Page 49 - The Making of the German Post-war Economy

22 THE MAKING OF THE GERMAN POST-WAR ECONOMY

two were members of the FDP and two were without any party
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affiliation. After publicly criticising the Americans for their undemocratic
behaviour, Agricola, who conjointly edited the Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung with
Hermann Knorr (SPD) and the future President of the Federal Republic
of Germany, Theodor Heuss (DVP), finally lost his licence in September
1948. The trend both to counteract the Soviet propaganda, for instance
via the so-called ‘Operation Talk Back’ of the Political Information
Branch (PIB) established by General Clay on 28 October 1947 which
urged western newspapers to actively attack communism, and to
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disadvantage the communist press in post-war West Germany continued
with the consequence that there were no licensees with a KPD
membership left in 1949. While the SPD and CDU/CSU press were not
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persecuted in a similar manner, control of printed party materials
remained severe. General Clay’s firm decision to establish a non-party
press rested inter alia upon a survey on the public opinion regarding the
press in which the majority favoured an independent press. Although
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many agreed with Clay’s course of action, others, among them German
and American officials alike, such as the diplomat Robert Murphy
according to whom the State Department unavailingly tried to convince
General Clay to license party papers, were opposed to this view.
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Consequently, the publicist and editor of the Frankfurt Hefte, Eugen
Kogon (CDU), criticised the rigid licensing practices and requested more
political autonomy and party papers. Especially the SPD, which had
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operated numerous papers before the Gleichschaltung by the National
Socialists, felt disadvantaged. However, other parties also complained
about the restrictive licensing of newspapers affiliated to political parties.
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After further interventions by German politicians referring to the approval
of party papers in the British zone of occupation, the American Military
Government eventually permitted party organs, provided that the
respective Länder parliaments passed laws ensuring freedom of the press.
Although a uniform press law for all zones of occupation initiated by the
Länderrat in the American occupation zone was rejected by the American
Military Government due to a pursued decentralisation on 15 July 1947,
more newspapers affiliated to political parties were approved. However,
there were no organs owned by political parties among the newspapers,
which received a licence in the American zone of occupation.
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Quite in contrast to the American licensing practices concerning party-
papers, the British authorities privileged newspapers with a party
affiliation. In the first instance, however, British officials were rather
hesitant to license any newspaper in their sovereign territory and followed
a procedure similar to the American – in fact, with the exception of the
Aachener Nachrichten, there was no other German newspaper appearing in