Junge Welt ("Young World") is a far-left extremist^[1] German daily newspaper published in Berlin. It was first published on 12 February 1947 in the Soviet Sector of Berlin. Junge Welt became the official newspaper of the Central Council (Zentralrat) of the Free German Youth on 12 November 1947. With a daily circulation of 1.4 million, Junge Welt had the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the German Democratic Republic, even higher than the official Communist party organ Neues Deutschland. It was relaunched in 1994, after German reunification and the effective dissolution of the FDJ, as Germany's leftmost daily newspaper.

The new editorial team included both East and West German authors of different left factions, notably a more "traditional" Marxist anti-imperialist and an anti-German faction. In 1997 a schism between these two camps led to the eventual foundation of the weekly Jungle World, which since strongly denounced anti-Zionist views upheld by their former colleagues, which they feel to be an antisemitic link to right-wing NPD.^[2]

Today, Junge Welt it is the smallest nationwide daily newspaper in Germany with a claimed readership of approximately 50,000, although the print run has been estimated at under 20,000.

It is on the observation list of the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, is mentioned in the yearly Verfassungsschutzbericht and is categorized as leftist extremist^[1]. The newspaper is described as dominated by Stasi veterans by Die Welt^[3]. Notably, its editor-in-chief since 2000, Arnold Schölzel, was a Stasi informant, whose activities as an informant was the subject of a 2007 ARD documentary^[4].

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Verfassungsschutzbericht 2008, p. 151 (German)
2. ^ Jungle World: Rotbraunes Waffenarsenal ("A red-brown arsenal"), Ivo Bozic, February 1st 2006
3. ^ http://www.welt.de/politik/article787242/Die_schoene_junge_Welt_der_Stasiveteranen.html
4. ^ http://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaft/0,1518,493872,00.html

[edit] External links

• junge Welt website

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