History of a Quality Newspaper for Economy and Politics. Die Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 1949-1990

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Peter Hoeres
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: from 2015 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 281806177

Given the striking lack of research on German print media in light of international standards, the project investigates the history of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as part of the history of West German society. Secondly, it analyzes the roles which the newspaper, as a global paper, played in West Germany and abroad in providing public knowledge and orientation for politics, the economy and science. The projects first set of questions is concerned with the newspapers strategies to establish and maintain independence as its organizational identity, even though this central journalistic value was under constant threat. Besides, it will be investigated which issues composed the newspapers organizational identity, how this identity was actively kept up and changed over time and how it was perceived from outside. Furthermore, processes of politicization and of formation of profile will be analyzed and how and to what extent pluralism evolved within the paper. A second set of questions will be rooted in systems theory. They will focus on achievements of, feedback for, expectations as well as irritations and structural interconnec-tions between the four systems of society: media, economy, science and politics. Like the general title of the project indicates, the system of media is understood to provide output to the other functional systems of society while it was irritated by the other systems as well. The project combines the social-scientific method of strictly randomized selection with the established methodology of the historiography on media including empirical research with a focus on relevant events, actors and processes. The corpus of sources is mainly based on the rarely used FAZ-digital archive. Other sources are the protocols of the FAZ chief editors con-ferences (which will be accessible for the first time), personal papers of editors, journalists, scientists, and the reporting of media competitors like other newspapers and journals. The period of analysis rages from the founding of the newspaper in 1949 until the reunification of Germany. The latter was a central caesura in the history of the FAZ. Since that time and given its position as a leading newspaper of West Germany it had to face digital media pluralism in the Berlin Republic. Initially, the project will follow the newspapers Ressorteinteilung (departmental structure). To begin with, two sub-projects will deal with the department of politics and economics. The findings will form a basis for a subsequent project on the history of the Feuilleton and Public History in the FAZ. The project on the history of the FAZ ought to function as a pilot project. Given that the history of other crucial West German media remains a desideratum, the project should stimulate future research in media history.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants