Neues Deutschland (ND) (English: New Germany) is a national German daily newspaper. It was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which governed the German Democratic Republic (GDR - East Germany), and as such served as one of the party's most important organs. More than the other newspapers in the GDR, ND not only endorsed all policy decisions of the government, frequently changing its editorial position to support the new party line, but it also sought to elevate the prestige of each member of the leadership, perhaps most importantly Erich Honecker. It currently has its headquarters in Berlin and retains a socialist outlook. The newspaper is both politically and financially tied to the Left Party, a direct heir to the SED, which owns the publishing house and printing presses.

East Germany

ND was formed in 1946 from the Lizenzeitung after the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) merged to form the SED in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. The first edition of ND was issued on 23 April 1946 in conjunction with the founding of the SED. ND replaced the SPD?s Das Volk and the KPD?s Deutsche Volkszeitung. Before the reunification of Germany in October 1990, ND had a circulation of a million and was second only to the state youth newspaper junge Welt in readership.

ND was one of the most important propaganda tools for the SED and the SED?s key piece of media used to maintain their control of the state. ND had a very heavy focus on East German party and government leaders. For example, on 16 March 1987, in the edition produced for the opening of the Leipzig Fair, there were over 41 photographs of Erich Honecker, the then-current General Secretary of the SED. In contrast to other GDR newspapers, ND used high quality paper and printing materials and was not affected by the traditional item deficiencies that plagued the GDR.

After Reunification

Former Editor's office building in Elsenbrücke

Jürgen Reents, who has political roots in both the PDS and the Green Party, has been the editor in chief of ND since 1999. One of his major goals has been to transform ND's image from a propaganda leaflet to a more respected newspaper. In October 2005 the editors moved from Elsenbrücke to Franz-Mehring Platz in Berlin. Three months later, Olaf Koppe took over management of the newspaper.

Profile

ND is still oriented towards the socialist viewpoint and is owned partially by the Left Party. The twin goals of the newspaper are to give those in eastern Germany a voice and to represent the democratic-socialist viewpoint without being the organ of the Left or any other political party. While eastern German themes dominate the features and the community pages, the political section looks at leftist politics throughout Germany. Authors and politicians from diverse political backgrounds have also been represented on the pages of the newspaper. For example, Friedrich Schorlemmer, a famous critic of the Left Party and the political left in general, has been a guest writer.

Other traditional sections of a newspaper are also included, such as an advice page, a television guide, notifications and classifieds, opinion columns, and theme sections dealing with health, environment, and the like. The letters to the editor are often cited as examples of viewpoints of the Left party from other media sources. As with most daily German newspapers, ND is published daily Monday through Friday, with a weekend edition published on Saturdays.

In November 2006, the newspaper also started a youth insert called Sacco and Vanzetti. Beginning in March 2007, ND has successfully started publishing online.

External links

• Official web site

da:Neues Deutschland de:Neues Deutschland hsb:Neues Deutschland nl:Neues Deutschland no:Neues Deutschland ru:Neues Deutschland sv:Neues Deutschland