GDR Union of Journalists

The Association of Journalists of the GDR ( VDJ ) was an organization for journalists, the first under the roof of fdgb the union of art and literature ( and professions) as professional advocacy and after separation from fdgb in the early 1950s exclusively as a professional organization for journalists served in the German Democratic Republic.

With the secession of the Association of the union he was increasingly becoming an educational and Governing Body of the GDR state. The association, in which about 90 % of all East German journalists was organized, had approximately 8,500 members. About 85 % of them were members of the SED.

He was a member of the National Front of the GDR and was a member of the International Organization of Journalists ( IOJ ) and the League for the United Nations in the GDR. Longtime president of the Association was Harri Czepuck, also vice chairman of the IOJ. His successor in 1981 Eberhard Heinrich. It was the end of January 1990 replaced by the broadcast journalist Gerd Short, who led the assembly until its closure in September 1990.

History

A professional association for journalists already existed in the Weimar Republic: the National Federation of German press ( RDP), the figures as Georg Bernhard ( Editor in Chief of Vossische newspaper ) presided before the RDP by the Nazis from 1933 in Germany and since 1938 also in Austria was brought into line (see also editor of law).

The Association of Journalists of the GDR emerged from the post-war German Association of the Press (VDP ), which was approved by the Allied Control Council on 10 October 1945. The anti-fascist and pro-Soviet orientation of the VDP can be seen from the fact that the VDP in the Soviet zone of occupation also took over the German candidate selection for the Soviet news agency ( SNB).

The Association made ​​the following designations:

Tasks

The VDJ had within the meaning of socialist journalism to promote the political-ideological and professional education of its members and to represent their interests.

He oversaw the training of journalists at the Department of Journalism at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig was the only possible and was responsible for the training of young journalists at the association's Technical School of Journalism in Leipzig. He was a mediator in the enforcement of media-related decisions of the SED Party Congress, state laws and regulations, and took effect on the selection process for travel in the not social metallic abroad.

At the same time, the association operation numerous foreign policy activities and maintained relationships with organizations and journalists in Europe, North, Central and South America, Africa and Asia. He was in charge of the addition, the support of foreign journalists in the GDR.

The VDJ was the organizer or co-organizer of current activities, such as on 24 March 1953, the Working Meeting of the film critics and editors of the GDR in the house of the press in Berlin. Keynote speaker: Sepp Schwab, " The film criticism in our press, and measures for its improvement ." Organizer: State Committee for the film industry and Association of the German press.

Organization

Highest organ was the Congress of the VDJ on which the chairman and members of the board were elected.

The Association held meetings of members from (eg I. General Meeting of the VDP on April 7, 1946 at the Council of the Schöneberg Town Hall basement ) and delegates conferences (eg the VI. Central delegates' conference of the Association of the German press in Berlin, the change in the of the name in Association of German journalists and the election of George Krausz is the chairman decided ).

Members were journalists of the GDR, including

• Paul Ufermann.
• Walter Franze (born 1903), first Chairman of the 1950 VDP
• Emil Dittmer (1873-1960)
• Dr. Maximilian Pluck
• Krausz, first Chairman of the VDJ 1959, former editor of the Red Banner
• Harri Czepuck.

The VDJ gave up the society journal " New German press," and was editor of other periodicals, books and pamphlets, including:

• Manual of the Democratic press. Hrsg.v. Association of the German press. Berlin, Verlag The Economics, 1955.
• Press freedom in West Germany - phrase and reality. A documentation.
• Wolff, Wilhelm (1809-1864): the misery and turmoil in Silesia (June 1844); The casemates ( November 1843 ); Even a billion ( March 1849) / the original work of Wilhelm Wolff; [ with an introduction by Karl Bittel ], Berlin: Association of the German Press, 1952, Otsuka ** W * 304 ** ( 128 099 216 );
• Journalistic Manual of the GDR, Leipzig VDJ 1960.