Thüringer Allgemeine
The Thüringer Allgemeine (short TA ) is a regional newspaper based in Erfurt. It is part of the Spark Media Group, formerly WAZ media group belonging newspaper group Thuringia (together with Ostthüringer newspaper and Thuringian newspaper ) and is among the largest circulation regional newspapers in Germany.
The TA went in 1990 from the newspaper The people out, which was published as the organ of the SED in Erfurt district. During the turn of the editors and publishing staff approved the conversion of the sheet in a "new independent newspaper " with the name Thüringer Allgemeine and renounced by the SED. Under the new name she first appeared on 13 January 1990.
The paid circulation in 1999 was 260,000 copies and is now, along with a partial edition of the much smaller Thuringian newspaper 177 177 copies (economic space Thuringia West). The Thüringer Allgemeine appears with the following 14 local editions, whose distribution is oriented to the district boundaries existed until 1994: Jena, Arnstadt, Artern, Bad Langensalza, calibration field, Eisenach, Erfurt, Gotha, Ilmenau, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, special Hausen, Sömmerda and Weimar.
History
The previous newspaper The people first appeared on April 9, 1946. Thuringia's people, party organ of the Communist Party and later the SED, was allowed to appear weekly with the permission of SMAD in 1945 in an edition of 600,000 copies and five times. The latter of the now regimented Thuringian newspaper of the Liberal Democratic Party was in 1951 permitted. The people were from 1951, the organ of the Erfurt district leadership of the SED.
The Thüringer Allgemeine in 1990 was the first of the three Thuringian district newspapers of the SED, which declared itself independent. In the course of the election campaign for the parliamentary elections in March 1990 decided to editors and publishing staff, will no party advertising for the PDS to operate as a successor party to the SED more and declared their independence. The conversion of the sheet in a "new independent newspaper " with the name Thüringer Allgemeine was supported by about one-third of the workforce. Under the new name she first appeared on 13 January 1990. Striking the title The people were overwritten when the first issue with the new name Thüringer Allgemeine. The editors then chose from among their ranks Sergei Lochthofen (who had not heard of the SED ) to the Chief Editor.
So that the newspaper could be independent, the Thüringer Allgemeine employee -Beteiligungs-GmbH was registered with the number HRB 100009 and a capital of 25,000 East German marks at the State Notary Erfurt on 28 February 1990. Even today, the newspaper belongs to a part of the GmbH. As shareholders or directors of the company, signed a few, still flying the newspaper. To date, Sergei Lochthofen is listed there, so it is co-owner of the newspaper. Until May 24, 2004 was also Lochthofens supervisor from GDR times, Peter Sterzing, registered in the employee -Beteiligungs-GmbH. The former head of the foreign ministries of the people were led by the Ministry of State Security with the name " Peter Sturz ". Lochthofen knew from the past Sterzing.
The other newspapers in Thuringia followed the example of TA and agreed also independent.
From formerly eight pages the newspaper grew enormously by new content. The obsolete equipment was hard to withstand the increased competition in reunified Germany. Also, the delivery system through the mail, the newspaper only zustellte to some readers at noon, required reforms. In order to bear the high cost of such renewal, a takeover by publishers in the old federal states was considered. Finally, the Thüringer Allgemeine joined together with the Ostthüringer newspaper and the Thuringian newspaper WAZ media group. The WAZ Media Group has invested half a billion DM and equipped the Thüringer Allgemeine with the latest technology.
Nationally they aroused among other things, in 1999 a stir. At that time she published a white spot on one side. There was originally supposed to an interview with the then Eastern Federal Government Commissioner, Rolf Schwanitz (SPD ), will be printed. This had, as the editors, but with the authorization of the interview answers and questions so changed that the newspaper it reacted with the non- imprint.
Since 2010, the Thüringer Allgemeine cooperates content reinforced with the other newspapers Thuringian newspaper ( TLZ ) and Ostthüringer newspaper ( OTZ) of the newspaper group Thuringia ( ZGT ). The Internet offers the three newspapers are congruent and in the print editions, a growing number of the item is exchanged.
Editorship
The long-term (1990-2009) editor in chief Sergei Lochthofen was born in 1953 in Vorkuta labor camp in the Soviet Union in the GULAG. In 1990 he was instrumental in that the newspaper had abuse as an election agent of a party no longer and instead the first in Eastern Germany became independent. From then on, she appeared headed Lochthofens and under the name Thüringer Allgemeine.
The delegate of the chief editor was next to Dirk Löhr also Antje Maria Lochthofen, Sergei Lochthofens wife. In GDR times, she attended the SED Party School. You made it to the deputy chief editor of the newspaper The people and thus exerts today at the Thüringer Allgemeine again the same function.
According to the plans of the WAZ Group Lochthofen should no longer perform his duties as of 1 January 2010. This it was by its own account on Wednesday 25 November 2009 by the Board informed. With Lochthofen his wife Antje Maria, previously deputy editor should lose their posts. A note of protest to the editors of the Thüringer Allgemeine could be released on the intervention of the WAZ group only in a censored form in the print edition. Lochthofen described the dismissal of his wife then as " collective punishment such as the Nazis or Stalin ". As a result, he was dismissed as editor in chief already on 2 December 2009 and replaced by Paul -Josef Raue.