Junge Freiheit

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The Junge Freiheit (JF, Young Freedom) is a German weekly newspaper for politics and culture.

1 History
2 Issues and Style
3 People
4 Controversy
5 External links
6 Literature

[edit] History

It was founded by students in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1986 as a reaction to as what they saw as the dominance of the leftist 68' generation among university teachers. In 1993 it moved its headquarter to Potsdam, near Berlin, and to Hohenzollerndamm in Berlin in 1995. In 1994, a printing site for the JF in Weimar was attacked by far-left terrorists with a firebomb and damage totaling 2.5 million marks. The paper moved to Berlin a few years later, where it is still published today.

[edit] Issues and Style

The Junge Freiheit has a big section for Politics, one for Culture and for Foreign Affairs. Economics are underrepresented. Opinions and commentaries are also a major part of the paper. There are some authors who contribute regular columns. Every week the paper has an interview with some prominent politician, author, scientist or artist. Junge Freiheit has a circulation of around 35,000 copies today.

[edit] People

The founder and editor-in-chief as well as managing director is Dieter Stein. Regularly contributing authors are for example Andreas Mölzer, Alain de Benoist and Karlheinz Weißmann.

Among its prominent contributors are Helmut Markwort, Wolf Jobst Siedler, Frederick Forsyth, Rolf Hochhuth, Ralph Raico and Derek Turner.

[edit] Controversy

In 1995, the Office for Protection of the Constitution in North Rhine-Westphalia first listed the Junge Freiheit as far-right and extremist in their publications. The paper went through all courts suing the Office based on the right of Free Speech. The paper's lawyer in this case was Alexander von Stahl, former German attorney-general and FDP politician. Finally, in 2005, the German Constitutional Court ruled in favour of the paper which can not be called right-wing-extremist by the State Offices for the Protection of the Constitution without proof.

[edit] External links

Junge Freiheit (German)
Online archive of Junge Freiheit (German)

[edit] Literature

Alexander von Stahl: Kampf um die Pressefreiheit. Chronologie eines Skandals. Die Verfassungsbeschwerde der Wochenzeitung 'Junge Freiheit' wegen Verletzung der Meinungs- und Pressefreiheit durch Verfassungsschutzberichte des Landes NRW. Reihe Dokumentation, Edition JF, Berlin 2003/2004, Band 5-7: ISBN , ISBN , ISBN