally renowned photographer under the pseudonym Sven Simon and meanwhile editor-in-chief of "Welt am Sonntag", killed himself on a Hamburg park bench on January 3, 1980 The death of his son hit Axel Springer senior to the core. In the years that followed, he withdrew more and more from the day-to-day business of the publishing house. In 1983, Springer sold 24.9 percent of his publishing house to Burda, and he sold another 49 percent in July 1985.
Axel Springer dies at the age of 73
On September 22, 1985, Axel Springer died at the age of 73 from a myocarditis in a West Berlin hospital. One of the tragedies of his life is that he was not lucky enough to see the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification, which he had always advocated so vehemently.
The Springer Group has remained one of the largest media companies in Europe. Springer's last wife, Friede, acts as Deputy Chairwoman of the Supervisory Board of the Axel Springer SE Group.