Democratization through the Press: Hildegard Hamm-Brücher, the “Neue Zeitung,” and Politics in Postwar Munich

This presentation examines the emergence of a democratic public sphere in the early postwar period in Munich, one of the major former strongholds of National Socialism. It analyses the conditions under which local actors, particularly women, operated within a framework provided by the American occupation authorities.

The presentation specifically focuses on Hildegard Hamm-Brücher (born in 1921), today considered one of the most influential representatives of liberalism in postwar Germany. She started her career as a journalist for the newspaper “Neue Zeitung”. Published by the Information Control Division of the Office of Military Government for Germany, this newspaper was a central component of the occupation authorities’ “re-education” efforts. Hamm-Brücher, a chemist by training, had faced persecution during the Third Reich due to her Jewish background, but survived as an “asset” to the war effort. In 1945, immediately after the end of the War, she joined the “Neue Zeitung”; after spending a year at Harvard University in 1949/50, she entered local politics. Both as a journalist and as a politician, she vehemently supported the creation of a liberal, democratic society in what would become the Federal Republic of Germany.

Beyond an analysis of a newly emerging democratic public sphere, this presentation also investigates the strategies with which women could win visibility, recognition, and political influence in a provincial, conservative, and patriarchic society—without holding political office. At the center of attention are the discursive strategies the journalist Hamm-Brücher employed in order to position herself in a highly competitive political arena. In drawing upon her experiences during the Third Reich as well as her connections to the United States, she managed to fashion herself as an expert for the democratization of German postwar society, the modernization of the educational system, and a confrontation with the Nazi past.