The Oak Attracts the Lightning

West Berlin is the focal point of more than one cold war. Outside the towering glass-and-metal headquarters of Publisher Axel Springer, burly guards are posted at every door. Loudspeakers have been installed that emit such a high-pitched whine that it will pain the eardrums of would-be invaders. From the East, over the Wall that runs alongside the building? Not at all. From the West. Militant West Berlin students have threatened to break into the plant and smash the printing presses--not to mention the faces of any Springer personnel who get in their way. To which Springer's four Berlin newspapers have replied with a steady stream of attacks on the students for "terrorism" and "treason."

This confrontation in Berlin reflects a growing polarization of German politics (see THE WORLD) which has put Axel Springer, 55, to the right of center. When the coalition government was formed last winter, the far left was out in the cold with nowhere to go. As its frustrations deepened, so did its militancy. One of the principal targets of its wrath, exaggerated far beyond its threat, is Springer.

Trial for Fascism. At the annual Frankfurt fall book fair, 200 chanting students gleefully tore up Springer books and magazines. Oblivious to similar acts in the Nazi era, left-wing Erlangen University students staged a burning of Springer publications. A group of liberal writers declared they will never again write for a Springer paper and urged their publishers to withhold advertising from Springer publications. When Springer went to give a speech at the Hamburg Overseas Club recently, he had to slip in a side door while five squads of riot police protected him from angry pickets, whose banners declared: "Never before in any land at any time has so much power and so little wisdom been in one pair of hands." In the next few weeks, a band of vociferous Berlin students plans to stage a mock trial of Springer on charges of "Fascism."

Springer, to be sure, makes an inviting target. With eight newspapers and six magazines, he is West Germany's biggest publisher. He controls 31% of the circulation of all of Germany's daily newspapers, a percentage few other Western publishers come close to matching.* His rather sensational Bild Zeitung, published in Hamburg with a Berlin edition, has a circulation of 4,446,000, largest of any paper on the Continent. His more thoughtful Die Welt (circ. 280,000) is one of Germany's most influential papers. Its Sunday edition, along with Springer's other paper, Bild am Sonntag, accounts for 90% of Germany's Sunday circulation. Springer also publishes Hoer Zu! (Listen!) a TV guide that has the largest circulation (3,764,000) of any weekly magazine in Germany. Nor does Springer show any sign of slowing down. Next March he plans to bring out another magazine, Jasmin, which will aim for a circulation of 1,500,000 among young marrieds.

Emotional Attachment. In the process of building his empire since World War II, Springer has become less reluctant to express his personal political opinions in his publications. Today his papers reflect the conservative views of the respectable German burgher, who is distrustful of change, hostile to Communism and oriented toward home and family. The coalition government has tried to ease tensions with the East; the Springer papers have refused to budge from their cold-war stance. "Appeasement politics do not lead to the desired goals," declared Die Welt. "Only a policy which attacks on two fronts at once, that of ideology and that of power, can hope to be successful." Springer's papers warn against disarmament and cite the recent Israeli victory as a lesson for Germany: stay prepared. All Springer publications stand foursquare against the nuclear nonproliferation treaty, which they are convinced will put Europe at the mercy of Russia.

To Springer, Berlin is the shining symbol of a strong Germany. "Pessimists view Berlin as something perverse," wrote a Die Welt columnist.

"This is a false observation. This city offers a model of political hygiene. That which surrounds it is perverse, that which begins with the Wall and continues beyond it." With this sort of emotional attachment to the outpost city, it is not surprising that Springer is abundantly contemptuous of those who speak of making a deal with Ulbricht.

More than Support. As a result, those who want to deal with Ulbricht consider Springer a right-wing menace. Yet Springer scarcely shows any signs of the would-be totalitarian. He condemns the far-right National Democratic Party, which many Germans consider uncomfortably close in its nationalism to the Nazi Party. He reacted with horror at the Jewish persecutions under Hitler. During World War II, when diabetes kept him out of military service, he published Jewish authors under pseudonyms on his father's printing presses in Hamburg. Ever since, he has used his publications to champion Jews as well as the state of Israel. "Since the German Jewish community no longer exists for any practical purposes," he says, "I believe it is our duty to make all possible efforts to support Israel." He is presently building a library for the Israeli Museum in Jerusalem.

Nor is the private Springer anything like the press Fuehrer conjured up by demonstrating leftists. He is reclusive and sometimes petty. Yet even his enemies concede that he is charming and witty. He is exceptionally kind to his employees, few of whom are ever fired. If they can't do the job or disagree editorially with Springer, they are shifted to less sensitive positions. Quite a ladies' man, he has married four times, twice to women divorced from the same man; it says something for him that he is still on friendly terms with the man.

Springer is striking back at his attackers personally as well as in his papers. Rhetorically, he asked a group of journalists: "Does the sheer greatness of the enterprise that I have built draw their rage as the oak draws lightning? Do people expect me to go into the editorial offices and say, 'Gentlemen, please don't put out such good newspapers,' or into the publishing offices and say, 'Please don't be so efficient'? Should I block the path to success and demand: 'No, success must not be'?"

The answer, undoubtedly, is no--and a government commission presently investigating the trend to monopoly in the German press will probably agree. The most it is likely to recommend is some kind of tax break for smaller newspapers. Springer's most strident rival, Rudolf Augstein, publisher of the newsweekly Der Spiegel, has called for a "lex Springer," a trustbusting law aimed at Springer. With the crushing of press freedom still fresh in their minds, Germans are unlikely to go along. "When people stop buying my papers," says Springer, "they will show their opposition to my policies. I recall with horror the misfortunes the so-called apolitical press brought on us during the Weimar Republic. It is my credo that a newspaper publisher has no right to remain politically indifferent."

* Cecil King's Mirror group controls 40% of Britain's daily circulation.

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