At the end of the 19^th century, French society was torn apart by the obscure events around the treason conviction of army Captain Alfred Dreyfus. The question of his guilt was probably the most debated issue in France for nearly 10 years. This discussion not only took place in private conversations, but had also an enormous presence in the press. It is a great example of the newly gained freedom of the press and shows how harsh the competition in the newspaper business must have been already back then. There were several leading newspapers in France, and with only little ad space it was up to the scandalous headlines to accomplish the necessary run. With Europeana Newspapers you can discover the whole variety of the coeval press.

On 15 October 1894 nobody could have presaged that this affaire would go down in history as a symbol of injustice, intrigues and anti-Semitism. Today, 121 years ago, Dreyfus (who had a Jewish background) was arrested for treason in all secrecy. He was accused of communicating French military secrets to the German Embassy and brought to imprisonment on Devil’s Island with a life sentence. As the main piece of evidence was a handwritten letter, the whole country turned into graphologists as Le Martin and Le Figaro published a facsimile of this letter. After five years of custody, the case of Alfred Dreyfus was brought to court-martial again in June 1899 (cf. the catholic-conservative newspaper La Croix). At this time, there could have been no more doubt about Dreyfus’ innocence. Nevertheless, he was sentenced again, this time to ten years in prison under extenuating circumstances. Shortly thereafter, he was pardoned by the President of the Republic, but only after six years he reached the annulment of the judgment of Rennes. The real culprit, Major Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, was acquitted and innocent Dreyfus was charged guilty twice. The affair did not only cause sensation in France, but was monitored critically all over Europe, for example in the Finnish Uusi Aura, the Dutch Algemeen Handelsblad, or the German Volkszeitung and Neue Hamburger Zeitung.

A lot of French intellectuals were convinced of Dreyfus’ innocence; most prominent amongst them the journalist and novelist Émile Zola. While Zola refused to get involved into political affairs at first, the increasing anti-Semitism in the public debate changed his mind. He published several articles in Le Figaro, amongst others one with the headline Le Syndicat, where he picks up on the imputation a Jewish syndicate tries to buy Dreyfus out of prison, or the article Procès-verbal, expressing his hope that the nation would reconcile and overcome the barbaric anti-Semitic resentments. Shortly after this, Le Figaro terminated the cooperation with Zola because anti-Dreyfusards and right-wing nationalists threatened to call out a boycott on the newspaper. Therefore, Zola published his next article in the newly founded literary journal L’Aurore. J’accuse was an open letter to the president of the French republic, Félix Faure, which caused an enormous scandal and was the decisive factor for the turnaround in the Dreyfus-Affair. Even today, the term “J’accuse” is a synonym for a brave public expression of opinion against the abuse of power. Émile Zola was hereupon sued for libel, as he had already expected at the end of his famous letter.

Despite such famous public advocacy, it was not until July 1906 that Alfred Dreyfus was acquitted and fully rehabilitated in the French society and also in the military service. A general pardon was enacted, that also included the accusation against Émile Zola (see debate in L’Intransigeant).

In the twelve years lasting Dreyfus-Affaire, France was confronted with intrigues, fraud, resignation and overthrow of ministers and the parliament, riots, assassinations, suicides, the attempt of a coup d’état and an alarmingly widespread anti-Semitism. The power of the media grew over the affair in a startling way. Without the contemporary coverage in the newspapers, the Dreyfus case would probably not have become a national affair, nor had intellectuals like Zola publicly taken a position. Therefore, the affair is considered by many to be the birth of the “intellectuals”, a term that was coined during that period through national, right-wing and clerical circles and used derogatory for those journalists, writers, artists and left-wing politicians who fought for Dreyfus. Out of this circle of intellectuals emerged the French Human Rights League in 1898, who in 1922 initiated the first international umbrella organisation of the human rights movement.

The rehabilitation of Dreyfus’ was an example of the long, but in the end successful fight by a democratic and humanitarian-socialist ideals group of intellectuals. The consequences of the affair were a milestone in Europe’s collective memory and sharpened the social and political consciousness.

As a Bavarian princess who enjoyed a happy and unstrained childhood, the extremely strict court life in Vienna was a burden Elisabeth never got used to. She started to travel and wrote melancholic poems, and after the tragic death of her only son Rudolf she disappeared nearly completely from the Austrian court.

When Elisabeth was sixty years old, she followed an invitation from the Rothschild family to Geneva. Together with her lady-in-waiting, the Hungarian Countess Irma Sztáray, she walked the short distance between the hotel and the pier without her entourage, despite warnings of possible assassination attempts.

Luigi Lucheni, a poor man full of rage for the upper nobility, ran towards them as they walked by on the promenade and stabbed Elisabeth directly into her heart with a self-made weapon composed of a small sharp file. But neither the empress nor her lady-in-waiting realised what really happened. Thinking of a robbery attempt, they went on boarding the ship. A few minutes later, Elisabeth lost consciousness and died.

Needless to say, the public, especially in Austria and Hungary, was shocked and in deep mourning.  A lot of newspapers were published with a black mourning border, like Der Burggräfler or Meraner Zeitung. There were long extra issues about the life and death of Empress Elisabeth, for example this broadly illustrated Österreichische Illustrierte Zeitung. Some followed Elisabeth’s passion for poetry and wrote own poems like Die Bombe or Pusterthaler Bote, the Weltblatt just published her last picture (it shows her in her early thirties, she wanted to be remembered young and beautiful, so she refused to sit for any portraits or photographs later on). Less emotional and without huge headlines were the reactions in Prussia, where Berliner Tageblatt newspaper articles focused on the assassin Lucheni and detailed descriptions of the events in the Neue Hamburger Zeitung. The European press also covered the news extensively, just find some examples in French La Croix and Le Martin, La Unión Católica in Spain, the Allgemeen Handelsblad in the Netherlands and  also overseas colonial newspapers reported, like Sumatra-courant.

Elisabeth’s body was brought back to Vienna, where her funeral cortege followed her on 17 September 1898 to the tomb of the Capuchins (get an impression at Österreichische Illustrierte Zeitung). Her assassin Lucheni was caught and confessed immediately. He was brought to Geneva court on 11 November 1898, where he was incarcerated for life, what Luigi regretted a lot, as a death penalty would have had been much more catchpenny. During his process Lucheni declared that he came to the decision to “murder the first high-born person” that he would meet in Geneva (e.g. Hamburger Anzeiger, 12 November 1898), it was just a coincidence that he found out about Elisabeth.

Elisabeth of Austria was one of the first true European citizens, not so much because she was Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Queen consort of Croatia and Bohemia, but because she spent most of her life travelling and deeply loved all the miscellaneous peoples and cultures. She seemed to be a fairy-tale princess, with the undivided love of her husband Emperor Franz-Josef and a paradigm for beauty. Yet this was not the life she was born to live and she tried to break out of her golden cage her whole lifetime.

Today, the National Library of the Faroe Islands publicly opened the digital archive containing nearly all the faroese newspapers and selected periodica as open access. www.tidarrit.fo

The archive contains 38 titles and roughly 500.000 pages going from 1852 until 1999.

The project has been realized as a part of the digital strategy of the Faroese National Library to digitize and give access to the rich faroese cultural heritage.

Text and images kindly provided by Erling Kjærbo, National Library of the Faroese Islands

First, some historical facts relating to the chain of events that led to women winning voting rights in Finland. In the years before this right was granted, Finland was an autonomous Grand Duchy in the Russian Empire (this lasted from 1809 to 1917). The Diet of Finland was the legislative body in the Grand Duchy of Finland and it met regularly between 1863–1906. Until 1906 there were four estates (the nobility, clergy, the burghers and peasantry) represented. An extra Diet was convened in 1906.

Fact #1. A new Parliament Act and a State Electoral Law was approved on the 29th of May in 1906 to replace the Assembly of the representatives of the estates with a Parliament.

Fact #2.Russian Tsar Nicholas II confirmed on July 20^th 1906 the new electoral law of Finland called “the Parliament Act of the Grand Duchy of Finland”. It guaranteed a universal and equal unrestricted right to vote. Finnish women were the first in Europe to be given the right to vote, and third in the world after New Zealand and South Australia. At the same time, they were first in the world to be granted the right to stand for parliament.

Fact #3. The new Finnish parliamentary system and the electoral law reforms came into effect on the 1st of October 1906 and the first parliamentary elections were held on 15^th and 16^th of March 1907. Nineteen women were elected to a parliament of 200, which was a surprise. They represented various professional groups, including teachers, factory workers, farmers’ wives and high school graduates.

Fact #4. The new members of parliament convened in their first plenary session on 23^rd May 1907.

This article focuses on the historic newspaper Turun Lehti (explore this paper on Europeana and on The European Library), published from 1882–1919. In the early years, it was published twice a week and, from 1884, three times a week. The newspaper was founded to compete with other Finnish language newspapers, called Aura and Sanomia Turusta in the Turku area.

When the structure of the Finnish parliament was revealed, Turun Lehti announced its intention to exercise moderation and impartiality, even though it had a clear admiration of all things Swedish. It was nearly silent on the question of the Finnish and Swedish languages and their official status, whereas the Aura newspaper took a clear stand on the question of language.

Instead of language, Turun Lehti promised to write on financial issues, particularly those related to agriculture. Most of the news was local, but to some extent it also included international news, as well as plenty of literary material and drawing illustrations. The principle of ‘something for everyone’ made it popular among the people. Turun Lehti spread widely over the south-western borders of Finland. Its circulation in 1905 was 10,600 – a considerable amount at that time for a newspaper.

Within the pages of Turun Lehti, we can find articles that relate directly to the chain of historical events presented at the beginning of this article.

The Approval of a new Parliament Act and a State Electoral Law (May 29^th 1906)

Turun Lehti ran two articles on this topic in its issue of 31^st May 1906. Both were published on the front page. The first headline “Uusi waltiopäiwäjärjestys ja waalilaki” (in English The new parliament act and the state electoral law) only dealt with the estates handled by the electoral law reform; women’s right to vote was not specially mentioned. The second headline was “Eduskuntauudistuskysymys waltiopäiwillä” (in English The parliamentary reform in the Diet). This article concerned, for example, the intention to raise the voting age limit from 21 years to 24 years, as well as the other discussions concerning the reform. This was an extra-long multi-column article, which continued in the next issue.

On the 2nd of June 1906, the newspaper continued with its series and published another headline on the frontpage: “Ratkaisun tapahduttua” (in English “The Solution is made”).

The article refers to the news taken from Finland’s largest newspaper Helsingin Sanomat. The article explains the significant historic reform: vote expansion from 200,000–300,000 voters to 1,400,000 entitled voters, when all men and women are allowed to vote.

Russian Tsar Nicholas II confirms the new electoral law of Finland on July 20^th 1906

On the front page of Turun Lehti on the 21st of July 1906 there was a headline “Suomen suuri kysymys lopullisesti ratkaistu” (in English “The big question of Finland is finally resolved”). The article only concerned the new Parliament Act and the electoral law. It did not include any specific mention of women’s suffrage.

The Finnish new parliamentary system and the electoral law reforms came into effect on the 1st of October 1906 

Turun Lehti did not publish any articles of these reforms coming into force. Other newspapers published articles on this topic.

The first parliamentary elections of Finland were held on the 15^th and 16^th of March 1907 

On the 14^th of March 1907, the day before the historic elections, Turun Lehti ran an article highlighting this historic event: where the Finnish people, rich and poor, those of noble and humble birth, had an equally legitimate right to perform the duties of a responsible citizen. It described this “wonderful vote” as the citizens waking up from years of repression, as a result of centuries of slumber.

Turun Lehti published one article after elections on the 19^th of March 1907 with the front page headline “Jälkimietteitä” (in English “After-thoughts”). The article criticized the behaviour of the various parties during the election campaign, but did not mention the women’s right to vote at all.

The new members of parliament, among them 19 women, convened at parliament in their first plenary session on 23^rd May 1907.

On it’s front page, Turun Lehti published the news with the headline “Waltiopäiwät” (in English “The plenary session of the parliament”). In the article, they wrote:

“Yesterday was the anniversary of the most recent Finnish history. For the afore mentioned: date, the 22^nd of May in 1907, convened the new, now under the Parliament Act and existing by universal and equal suffrage, elected parliament for the first time in the plenary session of the parliament in Finland. … For the first time, there are now 200 representatives gathered to concern and resolve important issues for the country and its citizens, who were selected for this important task, when the universal and equal right to vote for the first time in this country – the first in the whole of Europe – was used. … In these elections, women are just as entitled to vote than men, and those women elected as parliament members at first time have now convened to the plenary session of the parliament. Finland is in comparison with the governmental right to vote the leading country in Europe, and that is why the whole Europe wants to check how the parliament, which is elected by universal and equal suffrage, performs its tasks.”

Did the articles report the events as we know them from history books? Surprisingly, there were many minor differences in dates. Some sources mention the official history of the event that it took place a day or days later, even though the newspapers had already reported on the topics.

Do the articles display any political view of the time? The articles clearly mirrored the spirit of the past times on the whole. The women’s movement for equal rights was buried under other major turning points of the society. The question of the voting rights for women did not get as much exposure as it might have in a different phase of history.

Finland was in the years 1906–1907 in the middle of the Russian political “thaw”. Russia had suffered a defeat in the war on Japan and the opposite clout and revolutionary movement forced Nicholas II to make concessions. In these circumstances, the right to vote reform was a surprise to Finland in 1906.

References:

• Centre for Parliamentary Studies. University of Turku.
• Suomen sanomalehdistön historia 7. 1988. Hakuteos Savonlinna – Övermarks Tidning: Sanoma- ja paikallislehdistö 1771–1985. Tommila P. (ed.); Ekman-Salokangas, U., Aalto, E-L, Salokangas, R. Kuopio: Kustannuskiila.
• Wikipedia 1906, 1907 and the history of the right to vote.
• The National Library of Finland. Historical newspaper library.

A few weeks later, the Spartacist uprising led to the end of the November Revolution in Germany. The uprising was terminated on 15 January 1919 with the assassinations of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg by German militaries.

The huge headline of Berliner Tageblatt on 16 January 1919 announces the killing of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht after they had been arrested. The article reports that Liebknecht had been shot while trying to escape and that Luxemburg had been beaten up by an angry crowd before she was also shot in a car. We now know that Rosa Luxemburg was knocked down by a soldier, pulled unconscious into the car, shot, and her body was thrown into a river by German military. The car was later hijacked by unknowns. When it was found the next day, it did not contain Luxemburg’s body. What the article does not speak about is that Liebknecht was also forced out of his car so he could be shot in the back.

The Berliner Tageblatt was a twice-daily Berlin newspaper founded in 1872. It evolved from an advertising paper into one of the two most influential newspapers in the German capital. The newspaper, which also had considerable influence abroad, was a social-liberal paper with a top run of 300,000 copies per issue. It was known for high quality journalism, not connected to a political party and thus was seen as open-minded. The target audience was intellectual and well educated. In the 1920s, famous authors like Kurt Tucholsky, Erich Kästner and Alfred Kerr regularly wrote for the paper.

Chief editor Theodor Wolff is still regarded as a highly liberal, independent and well-considered journalist in Germany. Wolff had to flee the country after his severe criticism of the Reichstag fire in 1933. Shortly afterwards, the newspaper was forced into Gleichschaltung by the Nazi regime and the publication was finally given up in 1939.

The article about the death of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg was published the day after the incident occurred, taking up the whole front page and also parts of the second page. This shows that the event was of great interest to the public.

The main article is written in a rather neutral tone, though it contains false information that was probably spread to many journalists. For example, it states that the soldiers tried to protect the prisoners by all means, while in fact the soldiers murdered the prisoners. The truth about the assassinations of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg was not revealed until several decades later.

A comment about the life and impact of the two politicians paints a clear picture: Liebknecht was seen as a lunatic without any political instinct. Luxemburg on the other hand was described as a very intelligent and charismatic woman, who made some bad decisions but who acted for the right reasons. Her assumed lynching by the crowd is condemned harshly by the newspaper.

Even though the article follows the false information that was spread at the time, the Berliner Tageblatt was in general an open-minded newspaper aiming to provide a considerate political view without being influenced by the authorities. In this spirit also fits the probably most famous quote from Rosa Luxemburg: “Freedom is always the freedom of the one who is thinking differently”.

Thanks to Sandra Kobel of the Statsbibliothek zu Berlin for writing this article.

Die Sam-Cohen-Bibliothek ist eine Präsenzbibliothek mit etwa 10.000 Büchern in Swakopmund, Namibia. Träger der Bibliothek sowie des Swakopmund Museums und des Otavi-Bahnhofs ist die Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Swakopmund, eine gemeinnützige private Vereinigung. Die Bibliothek beherbergt auch die bekannte Africana-Sammlung von Ferdinand Stich.

Im dazugehörenden Sam-Cohen-Archiv befindet sich eine Zeitungssammlung von 1898 bis heute, eine große Sammlung historischer Fotos, Landkarten und Schriftstücke verschiedener Wissensgebiete. Viele der Fotos sind heute digitalisiert und können eingesehen werden.

Auf dem Gelände der Bibliothek steht auch der denkmalgeschützte Otavi-Bahnhof. In dem nach historischer Vorlage restaurierten Gebäude befindet sich heute der Living-Desert-Schlangenpark und der Save the Rhino Trust. Der ehemalige Güterschuppen, das OMEG-Haus sowie ein kleiner Botanischer Garten mit Pflanzen aus der Namib können ebenfalls besichtigt werden.

Die einzigartige Zeitungssammlung umfasst 25 verschieden Titel. Die ersten von 1898, wie der “Windhoeker Anzeiger”, der dann in der “Deutsch-Suedwestafrikanischen Zeitung” aufging, die wiederum bis 1914 existierte. Andere wiederum wie die “Allgemeine Zeitung”, die 1919 gegründet wurde und die “Namib Times” von 1958  gibt es auch heute noch.

Die meisten Titel waren in deutscher Sprache gehalten um die deutsche Bevölkerung in Südwest-Afrika über Nachrichten aus Namibia und natürlich auch über Nachrichten aus Übersee und der eigenen Heimat zu informieren. Der Umfang der Zeitungen war über die Jahre unterschiedlich. Ausgaben mit vier
Seiten bis hin zu 20 Seiten waren durchaus üblich. Die “Allgemeine Zeitung” z.B. hat heute durchschnittlich 12 bis 16 Seiten.

Alles in allem kann man sagen, dass es in Namibia seit über hundert Jahren eine deutsche Zeitungskultur gibt, die sich bis heute, allerdings nur noch in einigen deutschen Beiträgen in englischen Ausgaben und in der rein deutschen “Allgemeinen Zeitung” ausdrückt.

Unser besonderer Dank gilt Francois Hartz und der Wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft Swakopmund die uns auf diese besonderen Zeitungen aufmerksam gemacht haben.

Bereitstellung der Zeitungsabbildungen:
Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft Swakopmund

The Sam-Cohen-Library is a reference library in Swakopmund, Namibia and situated next to the former Otavi Bahnhof, or railway station, which was the west coast terminal of the narrow gauge railway line to the copper mine at Tsumeb in the north. The building is being converted into a Transport Museum and an Arts and Craft Centre.

The library, which initially started with only 5 books, today comprises some 10.000 volumes, which include the famous 2000-title Africana Collection of the late Ferdinand Stich. The library is a treasure chest for scholars, students and scientists alike. The archives, which belong to the Scientific Society Swakopmund are also housed in the Sam-Cohen-Library. They grant visitors access to a unique collection of newspapers from 1898 to the present day. Also available is an extensive collection of historical photographs, maps and documents.

The unique newspaper collection comprises 25 different titles. The earliest ones date back to 1898, such as the „Windhoeker Anzeiger“, that later on became the “Deutsch-Suedwestafrikanische Zeitung”, which in turn existed until 1914. Other titles like the “Allgemeine Zeitung” that was founded in 1919 or the “Namib Times” from 1958 are still running today.

Most of the titles were in German, aiming to inform the German population in Southwestern Africa about the news from Namibia as well as from overseas and the home country. The newspapers typically consist of somewhere between four and twenty pages, with the “Allgemeine Zeitung” on average comprising 12-16 pages.

One can say that there is a German newspaper culture in Namibia that goes back more than 100 years, while nowadays it has been reduced mainly to the occasional German article in English papers and the fully German-language “Allgemeine Zeitung”.

Our warm regards go out to Francois Hartz and the Scientific Society Swakopmund for making us aware of these historical newspaper treasures.

Image credit for the newspapers: Scientific Society Swakopmund

15 December, 1908

The front page of the Sabah newspaper tells about the opening of the Second Chamber of Deputies, and the composition of a national anthem for this chamber.

The Second Constitutional Era (Turkish: İkinci Meşrûtiyyet Devri) of the Ottoman Empire began shortly after Sultan Abdul Hamid II was forced to restore the constitutional monarchy, following the 1908 Young Turk Revolution. This resulted in the revival of the Ottoman parliament, the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire. The 1876 constitution was also restored.

Both parliament and the constitution had initially been suspended for over three decades by Abdul Hamid II in 1878 after only two years of functioning, which had ended the First Constitutional Era.

16 December, 1918

In this article of the Vakit newspaper, it is reported that the first airmail and passenger transportation with aircraft started providing a service to Germany. Also, air transport enterprises started in Turkey.

16 December, 1915

This issue of Ikdam Newspaper contains several interesting images:

• An overview of the military situation in Europe’s war
• A map showing the latest military situation against the enemy states in Europe.
• A map showing the latest military situation related to the Iron Curtain

The situation of troops in relation to various countries is also reported.

Cet article intitulé “il faut encore chercher Mermoz” est signé par Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Il paraît dans l’Intransigeant du 13 décembre 1936. Ce quotidien français, créé en 1880, relaie les idées de la droite nationaliste et tira jusqu’à 400000 exemplaires dans les années 1920. Il cessera ses publications en 1940, après la débâcle.

2. Quelle est la date de l’article?

L’article de Saint-Exupéry est publié 6 jours après que “La Croix-du-Sud” que pilotait Jean Mermoz a disparu des radars, à 800 km des côtes du Sénégal. L’aviateur et ses quatre membres d’équipage devaient rallier Natal, au Brésil. Mermoz effectuait sa 24ème traversée de l’Atlantique, à deux jours de son trente-deuxième anniversaire.

L’auteur de Courrier Sud et de Vol de Nuit (Le Petit Prince ne paraîtra qu’en 1943) s’insurge contre le fatalisme qui semble entourer les recherches entreprises depuis 4 jours. Il veut encore croire à un amerrissage et reprend l’ultime message radio envoyé par l’hydravion “coupons moteur arrière droit”  pour en livrer une analyse technique – l’absence manifeste de SR est d’ailleurs à noter tout au long de l’article et du journal (on peut lire “moteur arrière trois”) . Pour conjurer le sort, il énumère quelques exemples d’accidents à l’issue heureuse – dont certains le concernent directement.

Si Antoine de Saint-Exupéry et Jean Mermoz ne partagent pas les mêmes idées politiques, ils sont “liés pour la vie” par l’aventure de l’Aéropostale. En 1929, ils ont contribué ensemble, et avec quelques autres, au développement de la compagnie en Amérique du Sud, jusqu’en Patagonie. Dès 1933, Saint-Ex a débuté la rédaction d’une série d’articles sur son ancien compagnon d’épopée dans l’Atlantique Sud. Il raconte son histoire, des début chez Latécoère aux vols de nuit au-dessus de la Cordillère des Andes, en passant par la première liaison postale transocéanique le 12 mai 1930.

3. Cet article reflète-il une opinion politique de l’époque?

Ces aviateurs, parfois poètes, toujours aventuriers, sont considérés comme des héros des temps modernes et érigés en modèles de courage et de volonté. En France, quand on apprend la nouvelle, l’émotion est grande. Personne ne veut croire à la disparition de celui qu’on surnommait “l’Archange”. Aussi, l’article du 13 décembre 1936 paraît-il en une de l’Intransigeant, aux côtés d’un autre événement qui devait marquer l’Histoire: la proclamation de l’avènement du roi George VI, suite à l’abdication d’Edouard VIII.  Un deuxième article paraît dans ce même numéro sur la disparition de “La Croix-du-Sud”. il dément et condamne les rumeurs selon lesquelles l’hydravion aurait été découvert au large du rocher Saint-Pierre (renommé Saint-Paul en page 3!) .

4. Si vous le souhaitez, vous pouvez ajouter autre chose au sujet de cet article ou de ce journal (ex. édition spéciale, limitée, etc.).

Après la disparition de “La Croix-du-Sud” le 7 décembre 1936, Saint-Exupéry rédige plusieurs articles dans lesquels il loue le courage et l’engagement de celui qui avait dit “je ne voudrais mourir qu’en avion”. La “Croix-du-Sud” n’a jamais été retrouvée. Son équipage aura droit à des funérailles nationales, le 30 décembre 1936. Un an plus tard, Saint-Exupéry qui disparaîtra lui-même en vol en 1944, rendait un dernier hommage à son ami: “il ne décollait pas, Mermoz, il se délivrait de la boue”.

Merci a Claire Bertrand, BnF

Today we see the significance of the Locarno Treaties in the light of the historic context. We know the new peace in Europe didn’t last long. But how did people judge this important step for an emerging Europe back then? A vivid impression can be found by looking at historic newspapers.

In the Europeana Newspapers Browser, 25 libraries from 23 countries provide digitised historic newspapers. Thanks to the full-text search, it is easy to find articles about any interesting topic. Soon there will be around 30 million newspaper pages to browse through online.

We can read what people thought about the signing of the Locarno Treaties 89 years ago. For example, the Berliner Tageblatt dreamt about a peaceful Europe in the future: “On the day of the opening of the Locarno conference we want to draw hope from the magic of Lago Maggiore, that it will have a charitable effect on the gathered figures to make them restore some harmony to the blocked Europe.”

The Locarno Treaties offered new hope for Europe. Austen Chamberlain, British foreign minister, said that in the future there won’t be conquerors nor conquered. Chamberlain, Briand and Stresemann were awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1926 for their support of the European idea. “In Locarno, everything was about mutual trust. After all those years of bitterness, everything was breathing a new vigour.” wrote special correspondent Erich Dombrowski in the Berliner Tageblatt.

But not everybody appreciated the efforts for a peaceful and harmonic Europe. In Germany, the conservative governing coalition broke over the signing of the Locarno Treaties as the right-wing national party resigned. Nevertheless, on 23 November 1925 Chancellor Hans Luther called the Treaties “a distinctive step forward” and “a beginning, not an end” and emphasized: “The meaning of the Treaties can be no other than to build a new and better fundament for the peaceful development of Europe.” (Berliner Tageblatt). Another German newspaper, Hamburger Anzeiger, put a different accent on the speech and quoted: “The occupation of Germany is losing its justification” and “Now there is no basis any more for the politics of dictation and ultimatums.”

On the day of the signing in London, Hamburger Anzeiger admitted his dichotomy and wrote: “If Locarno really can be the peace work as that it will be praised today and tomorrow, seems to be a rather political and philosophical question which is tedious to discuss.” The tenor remains the same; the Treaties are “the confession that the collar burst that took away Germany’s air to breath and freedom of action.”

The Locarno treaties were discussed extensively in many countries all over Europe. A special interest lies in the French press. “Tout á la paix…” (Everything for peace) was Gaulois comment on the signing in London. Detailled news coverage can also be found in Le Siècle, Le Temps, L’action française, Le Petit Journal and Le Martin. The same holds true for South Tyrolean press as Meraner Zeitung,  Burggräfler, Der Landsmann – Tagblatt der Deutschen südlich des Brenners and Bozener Nachrichten.

Suppose one is fluent in Estonian, one could also read about the events in Wirumaa Teataja or Eesti Kirik. In Latvian language there is Kursemes Wahrds, for Spain El Sol or El siglo de futuro. Luxemburger Tageblatt covers the news in both German and French.

Sometimes it is all about the small details which are interesting and revealing. For example, Heraldo de Madrid illustrated its article about the signing in London with a picture of Cologne in order to emphasize the importance of the demilitarization in the Rhineland. Also interesting is the description of the dinner at Chamberlains on the night of the signing and the informal negotiation of the troop withdrawal (Berliner Tageblatt).

So if you are curious about this historic event – or anything else – there is nothing quite comparable to reading through the original sources and listening to the numerous voices of coevals. The so far hidden treasures are certainly not only for historians to discover.

With thanks to the author: Sandra Kobel from the Berlin State Library