The Kreuzzeitung was a national daily newspaper published between 1848 and 1939 in the Kingdom of Prussia and then during the German Empire, the Weimar Republic and into the first part of Nazi Germany. The paper was a voice of the conservative upper class, although it was never associated with any political party and never had more than 10,000 subscribers. Its target readership was the nobility, military officers, high-ranking officials, industrialists and diplomats. Because its readers were among the elite, the Kreuzzeitung was often quoted and at times very influential. It had connections to officials in the highest levels of government and business and was especially known for its foreign reporting. Most of its content consisted of carefully researched foreign and domestic news reported without commentary.
Its original name was officially the (New Prussian Newspaper), although because of the Iron Cross as its emblem in the title, it was simply called the ‘Kreuzzeitung’ (Cross Newspaper) in both general and official usage. In 1911 it was renamed the and then after 1929 the . Between 1932 and 1939 the official title was simply the Kreuzzeitung.Stefan Schilling: Das zerstörte Erbe: Berliner Zeitungen der Weimarer Republik im Portrait. [The Lost Legacy: A Portrait of Berlin Newspapers of the Weimar Republic] Dissertation. Norderstedt 2011, p. 405.Stephan Zick: Mythos "Bismarcks Sozialpolitik": Akteure und Interessen der Sozialgesetzgebung im Deutschen Kaiserreich [Myth of "Bismarck's Social Policy": Actors and Interests of Social Legislation in the German Empire]. Dissertation. Norderstedt 2016, p. 47. From its first issue to its last, the newspaper used the German motto from the Wars of Liberation "Forward with God for King and Fatherland" as its subtitle.Michael Dreyer: Kreuzzeitung (1848–1939). In: Handbuch des Antisemitismus [Handbook of Antisemitism]. Walter de Gruyter, 2013, p. 418.Dagmar Bussiek: Mit Gott für König und Vaterland! Die Neue Preußische Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) 1848–1892. [With God for King and Fatherland! The New Prussian Newspaper (Cross Newspaper) 1848-1892]. LIT Verlag, Münster 2002, p. 7 ff. It had editorial offices in various cities in Germany and abroad. Its headquarters was in Berlin.
The National Socialists took over the Kreuzzeitung on 29 August 1937, and the last issue was printed on 31 January 1939.
Origin In the Kingdom of Prussia, the (General Prussian State Newspaper) was published from 1819 as a newspaper for official announcements. It later developed into the (German Imperial Gazette) and today's (Federal Gazette). There was no other newspaper that represented the particular interests of the Prussian upper class. As a reaction to the March Revolution of 1848, the Bundestag repealed the Carlsbad Decrees on 2 April 1848. The middle class in particular, but also radical left-wing forces, took advantage of the newly won freedom of the press and founded numerous newspapers, among them the bourgeois-liberal and the Neue Rheinische Zeitung (New Rhenish Newspaper) with radical-communist content.
Monarchical-conservative circles sped up their push to found their own newspaper to represent the opposite side; this became the Kreuzzeitung. Originally it was to be called (The Iron Cross), but some of the founders found the name too militaristic. They agreed on the more noncommittal with an image of the iron cross in the logo. The newspaper was nevertheless called the Kreuzzeitung by its authors, creators and readers from the first issue. The main founders, almost all of them belonging to the camarilla around the Prussian king Frederick William IVOtto-Ernst Schüddekopf: Die deutsche Innenpolitik im letzten Jahrhundert und der konservative Gedanke. Die Zusammenhänge zwischen Außenpolitik, innerer Staatsführung und Parteiengeschichte, dargestellt an der Geschichte der Konservativen Partei von 1807 bis 1918, Bände 1807–1918 [German Domestic Politics in the Last Century and Conservative Thought. The Interrelationships between Foreign Policy, Domestic Governance and Party History, Illustrated by the History of the Conservative Party from 1807 to 1918, Volumes 1807-1918]. Verlag Albert Limbach, 1951, p. 30. were: Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach Leopold von Gerlach Hans Hugo von Kleist-Retzow Ernst Karl Wilhelm Adolf Freiherr Senfft von Pilsach Friedrich Julius Stahl Hermann Wagener Moritz August von Bethmann-Hollweg Otto von Bismarck Carl von Voß-Buch
The launch of the newspaper and the founding of the publishing house were carried out with military precision. The intent was for the paper to be characterized by good networking with the highest state institutions.Stephan Zick: Mythos „Bismarcks Sozialpolitik“: Akteure und Interessen der Sozialgesetzgebung im Deutschen Kaiserreich [Myth of "Bismarck's Social Policy": Actors and Interests of Social Legislation in the German Empire]. Dissertation. Norderstedt 2003, p. 47. Berlin was chosen both for the headquarters of the New Prussian Newspaper, Inc. and as the location for its printing. The calculated starting capital of 20,000 thalers was raised by selling shares of 100 thalers each. A total of 80 people subscribed, including Otto von Bismarck, who for many years personally wrote articles for the Kreuzzeitung. The largest shareholder, with shares worth 2,000 thalers, was Carl von Voß-Buch, a lawyer and civil adjutant to William IV. The subscription price was set at 1.5 thalers per quarter; outside Berlin, subscriptions cost 2 thalers due to the postal surcharge. The paper was printed initially by the Brandis Company in Berlin, and three sample issues were sent out in mid-June 1848. Following this, a large number of subscriptions was immediately able to be sold to aristocrats, district councils and senior civil servants. Hermann Wagener became editor-in-chief, and issue Number 1 of the appeared on 30 June 1848.
In connection to the new paper, the Prussian Conservative Party was called the “Kreuzzeitung Party” or simply the "Cross Party”. In the same way, the use of the colloquial terms "black" or having "black views" to refer to members and voters of Christian conservative parties can be traced to the Kreuzzeitung, because the paper was printed in jet black until its end.Hans Dieter Bernd: Die Instrumentalisierung des Antisemitismus und der Dolchstoßlegende in der Kreuz-Zeitung. In: Die Beseitigung der Weimarer Republik auf „legalem“ Weg: die Funktion des Antisemitismus in der Agitation der Führungsschicht der DNVP [The Instrumentalization of Anti-Semitism and the Stab-in-the-back Myth in the Kreuz-Zeitung. In: The Elimination of the Weimar Republic by "Legal" Means: The Function of Anti-Semitism in the Agitation of the DNVP's Leaders], Chap. 6. Dissertation. Bochum 2004, p. 171 ff.
Development to the founding of the German Empire
The Kreuzzeitung was controversial from the beginning, even among the various groups of conservatives. Particularly at the beginning of the post-1848 reactionary era, part of the upper nobility "categorically rejected such democratic means in the struggle to form opinions”.Dagmar Bussiek: Mit Gott für König und Vaterland Die Neue Preußische Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) 1848–1892 [With God for King and Fatherland! The New Prussian Newspaper (Cross Newspaper) 1848-1892]. LIT Verlag, Münster 2002, p. 18. Very quickly, however, Wagener was able to win the trust of the founders. With the support of Friedrich Julius Stahl, he quickly built up a dense network of authors and informants. The majority wrote their articles under a pseudonym as independent contributors. Only in Vienna, Dresden, Munich and other capitals of the individual German states were correspondents permanently employed. For many years Bismarck himself supplied reports from Paris. Reporters obtained news from all other countries through diplomats in Berlin.Bernhard Studt: Bismarck als Mitarbeiter der „Kreuzzeitung“ in den Jahren 1848 und 1849 [Bismarck as Contributor to the Kreuzzeitung in the Years 1848 and 1849]. Dissertation. Kröger Druckerei, Blankenese 1903, p. 6.
The editorial staff enjoyed a relatively high degree of independence, although the paper's loyalty to the monarchy was never questioned. Until the end of 1849 the paper was not self-supporting. Frederick William IV is said to have personally supported the Kreuzzeitung financially at this time.Dagmar Bussiek: Mit Gott für König und Vaterland! Die Neue Preußische Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) 1848–1892 [With God for King and Fatherland! The New Prussian Newspaper (Cross Newspaper) 1848-1892]. LIT Verlag, Münster 2002, p. 37. Nevertheless, the editors were soon in a position to buy back most of the shares from the paper's backers. The chairmanship of the joint stock company was henceforth assumed by the current editor-in-chief. The shareholders were represented only on a five-member committee which had the right to audit the accounts but could not influence the newspaper's content or personnel.
That this independence had distinct limits was clearly felt by the first editor-in-chief. After the newspaper continuously and openly criticized both the dictatorship of Napoleon III and him as a person, Bismarck called on the paper to exercise restraint. The editors ignored the advice. As a consequence, in April 1852 the Kreuzzeitung was banned in France, and several editions were confiscated in Berlin. The next strains followed when the editorial board openly spoke out against the repeal of the Basic Rights of the German People as drafted by the Frankfurt Parliament and thus against the Lesser Germany solution. A wide variety of power interests and spheres of influence clashed here.
The paper's position repeatedly met with opposition from Otto Theodor von Manteuffel, then the minister president of Prussia. Another bitter rival of the paper was the head of the Police Department in the Ministry of the Interior, Karl Ludwig Friedrich von Hinckeldey. Hinckeldey did not hesitate to take the editor-in-chief of the into custody for several days when he refused to give the names of all writers, including anonymous authors, to police authorities. Hinckeldey received a personal reprimand from the king for his high-handed action. Although Wagener had received royal backing, he was unnerved and resigned from his position at the Kreuzzeitung. Tuiscon Beutner became the new editor-in-chief in 1854. Frederick William IV advised him "that the newspaper should continue to appear undeterred and should not change anything in its policy, only that it should be cautious toward France”.Dagmar Bussiek: Mit Gott für König und Vaterland! Die Neue Preußische Zeitung (Kreuzzeitung) 1848–1892 [With God for King and Fatherland! The New Prussian Newspaper (Cross Newspaper) 1848-1892]. LIT Verlag, Münster 2002, p. 123.
Under Beutner's leadership too the paper was not immune to impoundments. Entire editions that had already been printed were repeatedly confiscated. The reason for this was the differing views within the Conservative Party, which ultimately led to several splits from 1857 onward. In addition, the relationship between the Kreuzzeitung and Bismarck worsened. Even though he regularly had articles written for the Kreuzzeitung through his press assistant Moritz Busch until 1871, the Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung was steadily evolving into "Bismarck's house postil".Moritz Busch: Tagebücher. Zweiter Band: Graf Bismarck und seine Leute während des Kriegs mit Frankreich nach Tagebuchsblättern [Diaries. Second volume: Count Bismarck and His People During the War with France, per Pages from the Diary]. Verlag Grunow, Leipzig 1899, p. 224.