Einleitung (Introduction)

The "Heart of Europe" as some may say, is located West of Poland and East of Belgium and the Netherlands. The German speaking nation, as far as media goes, extends beyond the borders of Germany into Austria and parts of Switzerland connecting approximately 100 million people to the largest space within the European Union.

The Nation of Germany has a long, long history of political and socioeconomic dominance that has immensely affected the culture and ownership of the media. Nearly 400 years ago Germany saw the beginnings of the printing press era and in the '40s, saw the evils of media as it became a tool of Third Reich. As the German people came out of that period, they did so head strongly as they revamped their entire system of communications completely and literally anew drafting a new constitution in 1949 that was firmly rooted in the principles of freedom of the press. As time marched on however, Germany became a system divided. After the the end of the German Democratic Republic and into the '90s, the country's system of media remained a dichotomy of old and new in that old ideas still dominated some sectors of German media.

Before I get more into detail about German media, I want to offer a few quick insightful miscellaneous facts about the country with the fifth largest economy:

• Germany is one of the few countries of the world where Holocaust Denial has been declared a crime.
• After the Irish, Germans are the largest consumers of beer.
• Germany boasts among its greatest imports (In no particular order), Einstein, Kant, Heisenberg, iron, coal, cement, the motorcycle, the clarinet and the pocket watch.

OK, now back to business:

• In Germany, there are approximately 82 million people with approximately 32 million of them      possessing at least one TV.
• In May 1945, after being devastated by WWII, Germany began anew economically and militarily. This era defined by its re-education and denazification plans, Germans became democratically primed in what history calls "hour zero".
• German media is heavily influenced by Western society. Many newspapers are even controlled by Western companies.

Newspapers, although on the decline, make up the most popular form of media next to television and  Internet. There are over 1,500 newspapers in Germany; 95% of which report local news. There are only a hand full of national papers: Suddeutsche Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Welt, Frankfurter Rundschau, Tageszeitung and BILD. BILD Zeitung, with a circulation of over 3.3 million, is the top selling tabloid in Germany as well as as in Europe.

Also extremely popular in Deutschland are magazines. Currently, there are over 900 general magazines on the market. Der Spiegel, is an investigative reporting style of magazine modeled after the America's Time Magazine and is the most popular and influential publication in Germany.

Print media, much like in America, is dominated more or less by a dominant few. Together they own 45 percent of the marketplace, they are as follows:

• the Axel Springer Group owns 22.1 percent of the market including BILD.
• Verlagsgruppe Stuttfarter Zeitung owns 8.5 percent.
• the WAZ Group owns 6 percent.
• DuMont Schauberg owns 4.2 percent; and
• Ippen Gruppe owns 4 percent.

Magazine ownership also is in the hands of a chosen few. With around 60 percent market majority they are:

• Bauer
• Springer
• Burda; and
• Bertelsmann

Next week I'll go into TV, news agencies, digital media, etc. In the meantime, I'll leave you with some cool links including a great profile page of Germany done by BBC news.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/country_profiles/1047864.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany