Annual Report HAIT

„Willensträger einer Staatsführung“

Der Journalist Werner Lahne und die NS-Tageszeitung „Der Freiheitskampf“

Christoph Hanzig

Keywords: Dictatorship Research, Saxony during National Socialism, Press during National Socialism, Second World War

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Abstract

For many Germans, regional and local newspapers were the most important source of news until the end of World War II, as they provided not only news from around the world and Germany, but also from their district, city, and community. Often, several newspapers competed in the same distribution area and edited news according to their party political tendencies and target audience. From the early 1930s onwards, National Socialist newspapers increasingly entered this market. In Saxony, the NSDAP Gau-leadership endeavored to establish its own press, which it succeeded in doing in 1930 with the founding of the daily newspaper “Der Freiheitskampf”. But who actually wrote for these regional Nazi newspapers at the time? What qualifications did the authors have and how did they come to work for the S-Presse? And to what extent were they able to continue their careers after 1945? These questions will be answered using the example of Werner Lahne, the long-standing political editor of “Der Freiheitskampf”.

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Author Biography

Christoph Hanzig

• since 01/2023 Consultant for Educational Work at the Memorial Großschweidnitz
• since 11/2020 affiliated doctoral candidate at the HAIT e. V.
• 2008–2014 Studied Modern and Contemporary History and  History of Saxony at the TU Dresden