Order concerning the Supervision of District Leaders of the Work of the Reich Chamber of Culture [Page 25].

Dated 12 Nov. 1934 (Published in the daily press).

In the process of unification of Party and State, it must be put into effect that, in general, the same tasks of the Party and of the State will also be administered by the same people. The Gau propaganda chiefs of the party are, according to that, also the district leaders [Landesstellenleiter] of the Reich Ministry for National Enlightenment and Propaganda. In compliance with this regulation, the Reich Chamber of Culture must also be incorporated in the union of the Party and State. Therefore, I order that the district leaders and the Gau propaganda chiefs [Gaupropagandaleiter], as district administrators of culture, exercise from now on supervision over the work of the Reich Chamber of Culture in their districts. The individual chambers and their district associations are instructed to adjust and to subordinate their district formations and organizations in the Reich to those of the district and of the Gau propaganda offices. The Gau leaders have the privilege to suggest and to reject the appointment of personnel for these offices. The appointment is then effected by the president of the chamber. Guiding rules for the execution of this order will son be published in detail.

Heil Hitler!

Signed: Dr. Goebbels


Order Concerning Closure of Newspaper Publications for the Purpose of Eliminating Unsound Competitive Conditions [Pages 121-122]

Dated 24 April 1935 (V.B. 35/25.4)

On the basis of paragraph 25 of the first decree concerning the execution of the law on the Reich Chamber of Culture, dated 1 November 1933 (RGBl, I/1933, page 797ff), I decree the following:

I. If a great number of newspaper publications exists in one locality, whose operation depends on the sale of a higher circulation than can altogether be disposed of according to local conditions and sound principles of publication, individual publications can be discontinued for the establishment of sound economic conditions.

In order to obtain evidence, the publications may be subjected to an examination; all inside information is to be given to the agencies which I assign to undertake these examinations.

II. For the execution of this order, the Reich Union of German Newspaper Publishers is instructed to report to me those localities in which, because of numerical overproduction, acute competitive conditions exist, and to name the publication which ought to be subjected to an examination. This union has, hereby, to act according to the principles laid down in my announcement concerning "The press in the second year of the National Socialistic State." It is further instructed to ascertain whether the closing of establishments can be avoided by voluntary unifications. It will report to me until the 31st of July 1935.

Berlin, 24 April 1935.

The President of the Reich Chamber of the Press
AMANN

The article of the President of the Reich Chamber of the Press in regard to "The Press in the second year of the National Socialistic State" is concerned, among other things, with the numerical overproductions that exists in newspaper publications. He demanded the removal of this condition. Proceeding from the fact that already before the 30th of January 1933, under the multiparty system at that time, there was an excess of newspapers at hand, he states that this fact stands out today even more strongly in the face of the subjugation of parties and other special interests. He emphasized further that, insofar as overproduction had been increased by the strong growth of the official Party Press, the affected publications of competitors would have to fall back behind the official Party Press. This point of view will be brought into effect in the execution of the order for the closing of newspaper publications for the purpose of eliminating unsound competitive conditions. In particular, the unsound competitive conditions are to be eliminated under which, newspapers with high circulation in the course of the developments fought each other as competitors. Considering the fact that in probably all these cases there were fewer newspapers with high circulation on 30 January 1933 than at present, then the result, without doubt, is that the publications concerned require such circulations, in order to be profitable in relation to the size of their business, as cannot be attained or maintained by means of sound advertising and competitive measures under the competitive conditions prevailing at present. The order thus serves the elimination of economically poor conditions which, seen from a long range view, must cause prejudice, far beyond the small circle of the publications immediately concerned, to the German Press and to its cultural missions. This order promotes the conciliation and the organic development of the entire German Press. In this way, the order assures the press the opportunity to fulfill its noble task which it has to accomplish for the benefit of the nation and the people. Of course, the execution of this order, as is already indicated by its purpose, will be guided by the endeavor to utilize the existing economical values in the future to the greatest possible degree. The President of the Reich Chamber of the Press will therefore endeavor at first in every individual case to effect agreements which will relieve him of the necessity to issue orders for the closing of establishments. In this sense, the instructions, given at the end of Number II of the regulation, to the Reich Union of the German Newspaper Publishers, are of special importance.