German-Jewish Paper Turns 70 -- and Hopes for More

At first, the German language newspaper Aufbau was supposed to publish a big 70th anniversary issue in January. Now, the date has been pushed back to late February -- if it gets printed at all.

Seven decades ago, however, Aufbau was the first source of information for people who fled Nazi Germany for New York. It was printed in German and aimed at people like Robert Goldmann, who emigrated with his family to the United States just before the war.

“My parents read it, and for them it was the one important news source -- about America, about the developments in the new German Jewish immigration, and so on,” Goldmann told Germany’s WDR radio.

Newsletter to newspaper

In 1934, Aufbau’s readership was almost exclusively exiled immigrants who used the paper for its service pieces. Originating as a 12-page newsletter for the German-Jewish Club, it was full of advice, help and support for the new arrivals. There were job advertisements and tips on how to adjust to life in America.

Two years later the paper started publishing news and other information, for those who couldn’t, or didn’t want to, “read all about it” in English language newspapers.

Circulation surged to 15,000 around the time the United States joined the anti-Hitler coalition, and going into the 1960s, the paper -- whose masthead had included names like Albert Einstein, Thomas Mann and Hannah Arendt -- had a circulation of 300,000.

Reporting the Holocaust

The Aufbau also earned its stripes as an important source of news about the war. It was the first newspaper to report on the genocide in German gas chambers, in July 1942. It was the Holocaust black on white, reported with such detail that the reprinted deportation lists were used as evidence in the Nuremberg trials.

After the war, the paper helped those trying to relocate family and friends by running notices in its “searching for” and “saved” columns. The paper still runs these columns today, and the latest issue has three entries in the “searching for” rubric.

Despite the three advertisements, however, the paper’s mandate is becoming ever less clear.

“There are older people like myself, who still read Aufbau, just because we always have,” Goldmann says. “But I often hear, ‘Yes, I still get it, but I don’t really know why.’ I don’t know who will read Aufbau in the future, when we (immigrants from Germany) are all gone. Certainly not my children. And my grandchildren even less so."

Trans-Atlantic content

Aufbau’s new editorial leadership hopes it has found a way to address the readership problem, and to that end, recently overhauled the paper. In 2001, Aufbau became part of a larger not-for-profit educational organization aimed at improving and examining Jewish-German relations.

Under editor in chief Lorenz Wolffers, the editorial staff was enhanced, and in February 2002, Aufbau opened an office in Berlin. Most important, the paper was relaunched in May, 2002, and updated to embrace post-war generations in the U.S., Europe and Israel. The newspaper is now half in English, half in German, and has five categories of articles: politics, Jewish life, Jewish history, culture and, of course, German-Jewish heritage.

Each issue of the newly revamped Aufbau features a focus subject on which several articles are written, with a transatlantic angle, reflecting the range of views and how they differ between continents. There's also an editorial, either by an American or a German writer, published in both English and German. The Transatlantic Page focuses on trends and perspectives by positioning side-by-side articles written by an American author in Germany and a German author residing in the U.S.

Despite his concerns for the paper’s future, Goldmann has nothing but praise for the new venture. He also supports the point of view of the present Aufbau staff, many of whom, he notes, are not Jewish.

New point of view

"It is a point of view of people who remember the past, but don’t simply root around in the Holocaust,” he said. “Second, it is a look at New York, often entertaining things, which really could be interesting for German readers. Especially young ones."

Despite the changes, the new Aufbau’s circulation barely rates a mention in Germany, despite frequent praise in the German press. In New York, the publisher is collecting money in an effort to put out the somewhat larger anniversary issue. After that, workers at the paper say, the end could come as soon as February.

Overall, the mood is shaky for a paper hoping to celebrate its 70th anniversary.