Editorial office – 1945

The end of Nazism and the capitulation of Germany was followed by the collapse of the German press. The Allies decreed a ban on publication of all printed material. All activities of the Reich's Ministry of Public Information and Propaganda were forbidden. However, within a few months of the end of the war, the British occupying forces permitted the Rhinelanders to publish the first German-language newspapers. A prerequisite was that they had a licence issued by the military administration. Regarded from the standpoint of democratization and denazification, journalists, editors and publishers who had been involved in Nazi propaganda were kept away from the media. At the same time this licence served as a disciplinary measure and could easily be revoked if editors and publishers violated the stipulations of the military administration, or criticized the occupying authorities. The Aachener Nachrichten was the first newspaper to be granted such a licence in the British occupied zone.

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