Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
of value upon the appreciation of, as well as the rarity of,
independent journalism in Germany.
The Vossische Zeitung, or "Aunty Voss" as it is nicknamed, is a solid,
bourgeois sheet and moderately radical in tone. It is proper, wipes
its feet before entering the house, and may be safely left in the
servants' hall or in the school-room. Die Post represents the
conservative party politically, is welcome in rich industrial circles,
and is rather liberal in religious matters, though hostile to the
government in matters of foreign politics, and of less influence at
home than the frequent quotations from it in the British press would
lead one to suppose. The two official organs of the Catholics are the
Germania and the Volks Zeitung, of Cologne, whose editor is the
well-known Julius Bachern. The Lokal Anzeiger and the Tageblatt of
Berlin attempt, with no small degree of success, American methods, and
give out several editions a day with particular reference to the latest
news.
Leipsic, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Strasburg, Dresden, Koenigsberg,
Breslau, with its Schlessische Zeitung, and the Rhine provinces and
the steel and iron industries represented by the Rheinisch-
Westfaelischer Zeitung, and other cities and towns have local
newspapers. A good example of such little-known provincial newspapers
is the Augsburger Abendzeitung, with its first-rate reports of the
parliamentary proceedings in Bavaria and its well-edited columns. The
circulation of these journals is, from our point of view, small. The
Berliner Tageblatt in a recent issue declares its paid circulation to
have been 73,000 in 1901; 106,000 in 1905; 190,000 in 1910; and
208,000 in 1911.
The custom in Germany of eating in restaurants, of taking coffee in
the cafes, of writing one's letters and reading the newspapers there,
no doubt has much to do with the small subscription lists of German
journals of all kinds, whether daily, weekly, or monthly. The German
economizes even in these small matters. A German family, or small cafe
or restaurant, may, for a small sum, have half a dozen or more weekly
and monthly journals left, and changed each week; thus they are
circulated in a dozen places at the expense of only one copy. Where a
family of similar standing in America takes in regularly two morning
papers and an evening paper, several weekly and monthly, and perhaps
one or two foreign journals, the German family may take one morning
paper. The custom of having half a dozen newspapers served with the
morning meal, as is done in the larger houses in America and in
England, is practically unknown. Economy is one reason, indifference
is another, provincial and circumscribed interests are others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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