The Foreign Correspondents and the Third Reich (1932-1949)

Surprisingly, until now, historical research has largely ignored the activities of accredited foreign correspondents in Berlin during the Third Reich. Instead, it has focused almost exclusively on the other side of journalism, the public relations of the state and its propaganda apparatus. This is even more remarkable if one takes into account that foreign correspondents working in Berlin contributed to the international image of National Socialist Germany. By researching on foreign correspondents working in the Third Reich, we can discover a range of new insights into the transnational perception of National Socialist Germany. This includes the extremes of rejection and approval the regime received internationally, but also the significance accorded to news and commentary from National Socialist Germany on an everyday basis. To date, only a few individual biographies on foreign correspondents of the period exist, although many of them wrote memoirs soon after their time as foreign correspondents. Also, a surprising number of estates have been preserved. Apart from these, classic state documents and records have also been passed on. By interpreting these records of state propaganda from a critical distance, and comparing them with the testimonials of foreign correspondents especially from the United States, Great Britain and France, we can create a comprehensive analysis of their work. This would cover their investigations, which often relied on local informants and stringers, their text production, and the reception of printed articles as well as radio broadcasts, both in their home countries and worldwide. Until its downfall, the Third Reich wooed, persuaded, deceived and threatened its foreign correspondents. If all means of direction, prescribed terminology and press control failed, the regime did not hesitate to isolate, imprison and expel foreign journalists. Nonetheless, they constituted a force which the National Socialist regime regarded in a modern way, from the perspective of media history, until the very end. In contrast to the public spheres of the Allies, the Third Reich never formally introduced pre-censorship, except for radio broadcasts. This is yet another reason to focus on foreign correspondents in the Third Reich as independent creators of and actors in media events. In doing so we should be able to provide an answer to what has been a crucial question of the Third Reich since at the latest 1941/42: What did foreign correspondents know about the murder of European Jews, and what did they report? The findings of this project go beyond the timeframe of the years from 1932 until 1949. The aim is to establish basic principles for contemporary history on how to deal with the relationship between dictatorships and a potentially democratic public audience which is a pressing issue still today.

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