Hamburg, 16.07.2024.Hans-Ulrich Wagner, who is head of one of the research programs at the Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut, presents the first scientifically sound and comprehensive account of the history of the German Press Agency (dpa) with “In the Service of News”. Based on a research project in which numerous files were analyzed for the first time, the media historian sheds light on the 75-year history of Germany’s largest news agency. The book, published by Frankfurt-based Societäts-Verlag in German, was presented today in dpa’s Berlin newsroom.
“The dpa is a very special kind of media company. As a news agency supported by media shareholders, it constantly reacts anew to changes in the industry,” says author Hans-Ulrich Wagner. “The 75-year history of dpa makes it clear how much the agency had to fight for its political independence and how skillfully it recognized the potential of new technologies. Founded in 1949, the news agency very quickly became a broad-based media group offering a whole range of services related to the core business of news,” Wagner continues. dpa has around 170 shareholders, mainly newspaper and magazine publishers as well as public and private broadcasters. The shareholders’ agreement stipulates that none of the shareholders can dominate the company.
In 350 pages, Hans-Ulrich Wagner describes the eventful history of Germany’s largest news agency from 1949 to the present day in its 75 years of change: from the beginnings of post-war journalism and the struggles for political independence in the Adenauer era, through the social changes of the 1968s and reunification at the beginning of the 1990s to the comprehensive digital transformation.
“The history of dpa is the history of 75 years of independence. The dpa was founded as a joint venture of the German media under the influence of the Goebbels press controlled by the Nazi regime. This shareholder structure has ensured the agency’s independence ever since and continues to be the profound foundation on which dpa works successfully,” says Peter Kropsch, Chairman of the Management Board at dpa. “Hans-Ulrich Wagner has rendered outstanding services with his work. He describes the history of the dpa media house and the interactions with the political and cultural development of the Federal Republic in an unagitated, detailed and knowledgeable manner. German media studies needed this comprehensive presentation,” continued Kropsch.
“The perception of world events in our country is shaped in many ways by the reporting of dpa journalists,” says dpa editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann. “In his book, media historian Hans-Ulrich Wagner tells the history and stories of the people who work at dpa and who have always closely followed the epochal events of the past 75 years. We were happy to open our doors and archives to the author.”
“Im Dienst der Nachricht” [“In the Service of News”] is more than a chronological sequence of events and developments. Hans-Ulrich Wagner spans a narrative arc between the founding year of 1949 and the challenges of today with disinformation, media skepticism and artificial intelligence. In addition to an overall 13 main chapters, the book offers several separate spotlights. These include the history of the “dpa Villa” in Hamburg, a portrait of the first editor-in-chief and managing director of dpa, Fritz Sänger, and the extremely successful telephone news service of the 1970s. The book also features selected “photo stories” such as the famous dpa picture of Boris Becker’s pike jump at Wimbledon in 1985. An extra chapter is dedicated to outstanding women at the dpa who have successfully asserted themselves in what was still an almost entirely male-dominated news agency.
„Im Dienst der Nachricht – Die Geschichte der dpa“ [In the Service of the News – The History of the dpa] by Hans-Ulrich Wagner, Senior Researcher for Media History at Leibniz Institute for Media Research | Hans-Bredow-Institut, Hamburg
Societäts-Verlag, Frankfurt, 350 pages, 48.00 euros, ISBN 978-3-95542-490-9
Request for review copies: pressestelle@dpa.com