Germany: Freedom Fling

The press was among the first to benefit when freedom came to East Germany. Censorship fell with the Wall. Hard-line editors retired or were fired. The dull, gray Communist Party daily Neues Deutschland, so lickspittle that it once published 26 photos of Erich Honecker in a single edition, lightened up with a fresh design and uncensored stories. The daily Berliner Zeitung shed its communist ties and became East Berlin’s liveliest and most popular newspaper. Junge Welt, once a loyal youth tabloid, turned muckraker overnight.

But for East German journalists, the good news has turned bad. Dozens of newspapers are on the point of collapse or takeover from the West. They have lost vital subsidies and cannot compete with glossier West German publications. The East German press seems condemned to die just as it began to live.

“Our circulation was 1 million in 1989,” says Reiner Oschmann, of Neues Deutschland. “Now it is half a million. I’m surprised that we managed to keep even that many, and we expect to have a further decline.”

Oschmann, 42, became deputy editor after Honecker fell. He is part of a reformist team that is trying to save the paper, but concedes that the job is nearly hopeless. ND’s power in the past was based on its status as a party organ. “The circulation was artificially high in the old days,” Oschmann says. “It was thought ‘fit’ to subscribe to Neues Deutschland even if it was never read. That, thank God, is no longer the case.”

Nor is it the case with other East German newspapers. Junge Welt has lost more than half its 1.6 million subscribers, and collapse is imminent. Berliner Zeitung is a takeover target of powerful West German publishing houses. Regional newspapers from Leipzig to Rostock are in similar straits. “During the past few months, we were able to do what we wanted for the first time in our careers,” says Oschmann. “We had freedom that we never had before. But it won’t last.”