Kladderadatsch
was founded in Berlin by Albert
Hofmann and David Kalisch.
The first issue
was virtually written by one man, Kalisch, the son of a Jewish
merchant and a popular author of light comedies. The format of the
magazine remained essentially the same throughout the magazine's history.
The front-cover included a grinning boy's head that was eventually
to become the magazine's trademark. Under the title, roughly translated
as Crash,
was the words "The
time's turned upside down!" The magazine's humour was reflected
in the statement until the title, "appears daily except weekdays".
Kladderadatsch
was published for the first time on 7th May, 1848. Hofmann and Kalisch
printed 4,000 and they sold all of them in twenty-four
hours. The success of the venture enabled them to employ two other
writers, Ernst
Dohm and Rudolf Löwenstein. In the
second issue Kladderadatsch
also began to publish the drawings of Wilhelm
Scholz. He was to remain the main contributor for over forty years.
Kladderadatsch
(1848)
The journal was critical of the German government and favoured moderate
reform. Although in favour of free speech, Kladderadatsch
was very hostile to socialism and warned
that if the movement gained power in Germany it would be "followed
immediately by the confiscation of all private property, the abolition
of money, and the dissolution of the army". However, the journal
was concerned that legislation to control socialists would also hurt
more moderate reformers.
Kladderadatsch
was extremely popular with the growing middle-class in Germany and
circulation grew from 22,000 in 1858 to 50,000 in 1872. The journal
gradually lost it early rebelliousness and began to reflect the conservative
views of its prosperous readers. The it supported government legislation
to prevent the spread of socialism and
gave its backing in 1897 to a law that penalized striking workers.
By the beginning of the 20th century Kladderadatsch
began to look old-fashioned and was outsold by the socialist Der
Wahre Jakob
and the liberal Simplicissimus.
In 1900 its editor-in-chief was sixty-three years of age and the average
age of its five most important staff members was forty-eight. At the
same time the average age of the staff of Simplicissimus
was twenty-eight.
Paul Warncke
succeeded Johannes Trojan as editor-in-chief in 1909. Warncke
was strongly nationalistic and first achieved notice for a poem honouring
Otto von Bismarck. During this period,
Gustav Brandt and the German-American
artist, Arthur Johnson, became the journals
leading cartoonists. On the outbreak of the First
World War Kladderadatsch
gave its full support to the war effort.
| The
arrow is aimed at the Social Democrats, but what if it overshoots
it's target? |
After the war Kladderadatsch
had a circulation of 40,000 but even though attempts were made to
modernize its format, sales continued to fall. In 1923 Hofmann
Verlag,
the publishers of Kladderadatsch
since it was founded in 1848, sold it to the Stinnes Company. The
journal became increasingly right-wing and denounced the moderate
leaders of the Weimar Republic. When Walther
Rathenau was assassinated in 1922, Kladderadatsch
published a poem that provided little sympathy to the former German
foreign minister.
The journal also praised Adolf Hitler
for his patriotic spirit after the failure of the 1923 Munich
Putsch. In the early 1930s Kladderadatsch
fully supported Hitler's policies and denounced the Social Democrats
of trying to destroy Germany. Cartoons in the journal became increasingly
anti-Jewish. After the
death of Paul
Warncke in
1933, Kladderadatsch
continued to express extreme right-wing views.
Kladderadatsch
(1919)
(1)
Kladderadatsch,
Walther Rathenau (June, 1922)
We
will forget his oft-misguided life
His errors and his sins we'll not remember
Instead we mourn the fratricidal strife
Which threatens our dear country to dismember.
Kladderadatsch
(1919)
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