History

Printed pamphlets and newspapers began to spread in German-speaking countries around the year 1500 and were even published periodically in some cases. However, the establishment of mass media only really took off in the 19th century. This was partly due to technical innovations in printing technology - but much more important was the abolition of state regulations. Until the so-called Imperial Press Act was passed in 1874, publishers could only publish with state authorisation - and, as with books, only subject to prior censorship. In addition, the only source of income was sales, as the state reserved a monopoly on placing adverts. With the new law, the German Empire, which was around three years old at the time, guaranteed the independence of the press from the state for the first time.

Broadcasting as a state medium

With the development of radio broadcasts, broadcasting was not only under state control from the very beginning, but even in the hands of the state. Initial legal regulations, which established a state monopoly for telegraph transmissions, were extended to the emerging radio broadcasting. After initially leaving the gates open for a kind of guerrilla radio, it was stipulated in 1919 that only the German Reich (colloquially referred to as the "Weimar Republic" at the time) was authorised to set up and operate transmission and reception facilities. After radio reception was briefly banned for private individuals from 1922 to 1923, its use was permitted from 1923 and a licence fee was introduced. Anyone who wanted to obtain a licence to receive radio broadcasts - and that was exactly 467 people by the end of 1923 - had to pay 25 marks per year. 

In the following years, both the number of stations and the content on offer diversified, but operations always remained in state hands or with state-owned or state-commissioned companies. At the beginning of the 1930s, the broadcasters briefly became freer in terms of content, but in 1932 there was an about-turn by the state and radio was reorganised as a state medium. The broadcasting companies were once again fully nationalised and centrally controlled. With the so-called 'seizure of power' by the National Socialists in 1933, radio was completely taken over by the government and became its organ.

Bringing the press into line

Just like radio, the press also fell under the control of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda from 1933. With the so-called Gleichschaltung of the press, newspapers became "public institutions" by law, meaning that their content was controlled and censored - the temporary end of press freedom and the private press. Although newspapers and publishing houses continued to be privately owned until the end of the Nazi regime, the government ensured by law that it could expropriate newspapers and publishing houses without compensation claims. It exercised this right in many cases, and many media entrepreneurs also sold their shares. In 1944, the ruling NSDAP controlled more than a third of all German newspapers and with them more than 80 per cent of the daily circulation. By the end of the World War II and the Nazi regime, the number of German daily newspapers had fallen by around 80 per cent to just under 1,000 before the German press landscape came to a complete standstill with the beginning of the Allied occupation.

Restart under Allied supervision

After the Allies had banned all German media in the British, US and French occupation zones and banned existing journalists and publishers from practising their profession (which was not necessarily enforced with full consistency), licences were granted from 1945 onwards to found new press products, so-called licensed newspapers. Between 1945 and 1947, seven major newspapers and publishing houses were founded, which still characterise the German press landscape today:

• The Frankfurter Rundschau received its first US licence on 1 August 1945
• The first British licence was granted to Aachener Nachrichten on 27 June 1945
• The first Tagesspiegel was published on 27 September 1945
• Axel and Hinrich Springer founded Axel Springer Verlag in 1946; the first publication was Hör zu
• The first issue of the weekly newspaper Die Zeit was published on 21 February 1946
• Die Wirtschaftszeitung (later Deutsche Zeitung und Wirtschaftszeitung, today Christ und Welt) was launched on 10 May 1946
• The news magazine Der Spiegel has been published since 4 January 1947

Broadcasting returned even faster than the printed press in the western occupation zones. In 1945, Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk began broadcasting in the British occupation zone. In the other occupation zones - including the Soviet ones - radio stations also (re)commenced operations under Allied control. 

After the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in 1949, the so-called general licence was granted there in the same year, which meant that from then on anyone could found a newspaper. In addition, the merger of the German Press Service, the South German News Agency and the German News Agency created the German Press Agency, which is still the largest German news agency today.

In the Soviet occupation zone, all existing publishing houses were expropriated. In 1945, the army group newspaper of the Red Army, the Berliner Zeitung, which still exists today, was handed over to the city of Berlin. In the German Democratic Republic (GDR), the press - unlike in the FRG - was subject to state standardisation. This was ensured by organising the delivery of newspapers exclusively via the state postal service.

Private broadcasting and reunification

While radio and television broadcasting in the GDR remained exclusively state-controlled until its end, the FRG introduced a so-called dual broadcasting system in the mid-1980s, meaning that for the first time, private broadcasters were allowed to broadcast alongside public broadcasters. At the beginning of the 1980s, the Federal Constitutional Court declared private broadcasting to be permissible in a judgement. After reunification in 1990, private radio stations were also established in East Germany and private TV stations expanded their broadcasting area. The public broadcasters were incorporated into the corresponding system in West Germany.