August Scherl Verlag

The August Scherl publishing house was founded on October 1, 1883 by August Hugo Friedrich Scherl. August Scherl was a major publisher in Berlin. The starting point of his media group was the founding of a new type of newspaper in 1883, financed primarily by advertisements, the „Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger“. A kind of general newspaper, then referred to as the "Central Organ for the Reich Capital".

Generalanzeiger was the name given to current daily newspapers with a large circulation that presented themselves as politically and religiously independent. The credo of such mass-circulation newspapers can be roughly summarized as follows:

"News is more important than commentary - entertainment and, to a certain extent, instruction rather than opinion-forming."

Nevertheless, the „Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger“ was said to have a close relationship with the Prussian ruling family, because August Scherl, like his father, was a convinced monarchist. From August 1914 until the end of the First World War, the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger also published the „Deutsche Kriegszeitung“, a weekly illustrated paper.

Other newspapers and magazines published by Scherl were the „Berliner Abendzeitung“ (1889), „Neueste Berliner Handels- und Börsennachrichten“ (1894), the first German sports magazine „Sport im Bild“ (1895), then „Die Woche - Moderne Illustrierte Zeitung“ or the sports newspaper „Sport im Wort“ (both 1899) and one year later the daily newspaper „Der Tag“.

In 1904, Scherl bought „Die Gartenlaube“ and in 1905 took over the family magazine „Praktischer Wegweiser“.

The decline of Scherl's empire began in 1911, when his competitor Mosse took advantage of Scherl's financial difficulties and acquired shares in the Scherl publishing house. Scherl then spread the rumor that the Jewish Mosse Group, of all things, wanted to take over the conservative-monarchist Scherl publishing house. This was not only a source of irritation at court; a „Deutscher Verlagsverein“ founded by "59 gentlemen" in Düsseldorf subsequently acquired the majority of the Scherl-Verlag in 1914, and August Scherl then gave up management. The purpose of this association was "to acquire and manage the registered shares of August-Scherl GmbH Berlin". Due to excessive indebtedness, the association had to ask the Prussian government for a loan of eight million marks with a term of ten years, interest-free, just one year later. This money was ultimately made available by Ruhr industrialists such as Kirdorf or Krupp, encouraged by Alfred Hugenberg (then a member of the board of directors of Friedrich Krupp AG), who now became chairman of the Scherl supervisory board and assumed power there.

In 1916, Alfred Hugenberg finally took over the former Scherl media from the Deutschen Verlagsverein. In the 1920s, these media developed into financially supported mouthpieces of the Deutschnationalen Volkspartei DNVP and were incorporated into the national-conservative Hugenberg-Konzern, which was finally able to secure the majority ownership of Scherlswith the help of its inflation profits.

After Scherls death in 1921, the publishing house was taken over by various owners, including Alfred Hugenberg and later Max Amann.