• ... shows the front page of the first issue of the "Neue Zeitung" from November 27, 1944.

• The paper was a first step towards a future democratic public sphere, but was not yet an independent and journalistic newspaper in today's sense.

• The lead story of the first issue was an article on the war situation with the headline "Strasbourg has been liberated". The lead article was a proclamation from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the German civilian population.

The Aachen City Archive regularly presents interesting items from its stacks as Archive of the Month. The item with a short accompanying text is presented in a display case in the foyer of the city archive on Reichsweg and digitally on the archive's homepage. In November 2024, the Archivale of the Month shows the front page of the first issue of the "Neue Zeitung" from November 27, 1944.

On October 21, 1944, the last German troops fighting in Aachen surrendered to the US Army. The German administration was replaced by the American military government, which gradually set up a new German civil administration. In doing so, it attached great importance to keeping National Socialists out of power. The American military intelligence service CIC vetted those Germans who were to be given responsibility. A department of the US Army for psychological warfare analyzed the mentality of the civilians who remained in Aachen and developed methods to break through years of influence by Nazi propaganda and impart democratic values. The US Army regarded Aachen both as part of an enemy state and as a laboratory for a democratic society in the post-war period.

The "Aachener Nachrichten" is considered to be the first newspaper established in Germany in this changed situation. It is less well known that there was a predecessor.

"Die Neue Zeitung"

Before the fall of 1944, only National Socialist newspapers such as the "Westdeutsche Beobachter" or the "Politisches Tageblatt" were available in Aachen. But just over five weeks after the capitulation, "Die Neue Zeitung" appeared with the subtitle "Newsletter of the 12th American Army Group for the German civilian population". The newspaper was two pages long and appeared weekly. From number 2 of December 4, 1944, the title "Die Neue Zeitung" was dropped. The first part of the former subtitle "Die Mitteilungen" became the new main title. The paper appeared in this form with nine issues and one special issue until January 22, 1945.

The paper was a first step towards a future democratic public sphere, but was not yet an independent and journalistic newspaper in today's sense. Like Radio Luxembourg, it was primarily a medium under the control of the US Army's Psychological Warfare Division. However, it was designed from the outset to anticipate a future press.

Article about the war situation

The lead story of the first issue was an article on the war situation with the headline "Strasbourg was liberated". Several smaller articles provided information on the "Advance on Jülich" and the situation in other theaters of war. The lead article in the left-hand column is a proclamation from the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to the German civilian population. In it, the general makes it clear that his soldiers are coming to Germany "as a victorious army, but not as oppressors". They would "destroy National Socialism and German militarism, eliminate the rule of the National Socialist German Workers' Party, dissolve the NSDAP and abolish the cruel, harsh and unjust laws and institutions created by the NSDAP." Leading members of the Wehrmacht and NSDAP, members of the Gestapo and other suspects would be prosecuted. Further down, Eisenhower is presented with a portrait photo. Next to it, under the heading "Punishable by death", twenty offenses are listed. A report on the acquittal of three residents of Horbach by a court of the Allied Military Government was intended to inspire confidence in the new justice system.

The lead story on the back page, which is not documented here, was a report on the rescue of the mines in the Aachen coalfield by workers who defied the Nazis' evacuation and destruction orders. There is also an excerpt from a speech by US President Roosevelt, an international press review as well as the sections "Under the Nazis", "Hitherto concealed" and "From town and country" - a local section in miniature - and the Radio Luxembourg program.

Three newspapers in Aachen

The newspaper retained this structure and only expanded it slightly, for example by printing short letters to the editor and a court section with the programmatic title "Strict, but just". When the first issue of the "Aachener Nachrichten" appeared on January 25, 1945, it initially differed only slightly from its predecessor, but expanded its local reporting and included a sports section. A year later, the Allied authorities decided to continue the "Aachener Nachrichten" as one of three newspapers, each representing a political current of the time: the "Aachener Nachrichten" continued as a social-democratic newspaper, the "Aachener Volkszeitung" as a Christian-democratic newspaper and the "Volksstimme" as a communist newspaper. The latter was published until the KPD was banned in 1956. The "Aachener Nachrichten" was discontinued in 2023. The "Aachener Volkszeitung" has been published under the title "Aachener Zeitung" since 1996. There was another daily newspaper in Aachen under the same title from 1950 to 1975.