16 September 2020 press release

Exhibition: 370 years of newspaper printing in Leipzig
Exhibition opens with “Newspaper Day” on 20 September 2020 from 11:00 to 16:00

The new showcase exhibition at the German National Library’s German Museum of Books and Writing focuses on the newspaper, a medium which is currently experiencing significant upheaval. At a time in which newspapers all over the world are buckling under intense economic pressure, it is worth taking a reassuring look at the past – not least with the intention of thinking about the future of this medium. What was the historical context nearly four centuries ago that gave rise to the idea of offering an at that time rapidly growing readership daily portions of information? What need for knowledge was this format intended to meet? How did the various technical phases in the history of the newspaper differ? And what does the newspaper mean for the intellectual horizons of society, what happens when this mass medium is censored?

Under the title “370 Years of Newspaper Printing in Leipzig”, the showcase exhibition – a contribution by the German National Library to “Industrial Heritage Year 2020” – takes a look at the history of newspaper printing. When Leipzig printer Timotheus Ritzsch published the world’s first daily newspaper, Einkommende Zeitungen, on 1 July 1650, he laid the foundations for a remarkable success story. The invention of the high-speed printing press during the Industrial Age marked the beginning of a dramatic upturn in the history of the newspaper, which rapidly developed into the first mass medium. Newspaper printing became enormously attractive, not least in Leipzig, a city famed for its exhibitions that had seen more than 100 different newspapers published over the previous 370 years. Paper manufacturers, publishers and the printing machine industry all settled here during this period. The last daily newspaper printed in Leipzig came off the press in the autumn of 2019; as one era ended, a new era began with internet newspapers – also local formats – capturing the market.

On 20 September between 11:00 and 16:00, the German Museum of Books and Writing will be holding a “Newspaper Day”, which will offer visitors a wealth of information and activities relating to newspapers: from guided tours of our four exhibitions focusing on the history of print – e.g. “Spinning Jenny and her successors”, “Printing in GDR subculture” or “Pioneering spirit and newspaper printing” – through interactive activities at the printing press to readings from old daily newspapers (“Von erschröcklichen schedlichen bösen newen Zeitunge”) and much more. Visitors can print badges with historic newspaper designs under the motto “On-the-spot printing”. One of the special highlights of the program will be Maschinenmusik (Machine Music) by and with Christoph Schenker.

“Newspaper Day” will replace the customary exhibition launch: because of the pandemic, we will be dispensing with the usual opening evening and presenting a series of events underpinned by a hygiene concept that in the light of current distancing rules could become a regular new format for exhibition openings. We will be extending the opening to encompass more space and time, spreading it over a whole day and opening up all the rooms in the museum – including the stacks – for the various parts of the event. Will this type of physical event become established alongside the digital formats that have helped cultural stakeholders all over the country create such gratifying diversity? We are looking forward to the experiment.

“Newspaper Day” program on 20 September 2020 from 11:00 to 16:00
Admission is free, no prior booking is required

• 11:00
  Welcome!
• 11:30, 12:30, 13:30, 14:30
  “370 years of daily newspapers”. Curator’s tour of the exhibition
• 11:45, 12:15, 12:45
  Pioneering spirit and newspaper printing. A short guided tour of the stacks of the cultural history collection
• 13:00
  Who invented it? A brief guided tour exploring the beginnings of book printing
• 13:00, 14:00
  Christoph Schenker’s Cellosophy. Music for solo cello and live electronics
• 13:30
  From the end of the Gutenberg galaxy. Digital books and writing. Short guided tour
• 14:00
  Spinning Jenny and her successors. A brief introduction to industrialised printing
• 14:30
  Disruptive Elements. Printing in GDR subculture. Thematic guided tour of the temporary exhibition
• 14:00, 15:00
  “Von erschröcklichen schedlichen bösen newen Zeitunge” (“On the shocking, pernicious, evil new newspapers”). Reading from daily newspapers, both old and new

• Current programme

  • Nashörner, Kometen und journalistische Eiertänze. Flyers and pictorial broadsheets from the book museum’s collections
    We present a selection of the newspaper’s historic predecessors, including flyers dating from the 16th and 17th centuries and richly coloured pictorial broadsheets from the 19th century.
  • On-the-spot printing. Badge project
    Visitors of all ages can design their own badges.

Background

The book has shaped our culture and civilisation like no other medium. For centuries our knowledge about the world and its peoples has been stored in books. The task of the German Book and Writing Museum of the German National Library is to collect, exhibit and process evidence of book and media history. Founded in 1884 in Leipzig as the Deutsches Buchgewerbemuseum (German Book Trade Museum), it is the oldest museum in the world in the field of book culture, and also one of the most important with regard to the scope and quality of its holdings.

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Images for editorial use

Press image material is only available in German.