Neues Deutschland - East Germany

East Germany

ND was formed in 1946 as a Lizenzzeitung after the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) merged to form the SED in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany. Karl Maron was the first chief editor of the daily and served in the post until 1950. The first edition of ND was published on 23 April 1946 in conjunction with the founding of the SED. ND replaced the SPD’s Das Volk and the KPD’s Deutsche Volkszeitung. Before the reunification of Germany in October 1990, ND had a circulation of a million and was second only to the state youth newspaper junge Welt in readership.

ND was one of the most important propaganda tools for the SED and the SED's key piece of media used to maintain their control of the state. ND had a very heavy focus on East German party and government leaders. For example, on 16 March 1987, in the edition produced for the opening of the Leipzig Fair, there were over 41 photographs of SED Secretary-General Erich Honecker. In contrast to other GDR newspapers, ND used high quality paper and printing materials and was not affected by the traditional item deficiencies common in the GDR.